Foals have reacted angrily to the appointment of Conservative MP Boris Johnson as the new mayor of London.

Writing on their Myspace during a flight back to London, keyboardist Edwin Congreave said they feared “flying into a city that isn't so much a newly fascist city-state than one big gilded joke of a newspaper column made rotten flesh [is another].”

Johnson officially began his role as London’s new mayor at midnight on Sunday (May 4th) after his triumph in last Thursday’s mayoral elections.

The Conservative, who is as known for his tabloid headlines as he is his politics, replaces Ken Livingstone, who held the position for eight years.

Congreave said that the band would like to “salute” Johnson, “sort of like we'd salute any smug, self-satisfied old Etonian holding a statute-book to our heads.”

“Congratulations and good luck with the Olympics,” he added.

(by Jason Gregory)