It has become something of a tradition for British prime ministers to name-drop a rock star or two in the hope that a bit of cool will rub off by association, only to be publicly and embarrassingly rebuffed.
Who can forget Gordon Brown's Arctic Monkeys debacle in a men's magazine, when he was unable to name a single track? Or Tony Blair's admission that he was a fan of Oasis – only for lead singer Noel Gallagher to announce that he was fed up with taking "flak" for it?
Now David Cameron has become the latest to run the gauntlet of the uneasy and usually unrequited relationship between politician and musical muse.
Johnny Marr, a founding member and the lead guitarist of The Smiths, yesterday called on the prime minister to stop saying that he liked the band.
"Stop saying that you like The Smiths, no you don't," he wrote on Twitter, adding: "I forbid you to like it."
Cameron has made no secret of his love of the Mancunian group, who since the 1980s have been acclaimed as one of the best British bands.
