YORK FIGHTS BACK

YORK FIGHTS BACK

The Men In Suits came to our city’s old walls

Armed with suspicious grins.  We all knew what was in store.

They tried to get into the city but the gate was shut

We said:  “You’ll pardon us if we don’t fully trust

But we remember Vikings and we remember Romans

We remember Dick Turpin, Guy Fawkes and Queen Vic

But we also remember non-magical money tricks.”

But the Men In Suits just smiled like vultures

Told us they had big plans for our town’s future

Promised shiny new hospitals worth every penny,

(though maybe not available to the smelly many)

Schools vastly improved at only slight expense,

(though maybe not everyone will access the contents)

Take the ‘Holiday’ out of Holiday Camp when it comes to prisons,

Sell off contracts, people and property with veiled good intentions.

But we knew we could not let our town be bought and slowly die

And as one we all replied in a mighty cry:

“You’ll turn Clifford’s Tower into one giant CCTV camera

Set up a base of operations in the crypt of the Minster

And if we disagree you’ll chain us up in the Dungeons.

What you’ll do to the Museum Gardens doesn’t even deserve a mention,

And we’re the most haunted city in Europe, but you’ll make it a real ghost town.

You’ll bulldoze every decent pub except you won’t knock The Willow down.”

Well the mask had slipped, the Men In Suits cursed and swore

As they tried feebly to batter down our gates and doors,

But were forced to bring their mercenary army to bear.

Armed with spears, axes, swords and hefty cleavers

They said “we’re going to chop your city and carve it up

And what we don’t hack, we’ll suck out all the blood

From your little town.  All its little history

Will still remain, but without a future of opportunity.

It’ll be our little quaint museum piece of peace,

A pretty little town sold and lulled to gentle sleep.

All those battles will be confined to the long forgotten past.

Any form of spirit kept firmly in a museum under glass.”

We (the people on the walls and the people in the roads

The people in the parks, in the pubs, in our homes)

Who had built the Minster, the Tower, the city walls

Knew this city was our home, these streets belong to us all.

So the cry went out from this old city fuelled by the past

Proving this spark and this community was built to last:

“You buy it, you break it

This city’s not for taking

We demand a future as well as a past

As One Voice Let Cry: York Fights Back”

Listen online at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMP_92K7iO4