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Listening to a Sinead O'Connor album on the train has got me thinking about England. The album was Collaborations and the song was 'Empire' originally a track on the very excellent album Clear by Bomb the Bass. Sinead sings it with the man who really should be Poet Laureate, Benjamin Zephaniah. The lyrics are as damning a statement about colonialism as you will ever hear.

Vampire, you're feed on the life of a pure heart
Vampire, you suck the life of goodness
Yes
Vampire, you're feed on the life of a pure heart
Vampire you suck the life of goodness

From now on I'll call you England

I've been racking my brains trying to think of other Anti-English tunes. I'm restricting this field to songs by non-English people as I've got no time for liberal self-loathing. Therefore no Genesis 'Selling England by the Pound', no Alabama 3, no Chumbawumba, no Flying Pickets. It also rules out (most of) the Pogues. Unfortunately, I haven't come up with many so far and they have been Celtic in origin.

From the Waterboys we have 'Old England' which charts the demise of a post-colonial master. I love this song although not for its sentiment as, deep down, I'm fiercely patriotic. I think I can spot a good tune when I hear it though. It's on the 'To the Sea' album which remains to this day one of the greatest albums ever written. I often wonder about this song and it's true meaning and whether I've properly understood its message.

The Proclaimers - Cap in Hand this time asks the question about Scottish Independence. A tad disingenuous in my opinion considering the disproportionate number of Scottish MPs, the white Elephant of Holyrood. It's often too easy to write off the Proclaimers as a novelty band but they come from a very fine Scottish folk tradition that has Fife at its heart. I think the Proclaimers are best experienced live so here they are from a Belgian tour in 2007.

To balance this out I'll also include a song about England from one of England's greatest songwriting talents. Laura Marling is precociously talented and this song is what can best be described as a love letter to her motherland. The album 'I Speak Because I Can' was a coming of age for Ms Marling and she is destined to be one of the great British female singers