Flight From The Land

My son I worked my native land with energy and pride.
Until the Europeans came along and pushed us all aside.
They said there would be wars no more and food we’d have galore.
With lakes of wine and mountains of beef and butter in cold store.
There would be no small prices intervention would be the floor.

Now the farmers they got conned and they dropped the older ways.
With herbicides and pesticides and all those harmful sprays.
Production was surely boosted with a big cheque in the post.
To pay for all this new machinery that came flooding to our coast.

They said the masses must be fed but the masses now wont eat
The quantity was good you see but the quality was weak.
Antibiotics Brucellosis B.S.E. and T.B.
The latter to eradicate is not a cup of tea.
Pain killer drugs will do the trick and the lumps you will not see.

Their plans they worked right gallantly, the figures tell the tale.
Of food there was an abundance in every shop and sale.
We’re told that just a while ago, of your wages you had to pay.
One third for all the food you had to eat each day.
True this is now cut to half, how ‘twas done we’ve got to ponder.
Sharp practice in the market place, create a great big surplus.
With a big cheque in the post, Ah NOW YOU SEE ITS PURPOSE.

They brought the Friesians and Holstein the Shorthorn had to go.
Those scrawny black and whites and angel dust to make them grow.
They said production must keep rising, Net Nitrate was the key.
And when the gas was pumped ashore we didn’t need the honey bee.

Any wonder we had an energy crises, then short cuts they had to take.
They didn’t cook the meat and bone meal, Son this was a bad mistake.
The ould cows are now reacting, any wonder when we see.
The pressure that was put on them brought on the B.S.E.

Thousands now have left the land, your dad is one of those.
Your mother too God rest her she fell on the polluted ground.
She fainted in her anguish with isolation all around.

They tell us by the year 2010 we’ll have herds of 500 cows.
2000 acres of barley and about 5000 sows.
Energy demands have now gone soaring through the sky.
A bomb goes off in the Gulf and all the oil wells run dry.
Ah sure, unforeseen things always happen, same old story oe’r and oe’r.
From the Suez crises in 56 to the bad weather in 74.
The collapse of communism and the fall of the Berlin wall.
Compare to what comes next me boy the B.S.E. might seem quiet small.

The concrete jungle unsustainable with no energy supply.
Cant pump the sewage from the streets can’t make the aeroplanes fly.
Could we not have seen this coming, or are we all so blind.
In our bid to make a fortune we’re going to poison all mankind.

Some politicians are short sighted, they’ve got to take the short term view.
Or else they’ll not get elected in maybe a month or two.
The cost they don’t consider, they’ve spent £20b. of EU funds now.
On top of that in twenty years they’ve borrowed £30b. WOW.

Some got rich and some are trying Son I hope not you.
Our kids will have to pay for this and not the rich and well-heeled few.
Their motto would appear to be and this is seeping through.
Their greedy minds ask the question, what did posterity ever do for me or you.

But maybe all’s not lost yet if you read between the lines.
Let the people out there know what’s happening and all might change their minds.
Yates is right, knows what he’s talking about, That man should take a bow.
Eat good young beef ten times a week and dump all those elephants of ould cows.

Broiler meat is bad for you, whoever is to gain.
And anything that’s locked up like that, like the cows they cant be sane.
What’s the animal rights lads thinking of, or are they all gone to sleep.
Since the processors stopped working , there hasn’t been a sound.
Are they all gone mad too or have they just gone to ground.
Oh, I’m terrible suspicious, I watch them like a hawk.
Looks like they are waiting for the glut to pass and again they’ll start to talk.

But Sonny we’ll be back alright when on themselves they ketch a grip.
And like our forefathers after this little rest we’ll be fighting fit.
But never again must we have waste for the sake of over-production.
It’s a crime when there’s global want, stops short of self-destruction.

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