Election Special Number 3

'This is a public service announcement.... with guitars!'

Just about as good a way to start a song, or blog posting, as any.

Neil Kinnock, in 1983, speaking about the re-election of Margaret Thatcher:

'I warn you that you will have pain- when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance-when talents and wit are wasted, and learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty- when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by government. I warn you will be cold when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford. I warn you not to expect work... I warn you that you will be quiet-when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old.'

Substitute Thatcher for Cameron.


Joe Strummer 'Know Your Rights'

'You have the right not to be killed
Murder is a crime!
Unless it was done by a
Policeman or an aristocrat


You have the right to food money
Providing of course you
Don't mind a little
Humiliation, investigation
And if you cross your fingers
Rehabilitation

You have the right to free speech
As long as you're not
Dumb enough to actually try it

Know your rights
These are your rights

It has been suggested in some quarters
That this is not enough
Well...
Get off the streets

Know your rights'

This song led to a two hour stand up row in the studio between Mick and Paul about the level of the bass, which Mick admitted years later no-one would ever notice.

I'm not suggesting that the Labour Government have been that good- civil liberty campaigners argue we've got fewer rights and more surveillance than most people in many countries around the world, rights curtailed and surveillance introduced by a Labour government. One million people protested against going to war in Iraq and they did it anyway. I'm not suggesting Joe would have even considered voting for Gordon Brown. Maybe he'd be right. But we've got the right to vote, so let's get out there and do it.

01 Know Your Rights.wma