Downmarket - David Ford

I stacked my cards against salvation

Put my life in dirty hands

Burned my clothes and jumped the border

Into some broken promised land

This whole world’s a competition

And we’re all fighting to the end

With not a soul above suspicion

Of my position to defend

These are the spoils of evolution

This is the wisdom that prevailed

This is the history we’ve chosen

Tried and tested, broke and failed

But unrelenting of momentum

The mercenaries marching on

So what if it didn’t work in practice

We’ve got a theory holding strong

This little piggy went to market

Screamed the injustice cannot be

So give me death or give me freedom

But don’t you put no chains on me

Go tell the jailer to break these shackles

Tell the watchman turn your back

Stoke the fires on the money train

And watch her jump the tracks

Cut a swathe across the city

Carving out some great divide

Until the only aspiration will be

To reach the other side

And what you leave can slowly wither

And those you leave can go to hell

Those fools should all be dreaming bigger

Throwing their pennies to the well

Well I say a plague on all your houses

Sell a generation cheap

Just to put 9 figures in your pocket

And say 'what's mine is mine to keep'

Stash it away in some secret island

Far from the prying eyes and ears

And the bony fingers of the taxman

And all his Marxist scrutineers

Come on throw the money up the ladder

And tear the heart out of the town

Do everything you can to block up the pipe

So that nothing trickles down

And when the house is left in ruins

Swear to God it’s structurally sound

Oh yes we’re all in this together

But some are further from the ground