I have revisted this because I never did get round to learning the song but have now promised myself to do so by next February. Should be long enough to soak in, even to my addled brain :-D

I pasted the words into a document and then listened to the song as Martin sang it on "Ringing the Changes". Orac got it very close but there are one or two minor corrections below -

I NEVER KNEW
(Martin Hall)

As I ponder all the troubles that beset me left and right
Where to find that extra money, where to book the cheapest flight
There are people out there looking for a box to spend the night in
But I’m sure they brought it all upon themselves
For how could they be so hapless, why don't they get a job?
If they'd anything about them they'd be out and make a bob
Instead of squandering their lives in the squalor and the rain
It's not my fault, I never knew, I'm not to blame

Chorus
I never knew, I never knew of all the suffering and pain
I never heard the cries of countless starving children to my shame
I never saw the mushroom cloud, I never felt the acid rain
I never knew, I never knew, I’m not to blame

As I sit and watch the evening news it makes me feel quite sad
There are wars and famine everywhere, the world had gone quite mad
And even as I stare our fighters strafe and bomb Baghdad
Trying to kill a man that once we called our friend
But our friend was only money; it was greed that brought us here
For there's billions to be made from selling weapons, peddling fear
And our governments denounce that they are playing age old games
They didn't know, it wasn't them, they're not to blame

Chorus

There are wide and fertile oceans or so we're often told
But the trawlers overfish them and the whalers brave the cold
And icy seas to hunt the whale although there's nothing for them there
That can't be made in factories on the shore
In the jungles, on the prairies Mother Nature holds her breath
All the animals should fear us; our expansion means their death
And when they are all gone and recalled only by name
Will we cry we never knew, we're not to blame?

Chorus

So the factories spew their toxins and pollute the air we breathe
Pump our rivers full of slurry yet no punishment receive
For tomorrow never comes, the price to pay will not be ours
If we turn our backs it might just go away
As the forests are depleted and the tarns and lakes stagnate
As the ozone just grows thinner will we wait till it’s too late
To redress the natural balance, contemplate another way
It has to stop, it can't go on we mustn't say

Chorus

We never saw the mushroom cloud, we never felt the acid rain
We never knew, of course we do, we're all to blame

One I had to smile about was "tarns and lakes" being misheard as "towns and lakes". My cousin from Australia on a visit some years back went to Malham with me. I kept promising a view of Malham Tarn and when we got there he was very confused. He thought tarn was my odd way of saying town :-)