As if Kingston upon Hull did not have enough problems. Once a thriving fishing port, that industry is long gone; we were the most bomb-damaged place by area of the city in Britain during the Second World War; we are home to what is considered one of the largest and worst municipal housing estates in Europe, Bransholme; we have the third highest rate of teenage pregnancy in England and Wales; our football team, Hull City AFC, are in a race to the bottom of the Championship; dreadful Dame Diana Johnson is one of our most prominent MPs; we are likely to become part of a Net Zero obsessed devolved unitary Hull and East Yorkshire local authority which plans, among other things, to impose heat network zones; and the University of Hull is once again in a dire financial state, threatening job cuts and departmental closures.
On top of all that, Coldplay have announced two dates here in August next year at Craven Park, the home of rugby league team Hull Kingston Rovers. These are the band’s only dates outside of London and quite what we have done to deserve this is not clear. The words I would use to describe the music of Coldplay are probably unprintable – even in an open-minded publication like the Daily Sceptic – but ChatGPT came to the rescue, describing their music as “a blend of thoughtful introspection, anthemic energy and genre-crossing experimentation, designed to evoke both deep emotions and joyful communal experiences”. Despite that, they still seem to sell records and seats at their concerts.
Not content with inflicting their music on us, this tour is also a massive hyperinflated virtue signal regarding one of the band’s pet topics, the ‘climate emergency’. The band “first pledged to cut their carbon footprint in 2019” and told the BBC they would stop touring until they could tour “in a more sustainable way”. Sadly, they seem to have worked out how to do that and they are on the road again this year and next. It is either that or the “conscious uncoupling” of their frontman Chris Martin is proving more expensive than expected.
Coldplay are patrons of Client Earth, an environmental – with the emphasis on ‘mental’ – organisation which is at the “forefront of changing the way the planet’s resources are governed” and which claims: “Rising carbon emissions are accelerating climate change. Our forests are disappearing. The air we breathe and the oceans we depend on are polluted. Vulnerable plants and animals are under threat.” All palpable nonsense as readers of the Daily Sceptic will know.
