Commercial radio stations are playing inoffensive songs, so as not to upset listeners or drive away advertisers, and the BBC has told producers to play music with a “light, melodic” feel before and after news bulletins, especially when the reports are likely to detail coalition casualties.

Radio 1 has started by removing from its playlist a song called Diamonds and Guns, by the Transplants, a punk band, and a chart-bound song called Bandages, by the rock band Hot Hot Heat, although it has no connection to the war. The lyrics read: “These bandages cover more than scrapes, cuts and bruises from regrets and mistakes . . . Bandages on my legs and my arms from you.”