Empire

He sits around all day watching videos of blokes hitting each other on the internet

He likes it

So he presses a button on his phone

It's a little heart

It's acknowledgement

It makes him feel good, and that's fine, so it should

He's my mate, that's great

He changes the picture in his profile every now and then

Queen's birthday, come on England

No fuss, no problem

He acknowledges applause for politicians on doorsteps for kicking other people off other peoples doorsteps, and I wince

He applauds

He red raw applauds

He says we are the Empire

And God will save us all

In the Empire

And you're rubber necking wreckage by the roadside

Beeps and swearing

Silence the sirens

Get a fucking move on, things to fucking do

Got my work to get to, so fuck you and fuck them too

And you're working out who done what

Then they scrape 'em up and the traffic flows, the feeling goes

Weeks later there's roadside flowers, and your gut takes a hit

Until a fucking little shit cuts you up at the roundabout, makes you late for work by a little bit

And you shout

And you shout

And I shout

I shout

I shout because it's all I've got left

I shout because I'm tired of this shit

This lack of compassion

Governmental hypocrite

Their actions need a reaction and for me this is it

In the Empire

Empire

We live on an island full of poppies and crosses

Union Jack carrots

Flagpoles in the sand

Rewritten history, industrial wastelands

The pub's back open so no one cares

As the camera pans to billionaires, high fiving in the crowd, loud and proud

The streets are decorated like VE fucking Day

But migrant kids are too scared to go out and play, and I stand back and watch everyone else fight

Just remember my former imperial might

God save the fucking Queen and hold my pint

In the Empire

Empire

Empire

But we didn't level up, we levelled through

Still the rich get richer, so you're fucked again too

And a new hope, a new haircut, a new fuck all

Won't tear down imagined blue or red walls

Because we are the Empire

Either death throes or a swan song

But where, but where, but where did it go wrong?

So blame the young, blame the old

Blame foreigners, equality, decency, Labour, blame Tories, blame monarchy, blame history, the lot

Just start by saying you're sorry for every fucking thing you've got

In the Empire

Empire

Empire