Garry Bushell (born 13 May 1955 in
WoolwichWoolwich is a suburb in south-east London, England in the London Borough of Greenwich, on the south side of the River Thames, though the tiny exclave of North Woolwich is on the north side of the river. Woolwich formed part of Kent until 1889 when the County of London was created...
,
South East LondonThe South East is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham and Southwark. The sub region was established in 2008. The south east has a population of 1,300,000 and is the location of 500,000 jobs. There is a metropolitan centre at...
) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
newspaperA newspaper is a publication containing news, information, and advertising. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns that express the...
columnA column in structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces. Other compression...
ist,
rock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that entered the mainstream in the 1960s. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also drew on folk music, jazz and classical music....
journalistJournalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and even, more recently, the mobile phone...
, television presenter,
authorAn author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created...
and political activist. Bushell also sings in the
Oi!Oi! is a working class street-level subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s.The music and associated subculture had the goal of promoting unity between punks, skinheads and other non-aligned working class youths...
band The Gonads and manages the
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
Oi! band Maninblack.
Early life and music career
The son of a fireman, Bushell attended Charlton Manor school and
Colfe's SchoolColfe’s is a co-educational independent day school in Horn Park in the London Borough of Greenwich. The school is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The official Visitor to the school is HRH Prince Michael of Kent.-History:...
(which was then a grammar school). He worked for Shell as a messenger, and then the
London Fire BrigadeThe London Fire Brigade is the statutory fire and rescue service for London, England. It is run by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and is the third-largest fire service in the world with nearly 7,000 staff, of which 5,800 are operational firefighters and officers...
before attending the North East London Polytechnic and the London College of Printing. Bushell was an amateur
boxerBoxing is a combat sport where two participants, generally of similar weight, fight each other with their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee and is typically engaged in during a series of one to three-minute intervals called rounds. There are three ways to win...
, and he was a
musicianA musician is a person who performs or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument.* A singer uses his or her voice as an instrument....
before becoming a full-time
journalistJournalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and comment via a widening spectrum of media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and even, more recently, the mobile phone...
. He first performed at
secondary schoolSecondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of compulsory schooling, known as secondary education, takes place. It follows on from elementary or primary education....
in the group Pink Tent, which was heavily influenced by
Monty PythonMonty Python were a British comedy group that created the influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...
. They wrote songs and
comedyComedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece...
sketches; performing at parties and at each other's houses. Bushell was involved in The
National Union of School StudentsThe National Union of School Students was a short lived organisation founded in 1972. It campaigned primarily against compulsory school uniform and the use of corporal punishment in schools.-External links:***...
and The Schools Action Union, a
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
organisation that had a strong situationist streak that led them to mix schoolboy hijinks with
student activismStudent activism is work done by students to effect political, environmental, economic, or social change. It has often focused on making changes in schools, such as increasing student influence over curriculum or improving educational funding...
.
Pink Tent evolved into The Gonads, an
Oi!Oi! is a working class street-level subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s.The music and associated subculture had the goal of promoting unity between punks, skinheads and other non-aligned working class youths...
and
punk pathetiquePunk pathetique is a subgenre of British punk rock that involved humour and working class cultural themes....
band that has continued to perform in the 2000s. They describe themselves as an Oi-Tone band as they mix Ska and Streetpunk. Many of their songs are comical party tunes, but they have occasionally written more serious material. Two examples of their songs that include social commentary are "Dying for a Pint" (which comments on
nightclubA nightclub is a drinking, dancing and entertainment venue which does its primary business after dark. People who frequent nightclubs are known as clubbers...
bouncerA bouncer or doorman is an informal term for a security guard employed at venues such as bars, nightclubs or concerts to provide security, check legal age, and refuse entry to a venue based on criteria such as intoxication, aggressive behaviour, or other standards...
brutalityBattery is a criminal offence involving unlawful physical contact, distinct from assault in that the contact is not necessarily violent.In the United States, Criminal battery, or simply battery, is the use of force against another, resulting in harmful or offensive contact...
