with all the clarity of dream
the sky so blue, the grass so green
the rank and file and the navy blue
the deep and strong, the straight and true
the blue line they got the given sign
the belts and boots marched forward in time
the wood and the leather the club and shield
swept like a wave across the battlefield
now with all the clarity of dream
the blood so red, the grass so green
the gleam of spur on the chestnut flank
the cavalry did burst upon the ranks
oh the iron will and the iron hand
in england's green and pleasant land
no music for the shameful scene
that night they said it had even shocked the queen
well alas we've seen it all before
knights in armour, days for yore
the same old fears and the same old crimes
we haven't changed since ancient times
mit aller traumklarheit
der himmel so blau, das gras so grün
gewöhnliche soldaten und die marineblauen
die großen und starken, die aufrechten und getreuen
die blaue linie bekam das ausgemachte zeichen
die gürtel und stiefel marschierten im gleichschritt voran
holzstock und gummiknüppel und schild
fegten wie eine welle über das schlachtfeld
jetzt mit aller traumklarheit
das blut so rot, das gras so grün
der glanz der stacheln auf der kastanienseite
die kavallerie krachte auf die ränge
oh der eiserne wille und die eiserne hand
in englands grünem und angenehmen land
keine musik für die beschämende szene
diese nacht sagen sie, sei sogar die königin geschockt gewesen
gut leider haben wir alles schon früher erlebt
ritter in rüstung, in der vormaligen zeit
die gleichen alten ängste und die gleichen alten verbrechen
wir habens seit der Antike nicht geändert
The Battle of Orgreave is the name given to a confrontation between police and picketing miners at a British Steel coking plant in Orgreave, South Yorkshire, in 1984, during the UK miners' strike. In 1991, South Yorkshire Police were forced to pay out £500,000 to 39 miners who were arrested in the events at the Battle of Orgreave.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) organised a mass picket of Orgreave for 18 June 1984, with the intention of blockading the plant, and ideally forcing its temporary closure. Aware of the plans by means of MI5 infiltration, the police organised counter-measures.
http://www.shrewsbury24campaign.org.uk/2015/10/orgreave-truth-and-justice-campaign/
MK:
... it was a kind of riot, I suppose, that was a few years ago, during the miners' strike. I just happened to come home one night, and saw it on television; and I just got, er... I was shocked.
And the BBC said that night that the Queen was said to be 'shocked by today's scenes', and I thought 'well I'm shocked as well'. And the cavalry...it was the cavalry, it just seemed like an old-fashioned, an ancient battle scene. And it just seemed to me that that's not the way to resolve confrontations or disputes that, er... in Britain we have a tradition of resolving those kind of things in another way.
And I hope that we haven't had five hundred years of democracy for nothing. And it seemed to me to be a terrible shame to see men being damaged that way in such an ancient fashion - I mean it was medaeval. I'm not taking a left or a right view on it at all. Maybe there were some people there who wanted to 'overturn democracy', but there would have been no chance of doing that.
But most of those men were miners, just ordinary coal-miners, and miners have got one of the best industrial records going - they've only been on strike two or three times in their entire history. I'm not blaming individual policemen, because if you're a policeman you do what you're told - but it just seemed to me to be a shameful situation, to charge a bunch of coal-miners like that with horses; and it was such a military, militaristic operation, these foot-soldiers with shields, and parting in the middle and these horses just coming right through the gap. There's really got to be no place in our society, it seems to me, for anything like that - end of speech.
