European parliamentary elections don’t usually inspire me to put pen to paper, but in the 2014 campaign the stink of overt racism which came wafting across the Channel mingled to a dispiriting degree with the stink of covert racism hovering over the UK.
Rivers of Blood
I heard the man on the news, mother,
I heard the man on the news –
Says Romanian men gonna set up their den of iniquity
Next door to you.
And I read the newspapers too, brothers,
I read the newspapers too –
Saw the redtops report how we gotta deport all them Poles
Or there’s no jobs for you.
Rivers of blood never flowed,
No the rivers of blood never flowed.
Please don’t go down, please don’t go down,
Please don’t go down that old road.
I had a dream in the night, father,
I had a dream in the night –
The masses had voted and one leader gloated,
His Bierkeller Putsch went alright.
I smell the fear in the air, neighbours,
I smell the fear in the air –
Are you losing your land by extending a hand?
An Englishman’s home is his lair.
I put my trust in your hands, children,
I put my trust in your hands –
Can you see through the lies? Is there hope in your eyes
Or compassion or love in the land?
Rivers of blood never flowed,
No the rivers of blood never flowed.
Please don’t go down, please don’t go down,
Please don’t go down that old road.
Click here for a version recorded at home, June 2014
Click here for a version recorded at the Sumac Centre in Nottingham, 25th April 2015
Click here for a version recorded at the Poppy Folk Club in West Bridgford, 11th October 2015
Paul Carbuncle 