The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #16153   Message #874567
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
25-Jan-03 - 09:23 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Jingo Song / Macdermott's War Song
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: We don't want to fight
Interestingly there was a piece in the Times of London not so long ago actually directly extolling jingoism as appropriate at this time, and quoting that song:

"Jingoism has become synonymous in the public mind with bellicose adventurism. But when the word first emerged, it encapsulated the essence of prudent foreign policy. In the words of the music-hall song which inspired the phrase: 'We don't want to fight, but, by jingo if we do, we've got the ships, we've got the men, we've got the money too.' And in that raucous chorus there lies more wisdom than in most contemporary pronouncements on foreign affairs."

I lifted that quote from this site which has a bit more about the circumstances that lay behind that song, as well as other stuff thta is of current relevance..