Richard Hogan: Nice guy Ed Sheeran's legacy is now tainted forever

Ed Sheeran has been found wanting since the row over Palestine

I’m sure when Ed Sheeran weighs up the few quid he earns from being a good boy for businessman Robert Kraft and his cronies, he will understand the priceless cost of losing his reputation. Picture: Dan Linehan

It’s frightening how normalised images of destruction and murder have become on our TV screens and social media feeds.

Gaza is a wasteland, choked in plumes of gun metal grey smoke, and post-apocalyptic ruins. Every day children are murdered, or die from starvation. 

Women have to pick through the rubble to find shelter and food. Men are slaughtered without so much as a headline in a paper.

It’s hard to imagine what it must be like to wake up in Gaza to face another day of death and degradation. Dignity and human rights are denied in every second of life there.

I think most decent people ask, how can this happen? The answer is, poverty allows us to place less value on human life. We are all equal, but some are more equal than others.

Most of us agree that October 7 was a terrible act of terrorism. The violence perpetrated on innocent young adults trying to enjoy a music festival was heinous, an act of pure evil. 

I have tried to shake the images of that day out of my mind, young girls flung into the back of a van and abused and murdered, to celebratory chants. Their lifeless bodies dragged around the streets. It was vile, the worst of human nature.

I can say that, knowing that the majority of people won’t try to shut me down for saying it. I won’t be labelled a hater of all Muslim people. Because, to condemn the actions of the people who carried out that atrocity, is not to condemn all people who live with the Muslim faith.

So, logically, to condemn Benjamin Netanyahu and his regime for the atrocities they commit every day in Gaza, is not to condemn all Jewish people, it doesn’t make you antisemitic to want peace in Gaza, or for Gaza to be free for that matter.

To criticise Netanyahu is exactly that, criticism of a man that seems hell bent on pulling down the Middle East. The protests in Israel show that plenty of Jewish people are against what is happening in their name.

This is a moment in time we will be analysing for decades. Our grandchildren will ask us about it, and what our stance was.

Tyranny only exists when we all turn away from it, and pretend we don’t see what is there, right in front of our eyes. It’s on our screens, every day in high definition. Catastrophic loss of innocent life and maiming.

But what about Sudan? Or Myanmar? Why don’t you feel as passionate about those conflicts? Aren’t you just virtue signalling here? 

These are always the questions asked by people trying to shut down any analysis of what is truly happening in Gaza. They want to obfuscate opinion. Confuse it, so you’ll stay quiet. Silence is the great friend of tyranny.

Ed Sheeran

And so, Ed Sheeran is the latest casualty in this chaos.

I have to be honest, I have never been a fan of Sheeran’s music, it’s a little sanguine and maudlin for my tastes. He is a good singer, a decent player, and has written the odd tune.

I went to see him a couple of years ago with my daughters and enjoyed the experience. He always struck me as a nice guy. 

He took time out of his busy schedule to pop onto The Late Late Toy Show and meet some fans. He treated them with respect and kindness. That was enough for me to think, decent guy.

I have no doubt that the recent controversy over his decision to allow Macklemore to be cancelled from his tour has caused him incredible psychological stress.

Macklemore is guilty of uttering those two words that have come to provoke such controversy, ‘Free Palestine’, and now Ed is catapulted into the middle of a personal and political firestorm.

Sheeran immediately took to social media to say it wasn’t his decision to remove his friend from the line-up, it was the promoters’.

In business there is a thing called ‘F#ck Off Money’. It means that you have enough money to do or say what you want because you need nothing from people, therefore you literally have ‘F#ck Off Money’. 

The idea that Ed Sheeran is bullied by promoters is laughable, he is worth a staggering €400 million, if that isn’t F#ck Off Money I don’t know what is.

All he had to do was threaten pulling the concerts across America if anyone tried to interfere with his line-up, and billionaires like concert promoter Robert Kraft would have backed off. 

But he didn’t choose that avenue. He aligned with them, when he allowed Macklemore to be axed. No action is action.

Sheeran has stated that he doesn’t want to be political, he just wants to entertain. He is absolutely entitled to that position. But allowing Macklemore to be dropped from the line-up was a political act. 

One that has come back to seriously bite him, and his legacy will now be tainted forever.

It has also illuminated the power of shadowy billionaires in our society. The corruption that has always been silently rampant in our society is now in full technicolor. 

And to all those support acts who don’t have F#ck Off Money, and needed that tour more than we can imagine, and yet told Sheeran they could not perform for him anymore because of his stance on free speech; I salute you.

Ed, that is what you call principles and ethics. Learn from them.

I’m sure when Ed Sheeran weighs up the few quid he earns from being a good boy for businessman Robert Kraft and his cronies, he will understand the priceless cost of losing his reputation.