Here's what Billy Bragg told me at the Make Poverty History rally in the Meadows:
"Here's a question for you. When was the last G8 summit, and where was it held? I don't know, you don't know. Fuck knows. That's the power of Bono and Geldof, everyone knows what's going on here.
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"And in a year's time, if the G8 haven't delivered on aid, on trade, on debt, no one's going to blame Bob Geldof. No one's going to blame Mariah Carey. They're going to blame Blair and Brown and Bush.
"So give the government credit and support – they're talking the talk, we're all standing behind them, and we're going to judge them if they fail. They're standing up to Bush. And they're also standing up to Bush on behalf of the millions of Americans who disagree with their administration, but can't do anything about it.
"Can music change the world? Yes. Forget the cynicism, forget the shite like Status Quo, what this music has done is get a very middle-class, very 'non political' audience out there, who want to end poverty. The Socialist Workers' party, for all their banners, haven't got the moral authority to achieve that.
"I've just given an interview to a couple of Scottish teenage girls making a film about Gleneagles for a youth project. Now I said to them – if you were born African, the chances are you'd be dead by now. And if you weren't, the chances are you'd be a prostitute. And your little brother would be a child soldier.
"That's why I'm here today. It's about the politics. Nothing solves everything. The second world war didn't solve racism. But it did put an end to Nazi Germany. And today, here in Edinburgh, is where the politics is.
"And tonight I'll be singing Bob Marley's One Love, because that man was ahead of his time – he put black and white together back in the 70s. He put Africa on the map, and if he'd still been alive today, he would have been headlining Live 8."
