But they aren't the first band to put their topical tour bus witterings into song and come across as a tad sixth-form. Cringe with us as we rewind some of the worst political lyrics in pop.Who better to deliver the definitive lyrical verdict on 2012's London riots than the Australian indie bedwetters who'd just soundtracked a TV ad for CenterParcs? Their track London's Burning duly ranted: "Now who's the one to blame when the children go insane? / Dancing their broken dreams while London's burning from within." Food for thought there, Boris so-called Johnson, yeah?In 1995, the King Of Pop's Messiah complex was in full effect, so he generously decided to solve all the world's problems in Earth Song. With mounting hysteria, he squeaked about "crying whales", "weeping shores" and "children dead from war", climaxing with the impassioned cry: "What about elephants? Have we lost their trust?" Pachyderm psychologists are still puzzling over that one. When Jacko performed it at the Brit Awards, Jarvis Cocker's waggling arse spoke for the nation.With her topknot and trackie bottoms, Sporty was always the most "street" Spice Girl. So when she went solo, Melanie Chisholm kept it urban and tackled the issue of homelessness on her single If That Were Me. "Are you happy where you are?" crooned the Scouse millionairess. "Sleeping in between parked cars?" Does anybody actually do that? Wait, there was more: "I couldn't live without my phone / But you don't even have a home." Yeah alright, love, don't rub it in.Synth-pop pioneers The Human League can't do much wrong in our book but their mid-80s foray into Middle Eastern politics was certainly a mis-step. Later voted one of the 10 worst pop lyrics of all time, The Lebanon included the moving lines: "Before he leaves the camp he stops / He scans the world outside / And where there used to be some shops / Is where the snipers sometimes hide." A decade later, The Cranberries got similarly out of their depth with the war in the former Yugoslavia, Dolores O'Riordan yelping the insightful couplet: "Bosnia was so unkind / Sarajevo changed my mind."The complex geo-political situation in Ireland has tripped up many a well-meaning (usually non-Irish) lyricist. There was Boney M's Euro-disco classic Belfast, Spandau Ballet ballad Through The Barricades and the airbrushed stadium pomposity of Simple Minds' Belfast Child ("Come back people, you've been gone a while / And war is raging in the Emerald Isle"). The low point of this mini-genre is undoubtedly The Luck Of The Irish by the Plastic Ono Band. This 1972 monstrosity sees John Lennon go for melodrama ("Aye! Aye! Genocide!") while Yoko Ono settles for crass stereotyping: "Let's walk over rainbows like leprechauns / The world would be one big Blarney stone." She was probably wearing one of those novelty Guinness hats too.Early 90s South London anarcho-crusties Back To The Planet were the poor man's Levellers but their members had great names: Fil Planet, The Geezer, Fraggle, D.A.V.E. The Drummer and Carlos Fandango (any relation to Clem Fandango from Toast Of London unconfirmed at press time). In their tune Teenage Turtles, they turned their righteous ire on the kiddie craze for anthropomorphic turtles, clumsily preaching: "Blame the parents, blame the schools / Blame the telly with adverts cool / I blame the turtles, an influence bad / All the little children brain-dead, it's sad." It was a live favourite but by the time they released it, the film was three years old and BTTP just looked like they had it in for adolescent reptiles.Have we missed one of your favourite so-bad-they're-good topical lyrics? Let us know below. But remember: everyone's on bugle and we ARE being watched by Google.(theguardian.com)ANN.Az