Union Songs
Mal Brough
A song by John Tomlinson©2006 John TomlinsonWho wants to be a hooligan
when you can be a fool again?
Why would you be a ruffian
when you can be a Broughian?
Never have to think things through.
Just claim that your ideas are new,
that you are the first to see it true
and plagiarise what others knew.
You won't ever have to lift the veil.
Nor ever ask why some things fail.
Just say that it's beyond the pale
and you have found the holy grail.
Who wants to be a hooligan
when you can be a fool again?
Why would you be a ruffian
when you can be a Broughian?
Aborigines are the ones to blame
and though it is an awful shame
that you alone can light the flame
and in the heat will anguish tame.
Say that the Land Rights cause is lost
and you've counted up the cost,
you've spoken to the Holy Ghost
and now it's time to eat the host.
Who wants to be a hooligan
when you can be a fool again?
Why would you be a ruffian
when you can be a Broughian?
Ideas come and concepts go
just a part of the ebb and flow,
some never ask why it is so,
but their culture has to go.
It was not invasion but settlement
white civilisation - heaven sent
it could be a lasting monument
if Aborigines would just repent.Who wants to be a hooligan
when you can be a fool again?
Why would you be a ruffian
when you can be a Broughian?
Notes
Many thanks to John Tomlinson and Penny Harrison for permission to add this song to the Union Songs collection.
John writes: "all is well in Howardville - well - as well as can be expected"
union songs..........a selection by mark gregory