The clapping is coming to an end, and with it a big chunk of the goodwill, community and solidarity that were there when we first locked down and started to understand the value of the frontline workers and what they do for us. The neighbourliness isn’t fading away because we’re tired of it. It’s because the government, and specifically Boris Johnson, has undermined, ridiculed and dismissed it with his open, slavish, arrogant lick-spittle support for his boss Cummings.
The start of the pandemic, and specifically our national reaction to the lockdown, showed how we could learn to look after each other, on a local, street-by-street, level. There really was a feeling of us all pulling together, taking care of our neighbours and our families and making decisions for the good of all of us, not just ourselves.
Even though the daily press briefings turned quickly into party political broadcasts for the Conservative Party, and became daily lists of excuses and denials for everything they got wrong (and the list was long), we still had a sense of communal responsibility.
This all evaporated with the Cumming’s road trip to Durham, or in fact with Johnson’s refusal to admit to the hypocrisy and the lies. The gloves were off; we were back to the same-old, same-old. One rule for them, the old boy’s club, the old school tie, the powerful elite sticking together like shit. So we’re back to us and them, back to anger instead of hope. That’s what this song is about
But there is a way out, and that is to take the stuff we learned among ourselves – the stuff about valuing everyday workers above super-rich politicians, the stuff about asking our neighbours if they needed shopping, the stuff about doing without everyday rampant consumerism – that we can hold on to.
If we can mix that sense of possibility and change in with the anger that we now have towards the two-faced political class in power, then we might, just might, be on to something... 'These Are The Bastards' film by Catherine Long, music by Commoners Choir, a radical choir that combines political activism with singing – and hope, and my goodness we need a barrel loads in days like these.
Companion song/film 'These Are The Hands (After Michael Rosen)' is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__356...
These Are The Bastards
These are the bastards...
1.
That underfund That rarely work
That pay no tax That swagger and smirk
That print the fibs That build the walls
That fiddle the books That write the laws
These are the bastards...
2.
That make the money Declare the wars
That play their golf That damn the poor
That manage the funds That privatise
That shoot the grouse That tell the lies
These are the bastards...
3.
That missed the chance And failed to act
Delayed the tests And botched the masks
That favoured Herd immunity
That couldn’t supply The PPE
These are the bastards...
4.
That understaff
That underpay
That claim and fence
Our rights of way
That cut the grants
Condemn the sick
With public school
Arithmetic:
(Nursery rhyme):
“One and one is two
Two and two is four
They’re making sure it all goes back to
The way it was before...”
These are the bastards...
5.
That sell the arms
That hurt, abuse
That own the land
That fake the news
That front the appeals
That sing and smile
Then fly off back
To their domiciles
These are the bastards...
6.
That set up an airline
Flew a balloon
Bought an island
Promised the moon
Proudly sued The NHS
Then sent a grovelling
SOS
These are the bastards...
And after the clapping has faded away
– Remember what we learned today
http://www.commonerschoir.com/
We are currently living in a state that cannot be refprmed must be rebuilt anew we must get angry, correct the wrongs.
