In the UK, a tubthumper is a politician. The US equivalent of tubthumping is "stumping" (campaigning). The liner notes on the album Tubthumper, from which "Tubthumping" was the first single, put the song in a radical context, quoting a UK anti-road protester, Paris 1968 graffiti, details about the famous McLibel case and the short story "The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner".