I'm not on the list, I'm not on the list

I'm not on the list
I'm not on the list
All I have to do is tell them
if I know someone who should be on the list.


If I don't tell them
that I know someone who should be on the list,
then I'll be on a list of people
who don't help them make the list.

And people in my family 
will be on a list of people 
in families of people
who don't  help them make the list 
of people who should be on the list.

And people (who people in my family know)
will be on a list of people 
who know people in the family of someone 
who didn't help them make the list of people 
who should be on the list.

So, if you're not on the list
or the list of the people 
who don't help them make the list
or the list of people who know people who
don't help them make the list
you're OK.
It's all OK
It's going to be all right.

Lists, lists of foreigners, lists of foreign born people

Lists
Lists of foreigners
Lists of foreign born people
living and working alongside
those not on lists
Lists of children sitting alongside
children not on lists
Lists to be sent in to government
departments
Lists of names, addresses that can
pass from official to official
from department to department
so that what starts out as 'information'
drifts into ways of saying to those
on the lists that they should have less
they should have no guarantees of the
right to work or live alongside or amongst
those not on the lists
And when it comes to a time when
those who want to say that hard times
are not the fault of people in government
and not the fault of those who own and control
everything
the lists are ready and waiting
Look who's on the lists, they'll say
The lists say it all, they'll say

I was listening to a pogrom on the radio today

I was listening to a pogrom on the radio today
coming from a party conference where they had a lot to say
about people who move, people who move here
and I got it from the pogrom this is something to fear
I should worry about the people next door
I should worry about the woman cleaning the floor
I should worry about the student on the bus
I should worry about anyone moving amongst us
I got it from the pogrom we need more checking
I got it from the pogrom we need more inspecting
'cos any troubles we have, any troubles we know
never come from the people running the show
let's put our hands together and please give thanks
to the people we trust - like those running banks
please give thanks to those who own stocks and shares
they're the ones we can trust to wipe away our cares


I was listening to a pogrom on the radio today
it sounded more like a programme coming our way
a programme, a plan, a strategy, a dream
a way of building up an idea of a nation
based on selection and segregation.
I know going on about it makes me sound like a bore
but, tell me, haven't we heard this sort of thing before?

Security alert: Before you read this...

Before you read this
I have to ask you some questions:
Could you tell me if you are any of the following:
migrant, immigrant, refugee, asylum seeker, emigre, clandestine, sans papiers, foreigner,
or a son or daughter of any of the
above
or if you LOOK like as if you could be any of the 
above?
In which case please
state your name, date of birth,
height, weight, inside leg measurement, blood group, hospital records, skin colour, income, 
preferred sandwich type.

Are you are in receipt of any loans or any imported meat products?
Do you intend to stay in this country longer than two minutes?
Do you intend to study anything that is not maths? Do you have a wife, husband or both?
Please sing the national anthem when I say the word 'Queen'
And answer the following questions:
why is Britain great?
why everywhere else is not so great?
what is the Anglo Saxon word for great?
do you wear red, white and blue underwear?
Please step this way
To see if you have answered all these questions truthfully,
we need to do a rectal examination. 

Philip Hammond, Chancer of the Exchequer

Philip Hammond (Chancer of the Exchequer) explained on Today programme that the Tories will invest government money in productive areas of the economy like transport and housing and this will bring growth and jobs.

Reminder: Hammond is a Tory. What he said is classic mainstream Labour economics. I'm not one to say that this either works or not works. It's not socialism. It's the state pump priming bits of the economy. What's odd is that a) it's Tories saying this (having attacked this view for years) and b) that they think putting money into things like transport and housing is of itself suspect because it's rather 'public use' sort of stuff...


Of course, when challlenged on this, Hammond said that it was nothing like Labour.

Then he said that the point about leaving the EU is that it would enable them to 'control immigration'. Nick Robinson pointed out that that might mean that exactly the same number of migrants might come to the UK. Hammond didn't deny this.

I take this to mean that the main purpose of going on about migrants is to shore up political power by constantly talking about migrants as 'the problem' when quite clearly some people in government don't think they are.

ON both counts, Hammond does indeed go down as the Chancer of the Exchequer.

It's not going to be grammar schools of the 1950s. It's going to be all-out war between schools.

We have to be clear that what the Tories are unleashing in their schools policy is not a state-directed 11+ Grammar-Sec Mod system. It's going to be a local, devil-take-the-hindmost, hand-to-hand fighting between schools. One school in an area will announce that it's going to be selective. Another school will say 'Therefore, so will we!' Then the other schools will all say, 'We have no choice, it's not what we wanted, but we're going to be selective.' There will be local turf wars over what kind of selection, what kind of selection procedures - academic, aptitude or whatever. Schools will stop co-co-operating and start doing whatever it takes to get pupils.


This is really important when we're thinking about strategy on how to fight this. The Tories will say, 'This is not us 'deciding' this. It's the localities. It's 'free' choice.' They will say, 'We choose between Sainsbury's and Tesco's so why shouldn't we choose between schools? That's why we get the 'best' food shops.'


This will neatly wipe out the difference between buying food and being selected for an education. The analogy would be if we tried to choose between Sainsbury's and Tesco but Mr Entrance-guy stood on the door and only let in people he said could come in.

The politician is listening to concerns...

.The politician is listening to concerns
so though he is in favour of equal pay
he thinks that slightly less equal pay would be reasonable.
The politician is listening to concerns
so though he thinks there is no point in spending billions
on nuclear weapons
he thinks that spending a bit less on nuclear weapons
would be reasonable
The politician is listening to concerns
so though he is against selection in secondary schools
he thinks that some selection in selected area
would be reasonable
The politician is listening to concerns
so though he thinks that migration is not the cause of
worsening living standards
he think that he should say that migration is the cause of
worsening living standards
The politician is listening to concerns so though he is against capital punishment he thinks that partial execution would be reasonable
The politician is listening to concerns.