) and "Jobs Not Jails" (a critique of the
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
government's policies). One of their humorous songs was "I Lost My Love To A UK Sub", which is about the allegedly huge
libidoLibido in its common usage means sexual desire; however, more technical definitions, such as those found in the work of Carl Jung, are more general, referring to libido as the free creative—or psychic—energy an individual has to put toward personal development or individuation.- History of the...
of
UK SubsThe U.K. Subs are an English punk rock band, the mainstay of which is vocalist Charlie Harper, originally a singer in Britain's R&B scene.-Career:...
singer
Charlie HarperCharlie Harper is the singer of the punk band UK Subs.-Biography:A former hairdresser, he was already a veteran of the London R&B scene at the time of the UK Subs being formed in 1976....
. The Gonads have played
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
versions of old
music hallMusic hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
numbers such as Gus Elen's "Half A Pint Of Ale" and Charles Coburn's "Two Lovely Black Eyes." They have recorded and released five studio albums.
Other Bushell musical projects have included the bands Prole, Orgasm Guerrillas, and Lord Waistrel & The Cosh Boys. Prole were a socialist punk band that also included Steve Kent, the original guitarist of the Oi! band
The BusinessThe Business are an English Oi!/punk rock band formed in 1979 in Lewisham, South London. Their album Suburban Rebels became influential in the Oi! movement...
. Bushell managed
The BloodThe Blood are a London-based punk rock band, formed in 1982. Led by Cardinal Jesus Hate and JJ Bedsore , the band formed in the early 1980s under the name Coming Blood. Their music is a blend of hardcore punk, Oi!, heavy metal, football chants and shock rock.Many of their songs criticize religion...
and
Cockney RejectsCockney Rejects are an Oi! punk band that formed in the East End of London in 1977. Their 1980 song "Oi, Oi, Oi" was the inspiration for the name of the Oi! music genre....
, getting them their
EMIThe EMI Group is a British music company. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major publishing arm- EMI Music Publishing- based in New York City...
deal. He also got
Twisted SisterTwisted Sister is an American heavy metal band from New York City. Their work fuses the shock tactics of Alice Cooper, the rebellious mood of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and the extravagant image of glam rock bands such as New York Dolls notably for the makeup...
signed in the UK to Secret Records. He compiled the first four Oi! compilation albums and contributed songs to later collections.
Journalism and book writing
In the mid-1970s, at the age of 18, Bushell joined the International Socialists and started writing for the
left wingIn politics, left-wing, political left, leftist and the Left are terms used to describe a number of positions and ideologies. They are most commonly used to refer to support for changing traditional social orders or for creating a more egalitarian distribution of wealth and privilege...
newspaper
Socialist WorkerSocialist Worker is the name of several socialist/communist newspapers. It is a daily Web site and biweekly printed newspaper published by the International Socialist Organization in the United States, a weekly published by the Socialist Workers Party in the United Kingdom, a biweekly published by...
. He also wrote for
Temporary Hoarding,
Rebel, and his own
punk rockPunk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
fanzine,
Napalm. From 1978 to 1985, he wrote for
SoundsSounds was a British music paper, published weekly from October 10, 1970 – April 6, 1991. It was well known initially for giving away posters in the centre of the paper and later for covering Heavy Metal and Oi! music in its late 1970s-early 1980s heyday...
magazine, covering punk and other street-level
music genreA music genre is a categorical and typological construct that identifies musical sounds as belonging to a particular category and type of music that can be distinguished from other types of music....
s, such as
2 Tone2 Tone is a music genre created in England in the late 1970s by fusing elements of ska, punk rock, rocksteady, reggae and pop...
, the
New Wave of British Heavy MetalThe New Wave of British Heavy Metal is a heavy metal movement that started in the late 1970s, in Britain, and achieved international attention by the early 1980s. Sometimes compared to Beatlemania, the era developed as a reaction in part to the decline of early heavy metal bands such as Deep...
and the
mod revivalThe mod revival was a music genre and subculture that started in the United Kingdom in 1978 and later spread to other countries . The Mod revival's mainstream popularity was relatively short, although its influence has lasted for decades...
