Nigel Farage's Visit To Scotland And Ukip's 'Pish' Mocked In Steve Byrne's 'Lament' Ballad

Farage's Scotland's Visit Ukip's 'Pish' Mocked In Scots Ballad

One of the musicians who runs a singing club in Canons' Gait, the pub in which Nigel Farage was locked after being mobbed by angry protesters in Edinburgh, has penned a ballad about the furore.

The lyrics, written by Steve Byrne, relate the news report in with the personality and style of traditional Scots song. Called "Lament on the predicament of the Member of the European Parliament for South East England" after a brief introduction, the action begins.

"So he stuck oot his hand and he tried fir a cab.

The driver took one look and then he took aff!

He said "Nae chance Nigel, I'll no tak yer far,

I've heard aa the pish that ye spout on the air!"

.. By this time the telly and meedja'd arrived

Oh whit wid he dae? How wid Nigel survive?

Auld Reike's famed polis cam up wi a plan

They'd tak him awa in the back o a van"

The Lament in full

Nigel Farage and Ukip get their come-uppence in the final verses too. The song continues:

"For in Scotland we've aye been a civilised crew;

If ye look oot fir me, then I'll look oot fir you!

Dinna come tae Auld Reikie, a-spreadin yer muck,

Ye'll soon find the locals will get ye tae.... "

And as for Farage's accusations that the protesters themselves were racist? Byrne deals with that in the final stanza.

"Be ye English or Pole or Romanian or Jute

If ye bide here it's your hame, o that hae nae doot!

So think on auld Nigel and be shair taek tak note

next year when ye ging oot and cast yer Yes vote!"

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Picture courtesy of Political Editor of the Scottish Daily Mail Alan Roden

Byrne, whose traditional singing club at the Canons' Gait, is called The World's Room or Seòmar an t-Saoghail, told the Huffington Post UK: "We had a regular club night scheduled for the Friday evening, so it seemed like an appropriate thing to do.

"Historically the area around the Canongate and the Netherbow on the Royal Mile is where the "Edinburgh Mob" would chastise public figures whether it be the Marquess of Queensberry in the 1700s, or Burke and Hare, so the Farage incident's continuation of that particular tradition wasn't lost on us!

"I found the episode to have a certain air of comedy around it, albeit with a serious message beneath, and the song reflects that. I was inspired in part by the tradition of folk like Hamish Henderson, Thurso Berwick, Johnny McEvoy and co, who were involved in writing protests songs in the 1950s and '60s surrounding various issues, such as the anti-Polaris campaign.

"The song itself uses an old tune known as "Villikins and his Dinah", used by Johnny McEvoy for his song "The Wee Magic Stane" about the capture of the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey in the 1950s.

"I've tried to follow the tongue-in-cheek mickey-taking tone of McEvoy's song, in a way to take a bit of the sting out of the overheated rhetoric that was being bandied about."

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