Perdit spolia principi pecuniarum?

To the south, tyrants know
That it's time for them to go;
The cracks are starting to show:
An end to exploitation?
Reassertion of the nations
Against the
Against the
Against the selfish rule of the corporations?

In the north, trouble brews
As inequality lights the fuse
Angered by the bankers' abuse
The people start to realise
That growth is based on real lies
They can see
They can see
They can see the truth with real eyes

In our hearts we can see
Violence is our reality
You can watch it on TV
Sold arms to corrupt regimes
It's exactly what it seems
We caused these
We caused these
We caused these unpleasant scenes

Strategic priorities
Inconvenient realities
It's people that feel the squeeze
Of greed and morals
Of their rulers' quarrels
Liberals rest
Liberals rest
Liberals rest on their illiberal laurels

The United States understands
Genuinely democratic Muslim lands
Will be no friend of Uncle Sam's
Remove troops from our soil
From Israeli aid recoil
Get your hands
Get your hands
Get your hands off our oil

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)

Twenty Years (more like 200)

I've been reading A People's History of American Empire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_People%27s_History_of_American_Empire) recently, and it's made me think again about some of the assumptions and ironies of the story of Great Britain. Given our current approach to multi-culturalism, it saddens me to think of the cultural and linguistic heritage that these islands have lost as a result of the monoglottal and mono-structural aggression of the English political system in the last 500 years (and beyond).

The Irish part of these islands' history has been somewhat obliterated by this centralising drive, to the point where there are now more Urdu speakers in the UK than speakers of Scottish Gaelic, driven out of the country or genocidally massacred by the government and the interests of private business during the eighteenth century.

And yet once the barbaric Angles of Northumbria were converted to Christianity and introduced to literacy by Irish speaking monks.

It's not just the Americans who have a less than pure history of internal political, social, economic and racial aggression.

'Seo do leabhar,
Sea do pheann.
"Dean do leasan", thuirt iad riumsa,
"'S gunn eirich sibh suas anns an t-saoghal
'S gheibh sibh an adhart ann."

Fichead bliadhna'airson firinn
B'fheudar dhomh feitheamh
'S b'fheudar dhomh lorg
Fichead bliadhn' de bhreugan
Thug iad eachdraidh air falbh bhuainn.

Dh'ionnsaich sinn a leithid ann
Canan's bardachd, bardachd Bheurla
Ceol na Gearmailt
Eachdraidh na Spainnt
'S b'e sin an eachdraidh mheallt

Bhon sgoil do'n oilthigh chaidh sinn ann
A' leantail foghlum, tuilleadh foghlum
Mar amadan air deiradh streang
Seorsa de dh'fhoghlum 'nam cheann

Fichead bliadhna'airson firinn
B'fheudar dhomh feitheamh
'S b'fheudar dhomh lorg
Fichead bliadhn' de bhreugan
Thug iad eachdraidh air falbh bhuainn.

Ach dh'eirich mi suas anns an t-saoghal
Fhuair mi deise, 's fhuair mi leine
Fhuair mi aite ann an suilean dhaoin
Fada bhon mhonadh mi'n drasd

Carson a chum iad eadchraidh bhuainn
Innsidh mi dhut, tha iad gealltach
Mas eirich clann nan Gaidheal suas
Le ceistean sireach is cruaidh'

Twenty Years of Deceit
They denied me knowledge of myself

(Thanks to Runrig, and Howard Zinn)