Colin Sheridan: Ed Sheeran’s ‘neutrality’ over Macklemore and Gaza is a political choice

Colin Sheridan says that wealth and influence bring greater responsibility when powerful industries punish artists for speaking out

Nobody needs Ed Sheeran’s political philosophy. I would happily live without it. What I cannot accept is the proposition that a man who has become fabulously wealthy within the music industry can watch its powerful figures punish another artist for saying 'Free Palestine', continue as before, and call his own position neutrality.

If, as many great artists have tried to tell us, all good art is political, then Ed Sheeran’s music is terrible.

This is my personal opinion, of course, and Sheeran has been dividing opinions long before he declared not having any of his own. The amount of turf in his shed tells one story, and that story is that he is richer than Solomon.