Jon Tolley is a Liberal Democrat councilor in Kingston upon Thames, and the 

 owner of Banquet Records, a record shop in the same area that also puts on gigs. 

 He's always been into politics, but became a councilor two-and-a-half years 

 ago because he felt like Kingston council didn't handle arts or culture in the way 

 that he thought they should. After a Banquet Records event was cancelled for   seemingly no good reason, he ran as a councilor to find out why that was, to   get an answer that the then-council couldn't provide for him. 

 With first-hand experience in local politics, he has said that certain people   making big decisions aren't necessarily the best people to make those decisions -   and if they aren't best informed on something like school budgets, what's to say   they're informed on something like arts? If they're not, how do we question and   challenge that? Do we shout? Do we post memes on social media? Do we Tweet   expletives at them? Or do we try and make an evidence-based decision? Jon   believes music can be a tool to getting your message out there, and if musicians   can carry the message, that's way more effective than an advertisement in a   newspaper. 

 Jon believes music has always and will always be influenced by politics, and vise-   versa. Even though the influence isn't necessarily as strong as it was in the 70s   and 80s, there will always be musicians commenting on politics, and there will   always be a dialogue within music about politics.