On the night of the London 2012 opening ceremony I was mildly tickled to see, appearing in front of the huge TV audience and the thousands in the stadium, the folk-punk singer Frank Turner. Reviewing the event's music for this paper, I wrote: "One wonders if Locog had screened the lyrics to folk-punk Frank Turner's song I Still Believe before letting him perform: "'Come ye, come ye/To soulless corporate circus tops' must have sent a shudder up the spines of the watching sponsors, even if he was there at the personal invitation of Danny Boyle, the ceremony's director."

Turns out Locog and the Olympic sponsors probably knew a lot more about Turner's politics than I did. And I've reviewed his albums before. Browsing on a music messageboard earlier today, I came across a thread devoted to Frank Turner, which linked to an interview he gave last year. Turns out his libertarianism and belief in the power of the people to resist oppression aren't of the leftist sort. They're of the rightist sort.

Now, I probably should have picked up on the clues when I reviewed England Keep My Bones, but I didn't. And so I poked further and found assorted interviews of the kind of jaw-dropping rightwingness that used to get pop singers castigated in the music press, but seem to have passed under the radar entirely – despite Turner's status as an arena-headlining act. I started tweeting some of the choicer quotes, and soon Twitter seemed to be abuzz with amazement at what he's had to say. Labour MP Kerry McCarthy weighed in, too:

So Frank Turner says that he's right wing, the BNP are hard left and socialism is "retarded". Twerp. moonandbackmusic.com/archives/1323 — Kerry McCarthy MP (@KerryMP) September 4, 2012

So, for the benefit of those who aren't on Twitter, here are selected highlights of Frank Turner's politics, in his own words.

On the difference between left and right

"To start with, most people don't seem to understand what the difference between left and right is. For example, the BNP are a hard left party. I consider myself a libertarian, I consider myself to be pretty right wing and I get shit for saying that out loud. I was thinking about it the other day, I was thinking about how, quite often, I do keep myself to myself on the subject because I can't be fucking bothered to have some guy look all shocked at me because I think socialism's retarded." (moonandbackmusic.com, December 2009)

On the effects of leftwing governments

"I do firmly believe that leftist politics lead to the misery of many, the crushing of the little guy and all that kind of thing. I mean, it's important for me to say that in public because I believe it strongly and that sometimes in life you've got to fucking put your foot down." (Source as above)

On the European Union

"I think, arguably, particularly with the signing of the Lisbon treaty it's actually the end of about 800 years of continuous parliamentary history. I think the people responsible for the signing of that fucking treaty without asking the people of Britain need to burn in fucking hell." (Source as above)

On state subsidies

"Delving into political philosophy here, but I get very frustrated with people who publicly have issues with private companies and then have no problem at all with the state funding stuff. The bottom line is the British Film Council gets its money out of threat of violence towards citizens, which is why it's infinitely worse than money that comes from some fizzy drink. At the end of the day, I don't actually give a shit, but if you made me choose between those two methods I think that state funding is much more of a greater evil on society. Those are my politics … I've got no problem with using taxes to pay for essential things like defence or the basics of a healthcare system. But whether or not we're threatened with the removal of our liberty to pay for someone to make a film, I personally struggle with." (huckmagazine.com, March 2011)

On the role of government (including, naturally, social services and health and safety)

"What I think we should do instead is concentrate on ways of minimising the impact on ordinary people's lives and allow them to get on with their lives and not be bothered by the state. Then you've suddenly got a range of things to talk about that are achievable. Like everything from not having ID cards and trying to dismantle the surveillance system we've put together in this country on the one hand, trying to remove government from peoples lives, social services. Letting people be freer, health and safety, whatever it might be." (Every Single Revolution, June 2011)