Chumbawamba wrote Tubthumping as a working-class anthem. We won’t have it stolen by the right | Boff Whalley

When we sing Fairytale of New York at Christmas, the let’s-all-join-in spirit of it isn’t the sole property of Shane, Kirsty and the Pogues – it’s our song, too.

Their popularity depends upon them playing at being just like you and me, the good guy at the bar who buys you a drink while you’re watching the football, who tells you the reason the country is going down the drain isn’t because of the multibillionaire corporate hoarding of the world’s wealth but because … cue a culture-warrior rant about immigration and snowflakes and experts and “I did my own research”.

There have been many, many examples of rightwing populist leaders using ostensibly leftwing music to hoodwink their audiences into some kind of hypnotic self-delusion that they are “of the people”.

Mike Pickering, left (pictured with the rest of M People – Shovell, Heather Small and Paul Heard) was angry when Liz Truss used the band’s song Moving On Up.

It’s as if the new breed of populist leaders think they can hide their multimillionaire “man of the people” contradictions behind such universally loved songs.

Trump is particularly ignorant when it comes to his choice of campaign songs; he’s been forced to stop using music by artists including Pharrell Williams, Rihanna, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, the Beatles and Elton John.