We are Little Britain

Give me your answer
The bee is buzzing the rings are fastened
To the belt
The bells jingle
Like a thousand questions
That I've already answered before
Such silly dances these folk give
Without wanting to be twee
We British can't make a serious suggestion
Or connection with tradition
Which hasn't already been mocked
Or flogged to death on a debating floor
But over in Europe,
The individual is filled with somekind of power
Invested with some awe
By us British
Except the ones who are trying to rip them off
Make money from their children in summer schools

They have this otherness value that shields them
Like a shawl, a cloak of invisibility
If not of impenetrability
Which means everything they say has this extra weight
Even the everyday utterances
Even some cultural reference to a folk tradition
Is revered
But not in Britain,
Not about British traditions
Now let's be fair we mean the English
Scottish traditions have this cloak of protection
As do the Welsh and don't mention the Irish
But mention the English and it is quaint
Or silly or small and provincial
Though fiercely defended in the village
In the towns and cities they laugh and sneer
At such exhibitions of little england
Those little threads that tie
communities together
if that itself is not a clichéd or kitch concept