English - Nerina Pallot

Oh you’d love to be English

And all you think it is —

The Queen and her Guards taking tea

But the hatred and the bigotry won’t go away…

No Blacks, no Irish, bring no dogs —

The shame of being something other than the same as everyone else…

Well, I don’t want to be like you

But my skin is so pale, my manner so fine

You think that I am just like you…

And you’re frightened to travel

'Till you make the world look just the same as home

While your kids buy guns and shoot their friends

And die alone…

No mind, no judgment lets you take the blame

«Send those bloody strangers back from where they came»

Does that mean me too???

Or my Mother in her small red coat

Stepping off the boat

Doing jobs you’re too damn lazy to…

All this greatness gone to waste

You hide your eyes and turn your face and

Nothing ever changes no

Nothing ever changes

So keep your bulldogs

Keep your flags

Cause talk is cheap and

Time will drag and

Nothing ever changes — no

Nothing ever changes…

I will always be English

And all I hope it is

These shores that I will claim as my own

This broken down Jerusalem

Is still my home…