Best Political Song’, Yet Many Political Insiders Have Never Heard It Sung

GOD GAVE THE Land TO THE PEOPLE THE LIBERal ‘Land SOng’ It is Britain’s ‘best political song’, yet many political insiders have never heard it sung. More than a century old, ‘The Land Song’ dates back to the glory days of Lloyd George Liberalism, and was revived from the 1960s by a new generation of Liberal radicals. History Workshop Journal editor Andrew United Whitehead pursues the Committee for song’s history, discovers the Taxation of Land its only commercial Values / Daily News song recording, and traces sheet, 1910 the song’s contemporary (reproduced courtesy echoes to the conference of Andrew Whitehead hotels of Bournemouth and Glasgow Caledonian and Liverpool. University) 26 Journal of Liberal History 76 Autumn 2012 GOD GAVE THE Land TO THE PEOPLE THE LIBERal ‘Land SOng’ hy should we be beg- hibernation at the end of the holi- about the Liberal song tradition, gars with the ballot in day season by attracting a party but my career took me away from Wour hand? God gave the conference. Although we imag- Westminster and party confer- land to the people! ine that the dominance of the two ences and my fleeting interest in These lines are the rousing cli- main parties has only recently been political song subsided. max to a song which is maintained, challenged, circa 1990 the caravan In September 2009, I headed by many who know it, to be Brit- of political correspondents rolled to the comfortable south-coast ain’s most stirring political anthem. relentlessly for weeks on end: the resort of Bournemouth, once again ‘The best political song I was ever Trades Union Congress, still a as a journalist, to attend my first taught to sing’, declared the for- ‘must attend’ event back then; two Liberal Democrat conference for mer leader of the Labour Party, centre-party gatherings, Liberals almost twenty years. I wondered Michael Foot. A radical anti-land- (later Liberal Democrats) and Social whether the Glee Club, hardly an lord song, it first became popular in Democrats; Labour; the Conserva- event to suggest a contemporary the Edwardian era and ‘stressed at tives; and sometimes a quick jaunt cutting edge, might have fallen the same time, in the same rhyth- north of the border to sample a victim to a party drive towards mic breath, the identity of the resurgent Scottish National Party. sobriety and the political centre real enemy and the means for his It was at this time that I first ground. It hadn’t. The evening was overthrow’.1 It was not a socialist came across the Liberal Demo- still organised by Liberator, a jour- song, however, but a liberal rally- crat Glee Club, a loud, late-night nal which regards itself as the dis- ing tune – and is still sung as such. and hugely well-attended revue ‘The best respectful, radical ginger group Every year, more than a century and ‘everybody join in’ evening of within Britain’s third-ranking after its heyday, ‘The Land Song’ song, skits, lampoons, and some political political party. As an aide to par- is the opening number at an event period pieces from the glory days ticipants, they publish a book of with good claim to be the country’s of liberal radicalism. Of these, song I was lyrics, underlining just how seri- best political sing-song, at the Glee ‘The Land Song’, rendered at a ously liberals, architects of commu- Club on the last night of the Liberal gallop to the tune of ‘Marching ever taught nity politics, take their community Democrats’ party conference. through Georgia’, was always the to sing’, singing. The 2009 edition was the My own familiarity with – first to be sung and the audience’s twentieth, ran to forty-eight pages, and indeed non-partisan affection favourite. Although I considered declared and had the words to more than for – ‘The Land Song’ dates back myself one of the political cogno- seventy songs. twenty years or more, to my time scenti, I had never come across this the former A little after ten o’clock at night, as a lobby correspondent. For sev- rousing song – nor, since my stu- the Glee Club got under way with eral years either side of the end of dent days at the ‘Greyhound’ on leader of the what those attending would regard the Thatcher era, I used to spend Oxford’s Gloucester Green, had without question as the liberal a large part of the autumn traips- I encountered a lively forum for Labour Party, anthem – a song almost completely ing around those seaside resorts political song. I did a little light unknown outside party ranks. The which had managed to stave off digging and feature reporting Michael Foot. words read: Journal of Liberal History 76 Autumn 2012 27 GOD gaVE THE land TO THE PEOPLE Sound the call for freedom boys, the items it contains. Those dat- and sound it far and wide, ing from the Liberals’ wilderness March along to victory for God years need little explanation: ‘Los- is on our side, ing Deposits’ sung to the tune of While the voice of nature thun- ‘Waltzing Matilda’, for instance. ders o’er the rising tide, Others are weary recognition of ‘God gave the land to the the effort involved in outreach poli- people!’ tics, such as ‘Climb Every Stair- case’ to the music of ‘Climb Every Chorus: The land, the land, ‘twas Mountain’. God who made the land, The swathe that date from the The land, the land, the ground convulsions and excitements of on which we stand, the rise of the SDP in the 1980s, in Why should we be beggars with alliance with the Liberals, some- the ballot in our hand? times need a little more context: God made the land for the ‘If you were the only Shirl in the people. world, and I were the only Woy’, for example, refers to two of the Hark the sound is spreading ‘gang of four’ prominent Labour from the East and from the defectors who founded the SDP, West, and later were prominent in the Why should we work hard and Liberal Democrats. The Glee Club let the landlords take the best? crowd tended to regard the Social Make them pay their taxes on Democrats as ‘soggies’, that is insuf- the land just like the rest, ficiently radical and too concerned The land was meant for the about their political careers. The people. alliance and subsequent merger prompted, a little like grit in the Clear the way for liberty, the oyster, some pearls of the modern land must all be free, satirical political song. Liberals will not falter from the Of ‘The Land Song’, the Libera- fight, tho’ stern it be, tor Song Book briefly records that its ’Til the flag we love so well will origins lay in the American land tax fly from sea to sea movement. ‘Liberals adopted the O’er the land that is free for the song in the two general elections of people. 1910, following the rejection by the House of Lords of Lloyd George’s The army now is marching on, 1909 People’s Budget, which pro- the battle to begin, posed a tax on land.’ That made the The standard now is raised on Bournemouth sing-song a cente- high to face the battle din, nary rendition. Revitalised by the We’ll never cease from fighting occasion, I sought to discover the ‘til victory we win, song’s inception, the extent of its And the land is free for the popularity among Lloyd George- people. era Liberal land campaigners, and the reasons for its restitution by It’s never sung sitting down. On Liberal radicals two generations the chorus words ‘the land’, those later in part as a statement of politi- assembled gently punch the air cal lineage. In the course of this – and as they sing ‘why should quest, I have come across the only we be beggars with the ballot in commercial recording of ‘The Land our hand’, everyone waves their Song’ – a 78-rpm disc from 1910. songbook as if an imaginary bal- What I have failed to understand is lot paper. As I left the Glee Club why such a resonant anthem, which at coming up to one o’clock in the evokes strong identification and morning, about 300 cheery confer- loyalty among those who still sing ence delegates were singing ‘The it, has such an inconspicuous place Land Song’ for a second time – in the winder pantheon of politi- there’s a video of a rather bacchana- cal song. lian rendition on You Tube. Any song so loved, so carefully nurtured as an emblem of radical- From Chicago to Trafalgar ism, must have quite a story. The Square Liberator Song Book provides, as The words of ‘The Land Song’ befits such a serious-minded move- appeared in a single-tax publica- ment, a brief historical note of all tion in Chicago in 1887. No author 28 Journal of Liberal History 76 Autumn 2012 GOD gaVE THE land TO THE PEOPLE was cited.2 It was to be sung to the revival of the last two decades of become a pamphleteer, a propa- tune of ‘Marching through Geor- the century.3 Henry Hyde Cham- gandist and a missionary. … Ever gia’, the stirring march composed a pion, an army officer who became since 1905 I have known ‘that there generation earlier at the end of the a key figure within the SDF and was a man from God, and his name American Civil War which quickly at the founding of the Independ- was Henry George’.

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