Charity

As the Charity Department at the Treasury

Dispenses licenses so you can do one too

The Ethiopians are running out of weaponry

So their leaders stock it up instead of food

And charity begins at home

So get out on the streets

And help the refugees

And the manager of E.M.I. technology

Seems reluctant to discuss his business deals

Cos the weapon sales are paying for his meals

He'll go to withering heights

To keep it out of sight

Profit! Weaponry doesn't feed refugees

It's a hit! McCartney's saying please on T.V.'s royalties to feed the world with guns

Wembley Stadium forever on the video

And a million spent to raise that sixty more

Nothing ever quite as big as this before

And it broke our hearts

As it topped the charts

But when the overkill exploited the reality

We forgot the facts and revelled in the noise

We didn't see that while we had the voice

Companies and laws were pulling vocal chords

If the western world was less obsessed with property

And the need to keep it safe with threats of war

Then the third world wouldn't need a war economy

That we're supplying at a cost they can't afford

So we buy up all their crops and grain

And sell it back again

When there ain't no rain

And have a big campaign

Using famous names

And as the penny drops

Into the Oxfam box

Take off the V.A.T.

Then call it charity

And the public think the government is wonderful

For promoting our assistance to the poor

But their profits are a whole lot more

They create the need to feed the refugees

And delegate the guilty feeling to the public eye

Via pictures of starvation on T.V.

And get the public conscience back out on the streets

With the empty tins

And little flags on pins

Lets call it charity

Lets call it charity

Make it pay!