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Scots Students Sing Protest Carols
Christmas carols are part of life in December in most of the Christian world. Wearing Santa hats, students from Edinburgh University Students’ Association gathered Wednesday night to sing outside Holyrood, where the Scottish Assembly does it work. Given that the budget offered by First Minister Alex Salmond offered £30 million rather than the £168 million the university principals wanted to stay even with England’s universities, no one should have been surprised that the students took a few liberties with the lyrics.
Josh MacAlister, president of Edinburgh University Students' Association, told The Scotsman, “The reality of this disappointing deal means that it will be difficult to maintain, let alone increase, plans to widen access to higher education. There could also be a potential freeze on places, which is a real knock to the aspirations of those students studying for their Highers [entrance exams similar to England’s A-levels] across Scotland at the moment. Scrapping the graduate endowment was a welcome move - but we've yet to see what the SNP [ruling Scottish National Party] are going to do to encourage less privileged students into education. What's needed is better bursaries and support that allow potential students to access higher education in the first place.”
With that in mind, “Deck the Halls” went like this:
Alex Salmond's yuletide folly/Fa la la la la, la la la la
He stole all our uni's money/Fa la la la la, la la la la
See the funding gap before us/Fa la la la la, la la la la
Students come and join the chorus/Fa la la la la, la la la la
Education for the masses/Fa la la la la, la la la la
Hail the new, ye lads and lasses/Fa la la la la, la la la la
Here's another broken promise/Fa la la la la, la la la la
Heed the cuts that Alex brought us/Fa la la la la, la la la la
And “Silent Night” was altered to read:
Silent night, holy night/All is sad, all is shite,
They don't care about students no more/Here we are left hungry and poor
How do you sleep at night?/How do you sleep at night?
Silent night, holy night/Students quake at the sight
Uni funding is way below par/One three eight million's been cut so far
How do you sleep at night?/How do you sleep at night?
Silent night, holy night/Alex Salmond's full of spite
Can he take that smug smile off his face?/The way he treats us is such a disgrace
How do you sleep at night?/How do you sleep at night?
Not a bad way to get one’s point across, and the tradition is a long one. In 1889, Jim Connel altered the lyrics to “Oh Tannenbaum” and thus the socialist anthem “The Red Flag” came to be.
The people's flag is deepest red,/It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,/Their hearts' blood dyed its ev'ry fold.
Chorus
Then raise the scarlet standard high./Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,/We'll keep the red flag flying here.
As an early present, this journal will spare the reader the remaining 5 verses.
© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.
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