With apologies to Noel Coward (1899-1973)

♫ To the tune of London Pride ♫

Cardiff shame has been foisted onto us.
Cardiff shame’s in the foul air we breathe.
Cardiff shame means an aching sense of loss,
And a rage that will always seethe.

Lo, lies are
Told by Council pharaohs,
Paymasters in the shadows with their greed piled high.

Oh, lies are
Echoed in the shallows,
Rightwing propaganda as Cardiffians cry.

Cardiff feet trod this ground through history.
Every street pinned a memory down.
Nothing’s sacred, there is no trace
Of our once lovely town.

There’s another breeze-block tower
Of ugly steel and glass
Looming over citizens
Who shrivel as they pass.
Rivers choked in plastic crap,
Dumb consumption’s to blame.
We who still care call it
Cardiff shame.

Cardiff shame has been bludgeoned into us.
Cardiff shame’s this toxic nuclear dump.
Cardiff shame means cancers thrive within us,
And a pain no gimmicks can trump.

Hey, people,
Why can’t you get housing
In a town that’s dancing to the hedge funds’ tune?

They profit
From all our suffering,
From tidal rivers now a dead lagoon.

Earth heats up and the Severn is rising,
Sea-level city is sinking down.
Unless growth comes to an end
Cardiff is doomed to drown.

In our city, butchered now,
All the well-loved places
Have been obliterated
For corporate spaces.
Ancestors’ toils all in vain,
Wales just a token name,
A British hostage,
Cardiff shame.

Cardiff shame humiliates all of us.
Cardiff’s shame is nature in retreat.
Cardiff shame is Green Belt robbed from us
For posh gated ghettos and concrete.

Clone city,
Arranged for crooks and whores
Blind to the struggles across a thousand years.

Blown city,
Plutocrats and pound stores
Trashing our heritage, to hell with our tears.

Everyone should resist with all their might,
From Ely Bridge to River Rhymni.
Nothing ever should benight
And shame Cardiff, Cymru.