. Bushell was at the forefront of covering the
Oi!Oi! is a working class street-level subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s.The music and associated subculture had the goal of promoting unity between punks, skinheads and other non-aligned working class youths...
subgenre, also known as
real punk or streetpunk. In 1981, Bushell wrote the book
Dance Craze - the 2-Tone story, and in 1984, he wrote the
Iron MaidenIron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from Leyton in East London, formed in 1975. The band are directed by founder, bassist and songwriter Steve Harris...
biography
Running Free.
Bushell moved to
Fleet StreetFleet Street is a street in London, England named after the River Fleet. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s. Even though the last major British news office, Reuters, left in 2005, the street's name continues to be used as a metonym for the British national press.-History and...
in 1985, working for
The SunThe Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and Ireland with the second highest circulation of any daily English-language newspaper in the world and the biggest circulation within the UK, standing at an average of 2,986,000 copies a day between January and June 2008 and...
, The
Evening StandardThe London Evening Standard is a free local daily newspaper, published in tabloid format in London, England. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the southeast of England, with coverage of national and international news and a strong emphasis on City of London finance...
and
The Daily MirrorThe Daily Mirror is a British tabloid newspaper founded in 1903. Twice in its history, from 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was changed to read simply The Mirror, which is how the paper is usually referred to in popular parlance.- Early years :The Daily Mirror was...
. He went back to
The Sun to write its "Bizarre" column and to be the
show businessShow business, sometimes shortened to show biz, is a vernacular term for all aspects of entertainment. The word applies to all aspects of the entertainment industry from the business side to the creative element...
editor. Thousands of articles appeared under his byline in
The Sun. In 1991, he briefly became assistant editor of The
Daily Star where he wrote a current affairs column called "Walk Tall With Bushell" as well as his TV column. Three months later he quit and returned to the
Sun.
In 1993, Bushell wrote an article urging
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
to ban comedian
Julian ClaryJulian Clary is an English comedian and novelist, known for his deliberately stereotypical camp style, with a heavy reliance on innuendo and double entendre.-Early life and education:...
from appearing on live television again, in the wake of Clary's appearance at the British Comedy Awards ceremony in December 1993. The article was considered detrimental to Clary's career by some, although Clary has continued to be seen on television and Bushell has since dismissed the controversy as "a storm in a teacup." Bushell appeared on Clary's own
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
TV show,
All Rise With Julian Clary, and defended his stance; saying he objected to Clary's
fistingFisting is a sexual activity that involves inserting a hand into the vagina or rectum. Typically, fisting does not involve forcing the clenched fist into the vagina or rectum. Instead, all five fingers are kept straight and held as close together as possible , then slowly inserted into a...
joke rather than his
homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
. Bushell has publicly praised many gay performers, including Joe Longthorne, Frankie Howerd and Alan Carr, and homosexual TV star
Dale WintonDale Winton is an English radio DJ and television presenter.-Early life:Winton was brought up by his mother Sheree Winton, an actress, and left school at 16.-Career:...
is the godfather of his daughter Jenna. In his book The World According To Garry Bushell (published in 2009), Bushell totally refutes allegations of homophobia.
In 1994, Bushell was named critic of the year at the UK Press Awards. In the mid-1990s, Bushell hosted the television programme
Bushell On The Box (the same title as his
Sun column from 1987 to 2001); commenting on the week's TV programmes. It ran for 50 episodes and was number one on ITV's Night Network. The following year, Bushell became resident critic on Jonatham Ross's ITV series
The Big Big Talent Show. He also hosted
Garry Bushell Reveals All for Granada Men & Motors. He has appeared on a wide range of other shows, including
Celebrity Squares,
Drop! The Celebrity,
Newsnight and
The Southbank Show. In 2000, Comic Heritage (formerly the Dead Comics Society, now the Heritage Foundation) gave him an award for "Services To Comedy."
A regular feature of Bushell's newspaper column is the "Garry's Goofs" section, in which he highlights an unintended
double entendreA double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so; often risqué, inappropriate, or ironic....
