Anthem for Sunday

Saturday, 9 November 2002

John Quiggin's posting of another left-wing hit of yestteryear gives me the perfect excuse to dredge up this little ditty from my own past which pays tribute to the political effectiveness of lefties of the Trotskyite persuasion. To the tune of "Ten Green Bottles" it goes like this:

One Trot faction, meeting in the hall,
One Trot faction, meeting in the hall,
And if one Trot faction should have a nasty brawl,
There'll be two Trot factions, meeting in the hall.

Two Trot factions, meeting in the hall,
Two Trot factions, meeting in the hall,
And if two Trot factions should have a nasty brawl,
There'll be four Trot factions, meeting in the hall ...

There's supposed to be a last verse eventually, but most renditions I recall went on ad nauseam - or at least until none of the singers could seriously contemplate that there were enough Trotskyites in the world to make up the factions. Let's face it, the notion of eight thousand one hundred and ninety two Trotskyite factions meeting in the same hall does defy credulity a little - unless you admit the possibility of a mass outbreak of severe multiple personality disorder which, upon reflection, is not all that far-fetched. But by the time you get to a hundred and twenty eight it's stopped scanning properly and the joke has pretty much worn off.

Update: (Friday, 6 December) I've just been trolling my archives looking for this item and it hasn't been showing on the site. Maybe Mike Moore is innocent.