"Poor Dear" by Ian Stanton

This song was written by Ian Stanton for the 3-part 1994 BBC documentary "Poor Dear", presented by Sian Vasey, which was about how the big disability charities actually do more harm than good for disabled people, and featured several other well-known figures in the Disabled People's Movement and Disability Studies, including Ken Lumb, Mike Oliver, Len Barton and Tom Shakespeare.
 

Music is slow acoustic guitar and keyboards. 

Poor Dear

Song by Ian Stanton

Charity, charity, charity knocks
Smiling so gratefully, rattling the pots
Selling you distance, spilling the pot
Does anyone care where it goes?

Charity, charity, charity knocks
Millions, billions, charity’s pot
Changing society – well, not a lot...
Are we still in need, do you suppose?

Society’s plaster
To heal all the fractures
A band-aid to cover the soul

Poor dear
Never be your poor dear
Poor dear
Never be your poor dear

Charity, charity, charity knocks
Streets full of posters, trading my luck
More helpless, appealing? Better to chuck
One more agency’s image will glow

Charity, charity, charity knocks
Using my image to get what you’ve got
An object of charity – that I am not!
And I’ll make sure that everyone knows

I know my own mind
I know the storyline
I’ve been by here before

Poor dear
Never be your poor dear
Poor dear
Never be your poor dear

Charity, charity, charity knocks
Poking my person, probing my thoughts
All for normality – normal is what?
Somehow they never will say

Charity, charity, charity knocks
Cure the poor cripples, cause them to walk
Everyone’s able to see, walk and talk
Except the failures, and they’re locked away

Do I trust in your science?
Feed your reliance
On me as the object? No!

Poor dear
Never be your poor dear
Poor dear
Never be your poor dear
Poor dear
Never be your poor dear
Poor dear