Money an Island

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The Apopalyptics take on tax-dodging multi-national corporations

Lyrics: Money on an island © O.McEldowney/D.Cole 2012

You can keep your money on an island
You can keep your money safe from prying eyes
You can keep your money on an island
You can keep your money out of sight
Bet your money on it!

Tax havens, let me name some:
Jersey, and the Caymans
And in general British islands,
And on Europe's mainland,
Luxembourg and some Swiss cantons,
Crooks just love the City of London,
Hush hush, mum's the word
Like it were full of masons or

Delaware in the USA, man,
Running money from Venezuela,
Sometimes these places paid more,
Than their working neighbours
They use their populations
As their labour
They use their infrastructures
And their education

But services? Nah, they don't pay for them,
So you can see the state they're in
An honest boss pays a heavy burden but
Not for these corporations,
These float-from-place-to-place-men,
With their government mates, then
Who dream of when one day they
Can join them in tax havens!

You can keep your money on an island
You can keep your money safe from prying eyes
You can keep your money on an island
You can keep your money out of sight
Bet your money on it!

Tax avoiders, let me blame some
Petrol, trendy net search engines,
News moguls, big bank conmen
Phone providers swap them
Tax write-off for boys' club - trap dumb
Animals with lap-dance and some
Champagne on a yacht attracts them
So-called politicians

Big pop stars (while artists starve)
Buy boats to go rave in
Show Hello, their kitsch locations,
Half-Batcave, half-gymnasium
Hypocrite: debt victims pay them
Compensation
Drug dealers sent to heaven
-----
Some people take cash just to survive
Or just to keep a small business alive or
To get gifts for their loved ones
Ah, but this is different!
We're not talking about fiddling a form nor
Taking sixty quid's benefit fraud, no
We're talking about stealing six billion
From sick children!

And let's not mention,
Large countries' tax exemptions,
Banks who ask no questions
Dictators come to them from
Crass corruption to Paris or London,
No great investment,
They live but they don't pay rent
And it ain't sent back home

When business fails, who pays for it?
That's right, the taxpayers!
When business booms, who benefits?
That's right, they just take it!
What without even paying,
A small percentage, a small donation?
For all the help we gave them?
Nope, that's tax havens!

You can keep your money on an island
You can keep your money safe from prying eyes
You can keep your money on an island
You can keep your money out of sight
Bet your money on it!


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