The Home Front Lyrics - Billy Bragg

Father mows the lawn and Mother peels the potatoes 

Grandma lays the table alone 

And adjusts a photograph of the unknown soldier 

In this Holy of Holies, the Home 

And from the TV an unwatched voice 

Suggests the answer is to plant more trees 

The scrawl on the wall says what about the workers 

And the voice of the people says more salt please 

Mother shakes her head and reads aloud from the newspaper 

As Father puts another lock on the door 

And reflects upon the violent times that we are living in 

While chatting with the wife beater next door 

If paradise to you is cheap beer and overtime 

Home truths are easily missed 

Something that every football fan knows 

It only takes five fingers to form a fist 

And when it rains here it rains so hard 

But never hard enough to wash away the sorrow 

I'll trade my love today for a greater love tomorrow 

The lonely child looks out and dreams of independence 

From this family life sentence 

Mother sees but does not read the peeling posters 

And can't believe that there's a world to be won 

But in the public schools and in the public houses 

The Battle of Britain goes on 

The constant promise of jam tomorrow 

Is the New Breed's litany and verse 

If it takes another war to fill the churches of England 

Then the world the meek inherit, what will it be worth