A Britsh reggae and ska band has zoomed to Number 4 in the UK Official Charts with their viral protest song, Liar Liar GE2017. The catchy song takes on the British Prime Minister Theresa May and her Conservative Party, just before Thursday’s elections, bringing up poverty in the UK, which May has often been criticised for overlooking.
The cleverly-produced video combines clips of her speeches, news reports, shots of other conservative politicians like the American President Donald Trump and former UK Prime Minister David Cameron, interspersed with lyrics like:
We all know politicians like telling lies
Big ones, little ones, porky pies
Saying they’re strong, and stable, won’t disguise
We’re still being taken for a ride
Nurses going hungry, schools in decline
I don’t recognize this broken country of mine
They’re having a laugh, let’s show them the door then
Cut the rich, not the poorShe’s a liar liar
Ohhh
she’s a liar liar
No you can’t trust her
No no no nooI want to have a government that
Doesn’t think that fascism is where it’s at
Whilst putting the mother of all bombs
Into tiny hands will go very wrong
I’m hoping for a future for my child
Where she can grow and feel inspired
Do everything in your power you can
People rising up is the only plan
Captain Ska’s founder – trumpet player and producer Jake Painter – had originally released the song in 2010, to protest against the coalition government led by Cameron. The band remixed it ahead of the general election to bring it into context.
Despite being banned on radio shows because of impartiality rules, the video of the number has more than 2.5 million views and more than 45,000 likes on YouTube, and was the second-most downloaded track on iTunes.
“Well, I’ve heard bits of it and to be perfectly honest I’m not very happy about it,” May said about the track. “I don’t much like it, I don’t think anybody would when they heard a song about themselves like that.”
The band appears to be determined in their protest against May, and will be performing live, recording a mass sing-along of the song on Wednesday, at Brixton Jamm in South London.
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