Transcribed from listening to the track on Business As Usual, 1994.

Merrie Old England – Roy Bailey (?)

G                      C            G
Summer is over, the rain turns to sleet,
      G                      C         D
The ghost of a pensioner’s, day trip retreat
G                      C          G
The new age was over, before it began,
         G                   C          D
And it’s business as usual in merrie old England,
         G                     C         D    G
And it’s business as usual in merrie old England,

You can’t trust the princes to show us the way,
Us peasants get left with some bill we can’t pay,
The hole in the heart, the cash in the hand,

The minster’s smooth talk, chancellors lie,
Lovely Nancy goes of on the game to get by,
The runaway orphans sleep rough in the strand,

The family silver plate, goes for antique,
The car boot sale bargains, the don’t last a week
After the joy ride the rag and bone man,

G                  C          G
These days, you can’t find a pattern,
C                      G
Just because you don’t see it,
C                   D
don’t mean it don’t happen,

Your a long way from heaven, damn close to hell,
With the second hand shit that the old hippies sell,
You can paint what you like on the old caravan,

Something still dances, just out of your sight,
It’s a voice from the well,It’s a trick of the light,
Something like water, you hold in your hand,

* Posting here because when I went looking I couldn't find lyrics anywhere. Not 100% sure that Roy wrote this, as I found a reference
in No. 56 of Wood and Water (Wood and Water - No. 56 ) that suggested at least part of the lyrics are by Rob Johnson.