The People's Flag is Palest Pink
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The People's Flag is Palest Pink, also known as The Red Flag Once A Year or the Battle Hymn of the New Socialist Party, is a parody of the song The Red Flag.
It is intended to satirise the lack of socialist principles in the British Labour Party. It long predates the reforms associated with Tony Blair. It was widely known in the 1970s, sometimes sung during late night parties at student conferences. Versions of this song have been recorded and released at least twice by singer/songwriter Leon Rosselson under the title of "Battle Hymn of the New Socialist Party" between the late 1960s and the early 2000s and he may claim credit for authorship of the song.[1]
It is sung to the tune Tannenbaum. There are variants, but it runs something like this:-
- The people's flag is palest pink
- It's not the colour you might think
- White collar workers stand and cheer
- The Labour government is here
- We'll change the country bit by bit
- So nobody will notice it
- And just to show that we're sincere
- We'll sing The Red Flag once a year
- The cloth cap and the wollen scarf
- Are images outdated
- For we're the party's avant garde
- And we are educated
- So raise the rolled umbrella high
- The college scarf, the old school tie
- And just to show that we're sincere
- We'll sing The Red Flag once a year
