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Russell Brand has responded to Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd icon John Lydon, after the punk hero deemed him a 'bumhole' for urging people not to vote.
Earlier this week, Johnny Rotten was talking to the Radio Times when he hit out at controversial comments made by Brand, where he spoke of feeling disenchanted with the parties on offer.
Lydon said: "If you don’t vote, you don’t count. It’s only a century ago that none of us had the right to vote and we don’t want to go back to that route. I’m very wary of tagging my name on to supporting any of those phoney bastards, but don’t be like Russell Brand and bumholes like that."
He continued: "Go to town hall meetings and give them fucking hell. I’m not being flippant. If you don’t start locally you’re not going to change the world."
Now, Brand has responded in a Youtube video, which you can see below.
"John Lydon for me is a great cultural figure," said Brand. "I adore the Sex Pistols, I adore his music and I adore him, but it's a common misconception that I told people not to vote," Brand says in the clip."
He continued: "If there was a party worth voting for then I'd vote for them… and I would urge you to as well, but it's difficult to create those kind of global political parties because of trade agreements preventing that kind of thing from happening on a national level, which is a complicated issue and I can see why John Lydon might have trouble fitting that into a tiny little interview particularly when he's got to promote a show about bugs."
Just for the avoidance of any doubt, the transcript of Brand's exchange on Newsnight which prompted the 'misconception' about not voting reads as following: "Yeah, they shouldn’t vote, they should – that’s one thing they should do, don’t bother voting. Because when it reaches – there’s a point – see these little valves, these sort of like little cozy little valves of recycling and Prius and like you know turn up somewhere, it stops us reaching the point where you think, "I see, this is enough now." Stop voting. Stop pretending. Wake up. Be in reality now. Time to be in reality now. Why vote? We know it’s not going to make any difference. We know that already."
Below: John Lydon's greatest quotes
