Once Thatcher sold our silver for a song
Our telephones, our water, power and steel
The vultures were not satisfied for long
They wanted snacks to follow up their meal
The public body’s stripped, its clothes torn off it
So next they chopped its limbs off piece by piece
And tossed them to the hounds that sought to profit
And let the corporate speculators feast
When Tony’s team took over, some expected
The public would throw off the private fetter
But, infatuated with the profit sector
Blair even boasted he would love it better
The private businesses were so elated
They organised a raid, a corporate carjack
And so it was Carillion was created
Delivered from the uterus of Tarmac
A cuckoo’s egg hatched in a public nest
It suckled at the bosom of our assets
And drew the warmth and grew against our breast
Our infrastructure gave it ready access
Its teeth sank into roads and railway stations
And student flats and bridges and school dinners
From hospitals to military bases
From birth to death the money-men the winners
So now it ends in sorry liquidation
With twenty thousand workers facing lay-offs
Its debts defaulted, costs fall on the nation
But top cats pocket millions in pay-offs
While one firm’s down, the system’s still in place –
Called PFI or PPP, whatever –
It’s time to end the scam and close the case
And stop the golden gravy train forever
So now, we all can see that we’ve been had
We see through weasel words from robber bands
Their mantra: private good and public bad
Ours: public services in public hands
