The country was in turmoil With new crises by the hour When one in three were out of work The Party swept to power As life returned to normal Law and order won the day While all our rights and liberties Were voted clean away They were cynical and ruthless They'd manipulate the news And smear or persecute the few Who dared to leak the truth Opponents had their phone tapped And campaigners felt the heat With terror suspects accidentally Gunned down in the street But the radio and papers said The same thing every day The government is wonderful The country's doing great And if someone else was suffering They'd got themselves to blame Don't say if you were in our shoes You wouldn't do the same And say We didn't know what was going on We didn't know what was going on From Tel Aviv to Cape Town From Shanghai to East Berlin From Washington to Panama The years have come and been From Delhi to Sri Lanka From Whitehall to Coleraine The times may be a-changing But the story's still the same 'Cause the radio and papers say The same thing every day The government is wonderful The country's doing great And if someone else is suffering They've got themselves to blame Don't say now you are in our shoes That you won't do the same And say We didn't know what was going on We didn't know what was going on