Stuff the Jubilee/Take Down the Union Jack

 

 

I’m not an anarchist
but I know a man who is
He composed this masterpiece
about the nouveau stinking riche
Of cabbages and future kings
and marriage guidance councelings
Of geriatrics losing hope
in Stephen Patrick’s overcoat

Excuse my rudery
but stuff the jubilee!

It’s the last tango at the palace
Christopher goes down on Alice
A make-up girl from Selfridges
unaccustomed to such privileges
of His Majesty’s secret services
The kind of secret services
usually confined to circuses

Excuse my rudery
but stuff the jubilee!

Princess A to Princess Bea
and all their work for charity
Every royal lion’ s head
on every boiled and frying egg
And every sodding polo team
in Hello ! bloody magazine

And if you feel this story lacks
the royal seal on candle wax
Reel to reels of scuzzy facts
of dodgy deal and income tax
String me up from Traitor’s Gate
stick my head upon a stake

And if you feel this story sucks
that’s probably because I made it up
I didn’t really hitch a lift
to Windsor Castle bearing gifts
And I can prove it wasn’t me
I was on a stage in Germany
I’ve always loved the Queenie Mum
her daughters and her daughter’ s sons
From Princess A to Princess Bea
And all the Royal Family

Stuff the jubilee!

 

Songwriters: James Neil Morrison / Leslie George Carter

‘Stuff the Jubilee’ was an anti-monarchy slogan of the Socialist Workers Party,
during their 1977 campaign against the cost of the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II

Take down the Union Jack
It clashes with the sunset
And put it in the attic with the emperors old clothes
When did it fall apart?
Sometime in the eighties
When the great and the good gave way
To the greedy and the mean

Britain isn’t cool, you know
It’s really not that great
It’s not a proper country
It doesn’t even have a patron saint
It’s just an economic union
That’s past its sell-by date

Take down the Union Jack
It clashes with the sunset
And ask our Scottish neighbors
If independence looks any good
‘Cause they just might understand
How to take an abstract notion of personal identity
And turn it into nationhood

Is this the 19th Century
That I’m watching on TV
The dear old queen of England
Handing out those MBEs
Member of the British Empire
That doesn’t sound too good to me
Gilbert and George are taking the piss aren’t they
Gilbert and George are taking the piss
What could be more British than is a picture of me bum
Gilbert and George are taking the piss

Take down the Union Jack
It clashes with the sunset
And pile up all those history books but don’t throw them away
They just might have some clues about what it really means
To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England dot Co dot you-K
To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England dot Co dot you-K

Songwriters: Stephen William Bragg


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