Posters advertising Morrissey’s new album, California Son, have been removed from Liverpool’s Merseyrail public transport network, following a complaint from a member of the public.
Morrissey has recently been criticised for his support of far-right party For Britain Movement, whose leader, Anne Marie Waters, is opposed to Islam. He has previously spoken out against halal and kosher meat production as well as immigration into the UK, and once described the Chinese as a “sub-species”. Toxteth resident Jack Dotchin told the Liverpool Echo that Morrissey’s opinions “offend me and a lot of other people. He’s very far right these days, going on about immigrants and being pseudo-racist. It’s just strange to think Merseyrail, being a public service for the people, is advertising someone with his views.”
Merseyrail responded to his complaint by removing the advertising and said:
Processes are in place for Merseyrail to approve any potentially contentious material prior to it appearing on the network, however due to the nature of this advertisement it did not reach a level of verification. Merseyrail will work [with] the third-party supplier to improve this process in the future. Any content used within advertising on the Merseyrail network does not reflect the organisation’s values, and we apologise for any offence the publication of these posters may have caused.
The decision comes in the same week that Spillers Records in Cardiff, the world’s oldest record shop, banned Morrissey albums from its store.
California Son, which features covers of songs by Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan and others, was released today to mostly negative reviews, including a one-star review in the Guardian, which criticised “the troll-like spirit of the endeavour”.
