The Right To Reply

The house looks for an answer to end all the violence
The ungovernable finally break silence
There's endless white papers and new institutions
That still won't stop us, it's no solution

The right and the left wing continue to bore
With pre dated policies all heard before
This is mankind now see how mankind kills
Now we are hitting back hard and you see how it feels

They preach and teach examinational tests
So, the political privileged can order the rest
Of the young parasites who live in a world without hope
To get back in line, and stay there, then assure us they will cope

In the new violent Britain, they pledge to invest
In skills and communities with renewed interest
To build schools of education, not colleges of crime
A manifesto so perfectly timed
Providing help for the helpless, their new commissions strive
For a stable reeducated society by 1995

Meanwhile, we fight on in desperation still trying to break through
Their barriers of insanity and even now they know it's true
That to eradicate violence effectively, injustice has to unfold
But, instead they choose to compensate, to lie and then collaborate
No interest in any true debate, their courts set up the offender's fate
The new secure units for the old custodial sentence

Well we have listened to you for long enough, taken all your threats and you ain't so tough
You intimidate then punish the persistent hard core offender
You condemn more and understand less; so you will get no apologies ever
In an atmosphere of moral panic, you blame us for fighting back
But it's us that has been dragged through your streets backwards, battered shell shocked and attacked

The pressure's building on law and order, but we ain't even started
They may think that they have been tested, but no way, for we still stand divided
More and more, we're turning against our own, how come? How have we forgot?
That this is the one thing they want us to do, to compensate for the freedom we ain't got

Some mug old folk and these are scum
It's the one main thing that just isn't done
We can deal perfectly with our own problems
By taking the law into our hands
We can protect our own, young, the weak and elderly
And therefore smash their callous plans

I shall not work to build my death, nor have decisions made by fools for my or your behalf
As though I can't see or hear that which surrounds me
As though I'm quite content with all that, disgusts me
I will not build for another's gain, although it always ends up the same
It's as though I can't see or hear, as though I'm content, with everything that disgusts me

How can they talk about low life, whilst they're destroying the earth?
How can they take away someone's freedom, when they don't know what it's worth?
To the people with feelings, to those not totally succeeding
Those, shattered, torn, ripped right in half, and whose broken hearts are bleeding

Yet still they bash and batter, to them, mad onslaught does not matter
They create society's whitewashed picture that everything is alright
Then when people voice opinion and object, they show disgust,
confusion and then demonstrate their might

Don't you dare think for a moment, that it's only in a riot that we show we are discontent?
It is with every so-called criminal act that we demonstrate our contempt
You shove your outstanding promises, your respect; I only have respect for life
That you destroy time and time again, then dismiss in your stride

I'm still hoping for the hopeless and making excuses for the lawless