. In 2001, Bushell's
crime novelCrime fiction is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
The Face was serialised in the
Daily Star, leading to his dismissal from
The Sun; even though the book's publisher John Blake admitted that Bushell had no knowledge of the serialisation deal. Two years after Bushell was fired, a poll of
Sun readers named him as their favourite columnist. In 2002, he published the book
King of Telly: The Best of Bushell on the Box, containing highlights of his column.
After
The Sun, Bushell wrote for
The PeopleThe People, previously known as the Sunday People, is a British tabloid Sunday-only newspaper, owned by the Trinity Mirror Group. The paper was founded on 16 October 1881....
until 18 February 2007, when he left to work on books and
screenplayA screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. A play for television is known as a teleplay.- Format and style :...
s. He announced his resignation as a TV critic, stating that he was becoming depressed at the state of British television. Bushell co-wrote the book
Cockney Reject (about the punk band
Cockney RejectsCockney Rejects are an Oi! punk band that formed in the East End of London in 1977. Their 1980 song "Oi, Oi, Oi" was the inspiration for the name of the Oi! music genre....
) and has written a film script for
Join The Rejects - Get Yourself Killed. He is currently co-writing the autobiography of Cockney comic Jimmy Jones. In May 2007, Bushell's column returned to the
Daily Star Sunday. A biography of Garry Bushell written by Garry Johnson and Jamie O'Keefe will be published by New Breed Books in 2010.
In August 2007, Bushell made a remark during a jokey exchange on the
talkSPORTTalksport , owned by UTV Radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a commercial sports and talk radio service from London to the United Kingdom....
programme
Football FirstFootball First is an interactive television programme which offers Sky Sports viewers extended highlights of every Barclays Premier League match played on the day, which fans can also choose which games they would like to watch, just after the full match...
implying that
homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
was a perversion, leading the regulator
OfcomThe Office of Communications or, as it is more often known, Ofcom, is the independent regulator and competition authority for the communication industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established in the enabling device, the , but received its full authority from the Communications...
to find the segment in breach of standards for failing to justify offensive material by the context in which it was presented. A discussion about the 2008 European Cup Final, which was to be held in Moscow, digressed on to the topic of a recent gay rights march in Russia. When Bushell, while making light of the arrest of the activist
Peter TatchellPeter Gary Tatchell is an Australian-born British human rights activist, who gained international celebrity for his attempted citizen's arrest of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in 1999 and 2001, on charges of torture and other human rights abuses.Tatchell was selected as Labour Party...
, was questioned by a co-presenter because he appeared to find the situation amusing, he responded: "I would not go to another country and try and impose my views on them, it’s up to them what they do. I think there are a lot of things to put right in this country before you go around preaching the gospel of perversion." In his latest book, The World According To... Bushell makes clear that he made the remark to wind-up another broadcaster. Ofcom rejected talkSPORT's claims that the comments made had been "off the cuff" and talkSPORT themselves issued a statement saying that its staff had been "made aware" that what Bushell had said was "unacceptable". Bushell later said that it was not homosexuality which he was referring to as a perversion, but the further lowering of the age of consent; and that his remarks were taken out of context. He has since left talkSPORT.
Since November 2007, he has been the resident TV critic for Nuts TV. Also in 2007, he started presenting a monthly punk and
skaSka is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
podcast show on Total Rock, and the Heritage Foundation named Bushell "Critic Of The Year.". In 2009 he started an occasional ska show for Internet radio station dandbnoise.
Writing style
Bushell's columns are notable for
simileA simile is a figure of speech comparing two unlike things, often introduced with the word "like" or "as". Even though similes and metaphors are both forms of comparison, similes allow the two ideas to remain distinct in spite of their similarities, whereas metaphors compare two things without...
s and
metaphorA metaphor is a figure of speech concisely comparing two things, saying that one is the other. The English metaphor derives from the 16th c...
s that court controversy, such as describing something as being "as fair as
Frank BrunoFranklin Roy Bruno is a British former boxer whose career highlight was winning the WBC Heavyweight championship in 1995. Altogether, he won 40 of his 45 contests...
's
arseArse or ARSE may refer to:* Arse, a slang term for the buttocks* Arylsulfatase E, an arylsulfatase gene; deficiencies of it are associated with X-linked recessive chondrodysplasia punctata...
