Empire

When I was a child
I had an atlas and a globe
Colour-coded with the places
That we liked to say we owned
Now we've raised the drawbridge
And we're stuck here on our own
Trying to convince ourselves
We've taken back control

Shipwrecked on an island
Starving in the cold
Telling tales of how we used to run the world
In the glory old days of old
We laid our claim to all the countries
And we took everything they had
We shoved our gods right down their throats
And hoisted up our flag
And black lives just didn't matter
We could call them what we like
Kill off all the natives
When they dared to stand and fight

We took the gold and all the diamonds
From all the ancient kings
The marbles and the Moai
And all the precious things
Now we're wiping down the history
And hosing down the past
Cleaning all the blood stains off the flag
But it's getting kind of tattered
And it's just a coloured rag
The people rally round it
Cos the stuff we stole
We're never giving back
We're never giving back
Never ever giving back

We had an empire built on slavery
Brutality and lies
We conquered all the colonies
Cos god was on our side
It's a dark and shameful legacy
Of things we cannot hide
But the victors are the ones who write
The history in the blood of those who died

We used to rule the waves
We used to say we were united
Now it's just a name we use
For something that got broken and divided

There's no hope and there's no glory left
For you to keep the dream alive
And we pretend it's still a kingdom
As another piece drops off it while dies

Now we're hosing down the history
And bleaching clean the pages of the past
And we fool ourselves to thinking
That this country will be great again at last

No-one wants to face the ugly truth
But everybody knows
This state of independence
Is the emperor's new clothes
It's just the emperor's new clothes
And everybody knows
He's not wearing any clothes