Simpsons star Harry Shearer: ‘We’re reliving the 1930s’

For someone who has made his living from comedy for more than 50 years, Harry Shearer is very serious about politics.Together with his wife, the Welsh singer-songwriter Judith Owen, Shearer – who does the voices of more than 20 of the characters in The Simpsons, including Mr Burns, Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders – does an annual music and comedy benefit gig for the homeless in the UK and US.And as a self-described “political animal”, homelessness is one of Shearer’s major concerns – something he ultimately links to the financial crisis of 2008.It is not the only impact that crash had, he argues.”There’s a reason why the US, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Turkey and a few other countries have veered towards a populist strongman kind of leader,” Shearer told me.”It has to do with the fact that when you have a serious economic downturn people lose homes and jobs by the million.”Shearer argues that that only a few people responsible for the financial crash have been held to account for their actions, and that has exacerbated the situation.”We’re basically reliving the lessons of the 1930s,” says the 75-year-old, whose Jewish parents left Austria and Poland, respectively, for the US… Read full this story

Simpsons star Harry Shearer: 'We're reliving the 1930s' have 352 words, post on www.bbc.co.uk at December 6, 2019. This is cached page on NGHONG. If you want remove this page, please contact us.