Where on Earth is Our Welfare State?

Politicians
Who don’t come from here
Fight for our votes
Before heading off there
To London
To fight with each other
To be Ministers (well a few)
To tell their civil servants
Who've certainly never been here
How to make things better here
To pay their friends in business
(Who they'll go and work for... when their time is up)
(And who certainly don't pay their taxes here)
To go and deliver services here
To make their profits here
But not to spend it here
And to ensure
All our problems still remain here
So they can keep their jobs, their pensions and their houses
There, wherever that is,
Certainly not here

While all the time
What we really need
Here
Is a welfare state that is based
Here
Run from
Here
Where local people
Solve local problems
Where local doctors
And local nurses
Run our NHS
Here
Where local teachers
And local families
Run our schools
Here
Where citizens
Run their own communities here

What will it take?
To get our power back
Here
To get our belief back
Here
Here, where we belong