Saw fertile Kentish farmland, where orchards used to grow;
No apples now, just houses, in their hundreds, row on row:
We leave our towns to them, my dear,
We leave our towns to them.
Saw a mighty crowd of people, on a march to stop a war;
At least a million in Hyde Park, and elsewhere many more:
The number Blair's let in, my dear,
The number Blair's let in.
Heard politicians argue migrants come for England's good;
They work and integrate in peace, pay taxes as they should:
We can but hope they're right, my dear,
We can but hope they're right.
Saw a class of thirty children, from the migrant part of town;
"Just eight of them speak English", said their teacher with a frown:
Our schools will have to cope, my dear,
Our schools will have to cope.
Saw a doctor's busy clinic, giving drugs for HIV;
No patient there was English, so far as I could see:
But we must pay the bills, my dear,
But we must pay the bills.
Saw rap-cracked Caribbean gangs with guns and drugs to sell;
They kill and terrorise their turf, no witness dares to tell:
No law unto themselves, my dear,
No law unto themselves.
Saw a teenage Polish street-girl getting in a punter's car;
The money that she gets goes to her pimp, a Kosovar:
We bombed the Serbs for him, my dear,
We bombed the Serbs for him.
"I threw my passport in the sea" said Khalid (from Iraq);
"If they can't tell from where you came, it's hard to send you back":
It's not as Auden thought, my dear,
It's not as Auden thought.
Planes hijacked by armed Afghans land their children and their wives;
"If you send us back to Kabul we shall surely lose our lives":
We take them at their word, my dear,
We take them at their word.
Saw a stop-eyed Mullah ranting "Muslims! fight God's holy wars;
The unbelievers round you, kill, and paradise is yours!": *
He's talking about us, my dear,
He's talking about us.
Saw wealthy lawyers dining, heard the toast and loud applause;
"Human rights and immigration, our most lawyer-friendly laws":
Our taxes pay their fees, my dear,
Our taxes pay their fees.
Heard Runnymede declare "Your British flag and nation's dead;
Our vibrant new communities want none of that", they said:
Why did they settle here, my dear?
Why did they settle here?
Saw a Liberal wag his finger as he solemnly adjured;
"Community, not colony, - use no offensive word":
Plain talk is thought-crime now, my dear,
Plain talk is thought-crime now.
Had a vision of the conflicts in the future Labour's planned;
Two women in one kitchen, and two cultures in one land:
They just don't want to think, my dear,
They just don't want to think.
This Sceptr'd Isle, our Earthly Realm, - are English folk asleep?
What we won't cherish and protect we can't expect to keep:
It's time to say "Enough", my dear,
It's time to say "Enough".
That ancient Latin proverb still speaks with common sense;
Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first of all dements:
Do we just say Amen, my dear?
Do we just say Amen?
From http://www.bnp.org.uk/culture/poetry/2004_march.htm