There's no pussyfooting around for Brian Eno when it comes to politics.

The former Roxy Music keyboardist and revered producer, who has worked with acts including U2 and David Bowie, opined in a recent column for The Guardian: "The first way in which we express our participation is by voting – by making our choices between various programmes and styles of government on offer. If that very first step is flawed – if it fails to produce credible results – then everything that follows will be flawed.

"First-past-the-post electoral systems, when coupled with scientific polling and focus-grouping, are destined to end up as battles between competing propaganda machines for the minds of a small number of swing voters. The PR agencies, the manipulators and the simplifiers, the Karl Roves and the Alastair Campbells are the winners. Good government is always the loser."

He went on to add: "The electoral process is the foundation of good and fair government. If that isn't right and solid, everything else is skewed."

If this political rambling is what hanging out with Bono and Chris Martin does to you, let's hope Eno chooses his next production project more wisely.