Marches No's 23, 24, 25

Lyrics

'To eat and smoke and bet and swill's No substitute for moral will In proportion, economics is just a part of politics

'It's values and attitudes Not economic platitudes — Ethics and thrift and vision and work Not food and medicine and free milk — That make a nation strong

'Crime and violence and wife and child-beating Are not products of not eating; The foundation of the nation's Family values and civilisation; Poverty is wrong

'The defences of the nation Its tone, its true inspiration; Respect for other people's goods Things for which our fathers stood: Values that last long

'Money and food and promises Have generated grievances Expectation's malcontents — People who won't pay the rent Will always belong ...

'To hopes that can't be satisfied In groups who only can deride Those people who respect the law Who've raised themselves up from the poor They'd never stay among.'

Because they have to fight to change A world that's bought and sold — and strange — Real lives are never understood — Explained — in terms of attitudes Or patriotic songs

'And those who try to pull the trick Are vile and nasty, cruel and thick The fucking bastards get on my wick; Their viciousness just makes me sick

'The shitty fuckers can't explain Their lives as real — as stress and strain They want to wallow in champagne They're lazy, stupid, weak and vain.'

Chronology

• Kangaroo?
  • Gina Birch - vocals

Retrospectives

Art & Language, 1981

Sir Keith Joseph tells us that it is ‘attitudes’ that explain the ills of society. In fact to say of someone that he/she is lazy is to explain nothing. An attitude is always something that needs to be explained. From a working-class position it might be argued, however, that a critique of the attitudes of the ruling class is of some material significance.

Interpretations

• Other marches: "March No. 12," "March No. 14"