Why is New Zealand’s deputy PM rowing with Chumbawamba? – The Spectator

In their musical heyday, the English anarchist punk band Chumbawamba enjoyed a reputation for having an irreverent attitude towards those in political authority. Twelve years after they musically packed it in, a political figure abroad is making even more of a name for himself for his own irreverence towards Chumbawamba. The group has asked New Zealands deputy prime minister, Winston Peters, to stop using their best-known song, Tubthumping, as a curtain-raiser at his rallies and in his fulminations against the woke peril. The populist politician, though, is vowing that the show will go on.

It doesnt help that the 78-year-old Peters is not only his countrys longest-serving parliamentarian but one of its scrappiest. As the leader of the nativist New Zealand First party, which is currently in coalition with the conservative National party-led government, public spats such as these usually only serve to enhance his swashbuckling reputation as the Nigel Farage of the South Seas.

Politicians freighting the music of rock performers into their acts with mixed reactions is nothing new

Peters saw his partys numbers surge in last years New Zealand general election after energetically campaigning against liberal immigration policies, cultural elites of one sort or another and despite being of Maori heritage himself racial set-asides for ethnic minorities. And while his party went on to win eight seats in the countrys 120-member parliament, its support was critical for the incoming conservative government to comfortably rule for the next three years with an outright majority.

In office, as on the campaign trail, Peters likes to use the jaunty backbeat of Chumbawambas popular hit at his public appearances or else to punch home his own bona fides by invoking the songs signature line, I get knocked down, but I get up again you are never gonna keep me down. The flourish seems to be particularly useful as a nostalgic carrot for listeners of a certain musical age.

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Why is New Zealand's deputy PM rowing with Chumbawamba? - The Spectator