" or (in his 1 May 2005 column) "Today's TV is so obsessively gay, it's a wonder the
Radio TimesRadio Times is the BBC's weekly television and radio programme listings magazine. It also provides on-line listings.-History and publication:...
doesn't come with a pink Versace wrap and a free glass of
MuscadetMuscadet is a white French wine. It is made at the western end of the Loire Valley, near the city of Nantes in the Pays de la Loire region neighboring the Brittany Region. More Muscadet is produced than any other Loire wine. It is made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape, often referred to simply as...
". His humour has upset some
Sun executives, such as
Rebekah WadeRebekah Brooks is a British journalist and newspaper editor. She is chief executive of News International, having previously served as editor of The Sun...
, but fans include
Dom JolyDominic John Romulus "Dom" Joly is a British television comedian and journalist. He came to note as the star of Trigger Happy TV, a hidden camera show that was sold to over seventy countries worldwide...
and
Roy HuddRoy Hudd, OBE is an English radio and television actor. He is also a playwright, author and music hall singer.- Early life :...
, who has called him "the
Max MillerThomas Henry Sargent , better known by his stage name Max Miller, was Britain's top music hall comedian in the late 1930s to the late 1950s...
of the press." His tabloid column and writing style were regularly satirised in adult comic
VizViz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies the strait-laced British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent...
, including a one-off comic strip titled
Garry Bushell The Bear, about a homophobic, xenophobic brown bear. Responding to comments made by Bushell in the November 25th 1993 issue of
The Sun ("Liberal permissiveness is eating the fabric of our society. You want video nasties peddling stomach-churning filth? You got 'em. Western values? Who needs 'em!"), John Martin's book
Seduction of the Gullible: The Truth Behind the Video Nasty Scandal comments that "[w]hen Bushell isn't blustering about decency and Western values, he can be found gloating and cracking jokes in his column over such incidents as the death of several transvestites in a sex cinema fire."
Politics
Bushell started out as a
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
, and was a member of the
TrotskyistTrotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party...
International Socialists (which became the
Socialist Workers PartyThe Socialist Workers Party claims to be the largest far left party in Britain. It participates in a number of campaigns such as Unite Against Fascism and the Stop the War Coalition...
). In 1986, in his On The Soap Box column, Bushell raged against the
middle classThe middle class are any class in the middle of a social schema. In Weberian socio-economic terms they are the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socioeconomically between the working class and upper class. In Marxist terms, middle class commonly refers to either the...
es, who he claimed had ruined the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
. He also objected to the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
and unfettered immigration, because he said it under-cut
working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
wages. He wrote articles supporting the Smithfield meat porters who were fighting to preserve their market, and in favour of St. George's Day, the
UDR FourThe UDR Four were four members of the Ulster Defence Regiment who were convicted of the murder of Adrian Carroll in 1983. Adrian Carroll was the brother of the Sinn Fein councillor Tommy Carroll.Three of the UDR soldiers were acquitted on appeal in 1992...
, working class comedians and Page Three girls.
In the 2000s, Bushell's main political focus has been
patriotismPatriotism is love of and/or devotion to one's country. The word comes from the Greek patris, meaning fatherland. However, patriotism has had different meanings over time, and its meaning is highly dependent upon context, geography and philosophy....
and individual liberty. He considers himself
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
rather than
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
. He has campaigned to have
St George's DaySt George's Day is celebrated by the several nations, kingdoms, countries, and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint, including England, Germany, the old kingdoms and counties of the Crown of Aragon in Spain — Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia; Portugal, Cyprus, Greece, Georgia, Serbia,...
recognised as a public holiday in England, in the same way
Saint Patrick's DaySaint Patrick's Day , colloquially St. Paddy's Day or simply Paddy's Day, is an annual feast day which celebrates Saint Patrick , the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of Ireland, and is generally celebrated on 17th of March.The day is a national holiday of Ireland: it is a bank holiday...
is a holiday in
IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
. He is a vocal opponent of the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
. Amongst his heroes listed on his
MySpaceMySpace is a social networking website. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media, which is owned by News Corporation. MySpace became the most popular social networking site in the United...
page are
George OrwellEric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist...
and
Percy Bysshe ShelleyPercy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded among the finest lyric poets in the English language...
