I’ve been too consumed with my own stuff for the past week or ten days to even pay proper attention, let alone write coherently about the extraordinary events occurring across the more downtrodden and out-of-the way sections of London over the past week. But (via my friend Dave Von Ebers), this post by Londoner Penny Red does as good a job as any of talking beyond the “simply unacceptable” or “lawless thugs” bromides of Cameron and much of the world media.
And reading it reminded me, instantly and vividly, of this:
(lyrics here – but here’s a taste):
Theres a field full of slaves Some corn and some debt Theres a ditch full of bodies Tha check for the rent Theres a tap, tha phone, tha silence of stone The numb black screen That be feelin like home And the riot be the rhyme of the unheard (. . .) There's a mass without roofs There's a prison to fill There's a countrys soul that reads post no bills There's a strike and a line of cops outside of tha mill There's a right to obey And a right to kill Calm like a bomb!