Tag: inequality

Oh England (Can You Tell Me Where It Hurts?)

This land of riches, this land of rags
This land of lampposts and angry flags
Of roundabouts and hasty tags
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts

This land of swine, this land of pearls
This land of violence ‘gainst women and girls
This land that squints out at the world
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts

The pain is real
The pain is there
The pain you feel
The pain’s unfair
When you feel there’s nowhere left to turn
History has a lesson
You need to learn

Is it the hours and days on hold
The choice of hunger or of cold
Just the sheer lack of control
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts

Is it the blank-faced lawyer and his blank-faced crew
Paralysed without a clue
When they say they know what to do
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts

The pain is real
The pain is there
The pain you feel
The pain’s unfair
When you feel there’s nowhere left to turn
History has a lesson
You need to learn

This land of hope and former glory
Rich colour in the nation’s story
By land and sea and century
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts

This land of wider still and wider
Shrinking in the light of day
Of awkward empire pride and shame
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts

This land of drawbridges and moats
This land of pointless wasted votes
This land obsessed with small boats
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts
Oh England, can you tell me where it hurts

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The Flag

The news is vile, the comments worse
This septic isle is in reverse
They say there’s debt to reimburse
While rich folk rob the public purse

Their greed exceeds your hour of need
While leaders short in word and deed
Let the reins of power concede
To a frog-faced smoking man in tweed

And the trick they play they say the flag is yours
Flown at one world cup and two world wars
A tawdry cross daubed across any old white rag
I’ll never swear allegiance to the flag

They’ll have you pledge a sacred vow
They’ll take salutes, you scrape and bow
Forbid what they do not allow
So long as you do not ask how

They got there and you got here
With cigarettes and pints of beer
From school to stock market career
You know it’s clear, you know it’s fear

And the trick they play they say the flag is yours
Flown at one world cup and two world wars
A tawdry cross daubed across any old white rag
I’ll never swear allegiance to the flag

It ain’t our flag, it’s handed down
By billionaire, state and crown
It ain’t our flag for taking back
Our colours include brown and black
It ain’t our flag loaded with fear
It ain’t our flag, it won’t fly here

And the trick they play they say the flag is yours
Flown at one world cup and two world wars
A tawdry cross daubed across any old white rag
I’ll never swear allegiance to the flag

And the trick they play they say the flag is yours
Flown at one world cup and two world wars
A tawdry cross daubed across any old white rag
I’ll never swear allegiance to the flag

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You & Me vs. The Billionaires

Imagine getting richer while the poor are still poor
Imagine having everything and still wanting more
Imagine all the hurt and still nobody cares
That’s why it’s you and me against the billionaires

Imagine all the emeralds, your own spaceship
Shooting off to Mars on a space day trip
Imagine if they stayed, what difference would it make
When we do all the give, and they do all the take

The art of the deal says that beggars can’t be choosers
The art of the deal says that winners need their losers
The way we play is that everybody shares
That’s why it’s you and me against the billionaires

You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires

Imagine using wars to just make more money
Imagine no just cause, just bread and honey
Imagine how little the big boy cares
That’s why it’s you and me against the billionaires

The art of the deal says that beggars can’t be choosers
The art of the deal says that winners need their losers
The way we play is that everybody shares
That’s why it’s you and me against the billionaires

You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires

Mind the gap, the cats getting fatter
Mind the cap, the one that says MAGA
Mind the trap that says all lives matter
It’s you and me against the billionaires

You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires
You and me, against the billionaires

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Eating People

When the economy won’t grow
And there’s nowhere else to go
It’s not considered evil
For the rich to just eat people

They don’t want to eat you up
But over runneth their cup
And when it’s this unequal
The rich will just eat people

They can’t live in all the houses
But they can own all the houses
Which turns out to be legal
When the rich start eating people

And when the rich start eating people
Some of them will be quite gleeful
Saying it’s a rising tide
We’re just waiting for our ride

Which of course will never come
Because when all’s said and done
It’s simply medieval
For the rich to just eat people

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Liz’s Pie

Liz’s pie is sliced unevenly
Liz is slicing fast and greedily
The biggest slices unbelievably
To the richest irretrievably

Liz’s pie is sliced unevenly
Liz is slicing hard and grievously
The slimmest slices butchered evilly
To those who need them most appreciably

