EDINBURGH, Scotland, June 7, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A pop music writer turned evangelical preacher turned politician is vying for a seat on the European parliament—funded by royalties from a hit song he wrote in the 80s, ‘So Macho.’
‘So Macho’ became a 1980s disco classic, performed by Sinitta, which reached the top of the charts in 1985. The royalties generated from continued play of the song generates over £10,000 a month for Rev George Hargreaves. Hargreaves, who regrets the “hedonistic” lifestyle of his pop music days, has no problem with using the cash to fund his party, Operation Christian Vote. Scots go to the polls on June 10 to vote for a EU member of parliament. His party opposes abortion, euthanasia, and human embryo research. Hargreaves told Scotland on Sunday reporters that “We have not asked anyone to put their hand in their pocket. This campaign is being funded by ‘So Macho.’ And it’s the best money I have ever spent.”“I was a hedonistic sinner,” he confessed. “I was Jack the lad. But there came a point when I looked at myself. I was calling myself a Christian but not living the Christian life. I read a Bible from cover to cover and I changed my life.”“Now I’m the husband of one wife,” he said. “I’ve done all the things people want to do, that they aspire to, and I’ve seen the futility in it.” After abandoning the pop music scene, Hargreaves went to Oxford to study divinity, then took a posting as a pastor in a poor area of London.
Hargreaves, a supporter of the UK’s Life League, said that, while at the EU parliament, he will fight for parental consent for girls to procure abortions or contraceptives.
He kicked off the election campaign with a demonstration outside the Edinburgh postal workers union headquarters, to protest the Union’s backing of workers who refused to deliver leaflets of parties deemed by them to be “extreme,” such as his own Operation Christian Vote.