Were you around back in nineteen sixty two

I mean mentally aware and not just alive?

Then these lines may mean something to you

With their tale of political duck and dive.

 

Back then the Common Market in question

Comprised a total nation tally of six,

But even then there was the suggestion

That we could face a "political fix" (read "tricks").

 

Lord "Clem" Attlee annoyed the Tories in government

By accusing them bluntly in the House of Lords

Of forsaking the Commonwealth with Common Market intent  

When, in time of world war, they had lent us their swords,

 

And a correspondent to a newspaper wrote in some heat

That as a Tory he'd vote Labour without hesitation

Better a few years of socialism he'd rather meet

Than be linked to the Continent's political domination.

 

Now, nearly fifty years on, the UK tide has receded

From the political domination that he had foreseen

Perhaps those years of stealthy deceit were needed

All endured without mandate in the time in between.

 

And just as this happens the distant Maldives

Requests re-admission to the Commonwealth fold

Freed from previous political abuse of their lives

With a democratic return to this order of old.

 

Their request duly granted, let us drink to the health

Of the fifty plus nations now increased by one

Of a great institution still called the Commonwealth

That remained friends and allies despite what was done.

 

Let us look to the future as our history moves on

And stay friends with its peoples now we have departed

That political project perceived in a time now long gone;

Let us be up for a new challenge - and never down-hearted!

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