Lord Mandelson is calling for wiping out the accounts of persistent file sharers as the UK portion of the file sharing debate heats up. Meanwhile Lily Allen is getting blasted for some fairly reasonable comments about the effect that file sharing has on emerging acts. It's certainly possible to disagree with her assessment that file sharing hits new artists harder than established acts, especially since the argument has usually been made in reverse, but the attacks on her from trendy artists like Shakira who are pure payola products and can't sing, have been just as cynical. Musicians have learned to back away from the Lars Ulrich position and to be file sharing friendly because it's the easy way to be popular and they don't make money from the record sales anyway.

And it doesn't help that the responses have been this stupid either;

Reverend and the Makers frontman Jon McClure has slammed popstar Lily Allen for attempting to be political.

Speaking to the Sun, the singer said that there are more important things for people to be concerned about than illegal filesharing, such as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan or climate changes.

Well clearly. Anything less important than war can't possibly be talked about or discussed, because it isn't nearly as important. Oh wait, where does that leave Jon McClure himself? Unless he's not being in a war, he should keep his mouth shut.