Coalition of One

This is going to have to be a quick blog – it’s the night before we go off on tour so I’ve got the obligatory suitcase pack and laundry check to do, a trip to pick up train tickets, paint a bass drum skin with lyrics, play with our 18 month old until the point of total exhaustion and then have a bath. That said, this song probably does need a little explaining…

Almost every day my heart gains a few beats when listening to the strains of trained politicians – totally career based, and taken (largely) from a very select male part of society – talking of new exciting ideas that they believe can solve problems – when actually they don’t even understand why they don’t give a shit about anything but themselves in the first place. At the zenith of this particular celestial sphere stands a man such as Iain Duncan Smith who pithily rejects the notion he would struggle to get by on a benefit whilst wielding a sword so covered in agenda that it reflects the wicked glint in both of his narrowing eyes. For him read Gove, Hunt, Osborne and Cameron – all intent on systematically destroying the welfare state, privatising education and healthcare, clad in the language of “cutting the deficit” and hitting the poorest. It’s actually wild.

That this all happens within a construct of a decaying electoral system, a disenfranchised electorate, an infantile and confrontational parliament (which won’t take a stand on lobbying), massive regional wealth disparity and a set of MPs that simply do not adequately represent the wonderful make up of our country in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexuality, birthplace, education, employment etc etc etc…

So I wrote a song about it, to be honest though you probably should just go and listen to some Billy Bragg.

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Food banks spring open
Like jaws dropping in time
The weight of man is measured
By the depths of a carrier bag

I’m frozen for ages
The same faces the same scars
It’s a shame all our sages
Are rotten to the middle

Someone better tell me when the lights go out
So I know where I should hide
Someone better offer me their salient thoughts
On a welfare state denied
Someone better smother me in disregard
So I’ll make it through the night
And there’s so many people
That feel the same as I do

So don’t listen to your heart
Listen to your soul
Listen to your common senses
I’ve been battered like a storm
Been run into a wall
Been vaulted like a row of fences
Don’t be surprised
When those wide eyes
Drill a hole into the present tenses
You should cherish even more
The things that make us raw
Stay loyal to the consequences.

And There Are So Many People
That Feel Let Down
Like I Do.

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