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Lyrics for both Chumbawamba tracks on the "Dig This" compilation
The lyrics to "The Police Have Been Wonderful" are written and spoken by Margaret Thatcher (with a little editing). It is a sorta-kinda dance song (sort of, not really), and Fitzwilliam is a Piano/Vocal piece, very melodic and "pretty".
Here's the "blurb" about this music from the Chumba website: "FORWARD 002 CHUMBAWAMBA "The Police Have Been Wonderful" & "Fitzwilliam" on "Dig This" LP '85
Subtitled "A Tribute To The Great Strike", this album featured The Ex, Mekons and Poison Girls amongst others. Dedicated to the British miners who went on strike during 1984 and 1985. The Chumbawamba songs are both home-recorded demos; The first one uses crude loops and samples in a foretaste of later dance-based stuff."
The Police Have Been Wonderful
Most of us who have watched the scenes on television have only the highest praise for the police. They indeed have kept the right of miners to go to work open, and they've done it marvelously.
The police have been wonderful. The police have been wonderful. The police have been wonderful. The police have been wonderful.
Our institutions of justice, the courts, and the police, require the unswerving support of every law-abiding citizen. I think it totally and utterly false... totally and utterly false... totally and utterly false... to cast a slur on the police and the superb way in which they have handled this dispute.
The police have been wonderful. The police have been wonderful. The police have been wonderful. The police have been wonderful.
If there are individual complaints about policemen, there's a well-established machinery to pursue them, and that is why British justice is renowned across the world. It seems that there are some who are out to destroy any properly elected government-they are out to bring down the framework of law. That is what we have seen in this strike.
Fitzwilliam
Smiles for the cameras as the miners return
Twelve months of bribery, twelve months of lies
Attacked in the village, attacked in the courts
Woman and woman in opposing extremes
Smiles for the cameras as the miners return
Cage and canary are left in the mine
They say no one has lost and no one has gained
But wiser and stronger the people have changed
And it won't be the same in the village again
Cops in the village to truncheon your bride
Scabs down the back roads to break up the strike
Come out of your houses--there's a war on outside
Sacked for refusing to bow to their lords
Less than a whisper from Commons and Lords
Retreats from the front when they most need support
Between man-made heaven and popular dreams
Between twisted detachment and learning to breathe
One locks the prison one sets herself free
They say no one has lost and no one has gained
But wiser and stronger the people have changed
And it won't be the same in Fitzwilliam again
Canary still sings as machinery dies
Song breaks the bars which imprison its life
Flies from the big shop and into the skies