The Pogues has hit back at an actor with the most unexpectedly glorious insult after the furore of ‘Fairytale of New York’ being censored.

Britain has been aflutter with the news that the BBC has finally decided to air a censored version of the (undisputed) Greatest Christmas Song ‘Fairytale of New York’ over the upcoming festive period.

As per The Independent, the radio station confirmed that they will play an edited version of the 1987 hit, omitting homophobic and sexist slurs.

An inevitable culture war then ensued. Out-of-work actor Laurence Fox has recently attempted to rebrand himself as a right-wing political commentator which has essentially just been a coded title for regressive racist.

The privileged white male tweeted in response to the BBC’s censorship: “The cultural commissars at the @bbc are telling you what is and isn’t appropriate for your ignorant little ears. Wouldn’t it be nice if we sent the (proper) version to the top of the charts?”

If he was expecting the creators of the song, The Pogues, to take his outraged stance, he was very much mistaken.

“Fuck off you little herrenvolk shite,” The Pogues said in response to Fox. I mean, just sit and enjoy that comeback for a minute. Pure and utter unexpected genius.

It was a loaded retort from the band though. Herrenvolk was a concept in Nazi ideology which referred to the German people as being the “master race.” With his Aryan features and backwards views, the insult is perfectly suited to Fox.

The Pogues also endorsed the statement of another Twitter user, who said they were “deeply bothered” by straight people being angered by the removal of the contentious slur from the track.

“This is all I’m gonna say on it for the whole year: the word itself being in ‘Fairytale Of New York’ doesn’t bother or offend me, but straight people being so angry and outraged at its removal and literally fighting and arguing for the right to sing it bothers me deeply,” said Harrison Brocklehurst.

The classic song saw the Pogues frontman Shane MacGowan and the late singer Kirsty MacColl adopt the roles of a warring married couple. She sings to MacGowan: “You scumbag, you maggot / You cheap lousy f****t / Happy Christmas, your arse / I pray God it’s our last.”

Censorship of the song has been coming for a while, perhaps why MacGowan and co. aren’t upset with it. For several years now, the advent of Christmas has brought discussion about the song’s lyrics.

In 2018, MacGowan commented: “The word was used by the character because it fitted with the way she would speak and with her character. She is not supposed to be a nice person, or even a wholesome person.

“She is a woman of a certain generation at a certain time in history, and she is down on her luck and desperate.

“Her dialogue is as accurate as I could make it, but she is not intended to offend! She is just supposed to be an authentic character and not all characters in songs and stories are angels or even decent and respectable. Sometimes characters in songs and stories have to be evil or nasty in order to tell the story effectively.”

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