ON Saturday night in Philadelphia, Ed Sheeran opened his first concert since the massive outcry over Macklemore being removed from his US tour with an apology.

He said he wanted to say a few words about this last week and that he had to “take and make difficult decisions and I am making mistakes and I am so, so sorry.”

Sorry for what, Ed?

Sorry for allowing a billionaire to collude with other billionaires to suppress free speech, even though you claim to support it?

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Sorry for allowing Macklemore be kicked off the tour?

Sorry for saying that Macklemore’s contract was with the promoter and so had nothing to do with you?

Sorry for putting out a statement earlier in the week that was self-serving?

Or just sorry for yourself?

Nothing in Sheeran’s opening speech told us what it was that he was actually sorry for.

He talked about being deeply worried about performers’ content having to be pre-approved and how that should never happen in the free world.

Did Robert Kraft and his friends pre-approve the speech, one wonders?

He then said he wanted to address where he stands on the situation in Israel and Palestine. He said he didn’t want to be political, but “this is a humanitarian issue and I cannot hide how I feel about it any more”.

And so I awaited the next line, expecting that it would be something along the lines of Pete Postlethwaite’s character Danny in the classic film Brassed Off,........

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