Everything is turning upside down in this town
The crime rate's rising up as employment swoops down
Kids can't trust their parents to protect them no more
And if you're black or Irish you just can't trust the law

Winos on the corner with no hope and no plan
Kids on 5 quid drug deals waiting for their man
Estates in states of chaos, hatred scrawled on the walls
The men of law and order writhe about on the floor
No-one dreams of living, those hopes lie on the rocks
Your newly detached heaven is a cardboard box

[Chorus:]
And it seems
And it seems
Someone's used the cosh and the country's on its knees
Someone's used the cosh and the country's on its knees

Old folk freeze to death in flats where damp streams down the walls
Poll tax bailiffs scream unheard in countless council halls
Plans for new development that never cure the mess
Benefits that won't be paid unless you've an address
No-one dreams of living, those hopes lie on the rocks
Your newly detached heaven is a cardboard box

Our Welfare State's collapsing
And no-one seems to care
As long as money's being made
And profits there to share
Buy into a service that
Belonged to you and me
Soon you'll find our country
Is the UK pic

No-one dreams of living, those hopes lie on the rocks
Your newly detached heaven is a cardboard box

[Chorus:]
Down on its knees
Down on its knees
Someone's used the Cosh
The country's down on it's knees
Down on it's knees
Down on it's knees ... And it seems ...

[Chorus]