.
In the
2005 General ElectionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect members to the House of Commons.The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a reduced overall majority of 66 and they failed to gain any new seats...
, he stood as a candidate for the
English Democrats PartyThe English Democrats Party is an English federalist political party, committed to the formation of a devolved English Parliament with at least the same powers as those granted to the Scottish Parliament....
, who promote the establishment of an English Parliament, and want England to leave the European Union. Bushell got 1216 votes (3.4% share) in the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency, finishing fifth out of seven in a race won by
Nick RaynsfordWyvill Richard Nicolls Raynsford, known as Nick Raynsford, is a British Labour politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Greenwich & Woolwich constituency.-Early life:...
of the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
. The result represented the high point for the English Democrats in the election, and Bushell finished ahead of the UK Independence Party candidate in that constituency. Bushell also represented the party in South Staffordshire, in the delayed vote (due to the death of a candidate) on 23 June; winning 643 votes (2.51%) His campaign was supported by the
Campaign for an English ParliamentThe Campaign for an English Parliament was set up by six founder members in 1998. This was in response to the Devolution acts of that year when they realised the gross political and constitutional disadvantage to which the people of England would now be subjected.They determined that the CEP would...
and
VeritasVeritas is a political party in the United Kingdom, formed in February 2005 at Hinckley golf club by politician-celebrity Robert Kilroy-Silk following a split from the United Kingdom Independence Party . Kilroy-Silk served as party leader from formation, through the 2005 General Election, until...
. It was reported that he was considering standing as a candidate for
Mayor of LondonThe Mayor of London is an elected politician who, along with the London Assembly of 25 members, is accountable for the strategic government of Greater London . Since 4 May 2008, Conservative Boris Johnson holds the position...
against
Ken LivingstoneKenneth Robert Livingstone is an English politician; he has twice held the leading political role in London local government, firstly as Leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986 by the government of Margaret Thatcher, and secondly as the first Mayor of...
in 2008. His nomination was submitted to the English Democrats in June 2007, and his campaign slogan was to be "Serious About London".. Due to work commitments, Garry pulled out of the mayoral race in January 2008 and stood aside for
Matt O'ConnorMatt O'Connor is the founder of the fathers' rights group Fathers 4 Justice. Denied access to his children by the Family Courts, the Manchester native created Fathers 4 Justice to demand reform of the family courts and government policy on parental access.In a GQ magazine feature on O'Connor in...
.
Family
Bushell has five children; three with Carol Bushell and two with Tania Bushell. Tania Bushell performs as the
country musicCountry music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains...
singer Leah McCaffrey. In November 2006, Bushell appeared on the
Channel 4Channel 4 is a UK public-service television broadcaster which began working on November 2, 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station owned now and operated by the Channel Four Television...
programme
100% English100% English was a Channel 4 television programme shown in November 2006 in the United Kingdom. It looked at the genetic makeup of English people who considered themselves to be ethnically English and found that while all had an ethnic makeup similar to people of European descent, a minority...
and offered a sample of his
DNADeoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information...
for testing. The results suggested that he was 8%
Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa is a geographical term used to describe the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara, or those African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
n, most likely the result of a single ancestor within the previous five generations. Bushell took the news with good humour and wrote on his website: "I’d be delighted if it were true." However, he questioned the science and the motivation of the programme makers: "Only
NazisNazism, known officially in German as National Socialism , is the totalitarian ideology and practices of the Nazi Party or National Socialist German Workers’ Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945.Nazism is often considered...
, and, it appears C4, think of national identity in terms of racial purity... Besides, you could apply the same tests to the
FrenchFrench people can refer to:* The legal residents and citizens of France, regardless of ancestry. For a legal discussion, see French nationality law.* People whose ancestors lived in France or the area that later became France....
or
ItaliansThe Italian people are an ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common Italian culture, descent, and speaking the Italian language as a mother tongue...
and get similar results, but no-one questions their right to nationhood."
External links