Liz’s pie is sliced unevenly
Equality is not for her you see
Liz trusts in trickle-down unreasonably
So Liz’s pie is sliced unevenly

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8 Minutes 46 Seconds

It took eight minutes and forty-six seconds
For Derek Chauvin to kill George Floyd
Black folks killed by racist police
A conversation that the nation can no longer avoid

Having to explain why black lives matter
To the colour-blinds and the don’t-want-to-listens
While righteous anger boils over in the streets
‘Cos it’s not even equality, it’s a fight for existence

The Racist-in-Chief threatens vicious dogs
Accompanied by ominous weapons
Summoning the far-white militia crowd
A long hot summer definitely beckons

From Blackout Tuesday to Stand Up Wednesday
How many deaths? How much longer?
From burn it up to resist the clampdown
Take a knee, together we’re stronger

It took eight minutes and forty-six seconds
For Derek Chauvin to kill George Floyd
Who wants to argue that oppression of a black man
Protects the status quo by which he’s employed?

Having to explain why black lives matter
To the colour-blinds and the head-in-the-sanders
Hiding behind all lives matter
Happy to be disapproving bystanders

The Racist-in-Chief threatens the National Guard
Accompanied by heavy arms
A nod and a wink to the KKK
Hands up don’t shoot still won’t prevent harm

From Blackout Tuesday to Stand Up Wednesday
How many deaths? How much longer?
From burn it up to resist the clampdown
Take a knee, together we’re stronger

A solidarity message from the football club
Sentiments you share with your mates down the pub
Be honest about privilege, be honest about race
Together we can make the world a better place

It took eight minutes and forty-six seconds
For Derek Chauvin to kill George Floyd
A simple demand to lend your voice
And end to racism, justice for George

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Mild Symptoms

Charlie’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And Boris has got ‘em (mild symptoms)
Now Matt’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And they all got tested too

Matt says that he’s working from home
He says that you should too
But you can’t build luxury flats on the phone
You still have to get on the tube

Charlie’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And Boris has got ‘em (mild symptoms)
Now Matt’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And they all got tested too

Boris says he’s working from home
He’s urging you to do the same
But you can’t fix washing machines on the phone
And stayin’ home just won’t pay

Charlie’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And Boris has got ‘em (mild symptoms)
Now Matt’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And they all got tested too

Charlie’s working from one of his homes
But his staff don’t get a say
He can be the heir to the throne on the phone
‘Cos no-one’s listening anyway

Charlie’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And Boris has got ‘em (mild symptoms)
Now Matt’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And they all got tested too

Mild symptoms – not everybody gets ‘em
Mild symptoms – nor the level of protection
Mild symptoms – and tests for politicians
But not for the nurses or the clinicians

Charlie’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And Boris has got ‘em (mild symptoms)
Now Matt’s got ‘em (mild symptoms)
And they all got tested too
They all got tested too

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The Progress of Society is Not Linear

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The Centre for Social Injustice

It’s what Supersonic is all about.

The press report this week that Iain Duncan Smith’s think tank, The Centre For Social Justice, recommends increasing the state pension age to 70 by 2028 and 75 by 2030 because, they say, we’re living longer and we are unaffordable.

In 1948, when the state pension was introduced, a man could expect to live for 12 years in retirement and a woman 19, approximately 16% and 24% of their lives respectively[1]. The current state pension ages improve those percentages to 24% and 26%, the proposals from the Centre for Social Justice worsen them to 18% and 20%, with a man receiving his pension for just 17 years on average and a woman hers for 19 years.

But those are just numbers without considering the real hardship of people that can’t afford a workplace pension or the effects on your health and well being of being forced to work full time into old age. Those who would keep you in the workhouse, such as the Centre’s head, Andy Cook, would have you believe that work is good for you whatever your age, and stealing your state pension is a means to “help older people to remain in work”[2].

Nor do the numbers speak of inequality, the life expectancy of Blackpool man (74.7) compared to Kensington and Chelsea man (83.3), the widening of that divide with time or the socioeconomic back story.

The reality will be to make death in service the norm. This isn’t economic good sense, it’s class warfare.

Duncan Smith? We know a song about him. Hard work? We know a song about that too.

Steve

  1. Office of National Statistics
  2. Daily Mirror, 17 August 2019
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