Greed is manufactured in the world-factory to maintain the new caste system

To desire
Is, we are told, what makes us real
To consume
and to submit, for the nation's weal
Wherefore
Wherefore
Can we not just be?
And do, and love, and think and feel?

The cancer that
Gnaws on the hearts and minds of men
Is our desire
To have, to own, to keep, when
All we need
All we need
Is simply made and grown
And the reason for our lust is beyond our ken

The machine
That we all feed, it makes for to desire
So that we
Will spend our lives and blood in fire
Otherwise
Otherwise
Why should we live like this?
Working to enrich those whose wants will never tire

The illusion
Is one that serves some more than the poor
The deceit
Of democracy, is what we're working for
Not for love
Not for love
But for the profit of the few
So that they may feel that they are worth so much more

No wonder
We lose our faith, in god, in Blair, in Brown
For if it is all a lie
Why should the Queen retain her crown?
Starving child
Starving child
Is there nothing more we could do
But protest, donate and wear a guilty frown?

A factory for
The rich, is what our green world has become
Toiling to
Keep our own chains, and maintain the slums
Fairness
Fairness
Is deep within our souls
For our consciences are not so dumb

Time for change
And not just tinkering, but wholesale overthrow
Of the puppets of the rich
And the corporations in their greedy rows
Corruption
Corruption
Not just of this green world
But of our minds, and hearts, I suppose

Bonus Bandits and Billy Bragg

I used to bank my chips
With an aggressive lending machine
The profits they seemed healthy
But I knew it was not what it seemed

"Do you want debt advice?"
Was what I heard them say
But in the language of the ghetto
That means "How much more can you pay?"

I wanted to free me
In my dreams I could see me
Running naked in the woods round Barclays
Trying to get away from the loan shark please
Unsecured debt
and the unrestrained bonus culture that was lurking
round the Gherkin

At a little low-level table we would talk
I carved the interest rate on a little wooden fork
Into the bank came the bonus bandit gang
They snatched the fork from out my hand

The bonus bandits looked at me
To assert my masculinity
I said "Oi!!"
They said "What?"
I said "Nothing".

(with deepest apologies to Bill Bailey and Billy Bragg)

Tell the fucking truth

Tell the fucking truth

They write of pride and glory
They write of courage and shame
They tell you of your history
And who died in who's name

They make you sing of freedom
Chant of Christian peace and love
They make you think of your fellow man
And give praise unto God above

They tell you a tale of reason
Of progress, rights and law
Of liberty, equality and fraternity
Of all the good things worth dying for

They speak of unfairness
Of man's inhumanity to man
Of choice and also of happiness
And that they've got a plan

But they don't speak the truth
Not the whole nor nothing but
They tend to forget or underplay
The things that don't sound so good

Concentration camps in Africa
And poison gas in Iraq
Nerve gas and atomic bombs
We're kept well in the dark

The origins of fortunes
And the deals made by kings
The weapons sold for Nazi gold
And even less pleasant things

The wars to sell China opium
And WMD shipped to Saddam
The arming of the Muhajadeen
And dirty coups in Iran

The installation of dictators
Who'd let us rape their poor
Propping up medieval sheiks
To stop the commies at the door

Firebombing Dresden
Agent Orange and Napalm
Worldwide slavery
It's hard to stay so calm

The theft of the world's resources
So we can live like pigs
Creaming off the profits
From starving, diseased kids

We champion Capital not people
Profit and not Society
Ignorance not education
Selfishness not responsibility

We worship God but not each other
We bow to cash, not to thought
We never think about who has paid
For the pleasures that we've bought

They re-invent the enemy
To keep us all in line
Commies, druggies, Islamists
No enemies of mine

They speak to us of peril
And launch bloody wars
To keep themselves in power
And don't even show remorse

They lie, cheat, steal, and kill
And then manipulate the truth
Why should we have any standards?
When our leaders are this 'good'?

Berlusconi's prostitutes
Papal lies about contraception
Zionist walls across the land
And the 'immaculate conception'

Blair's lies about Iraq
Thierry Henry's handball
GW Bush's cocaine past
Hypocrites and cheaters all

The destruction of the planet
So we can live our plastic lives
With plastic food, in plastic towns
Watch plastic people on Sky

The insatiable triumph of greed
And the fruits of our lust
Billions more people
Turning the earth to dust

They argue over legal detail
They argue over proof
But if they want my respect
They should tell the fucking truth