A children's nursery rhyme about Blair's Iraq war lies, won first prize...

[sabra]

http://www.borsa-italia.net/article21464.html

A CHILDREN'S nursery rhyme about Tony Blair lying over the war in Iraq has won first prize in a nationwide competition to find the best new children's verse for the millennium. 'Baker Tony’s Pizza' is seemingly about a pizza maker but in traditional "nursery rhyme-style" has clear political undertones.It tells the story of a dishonest baker called Tony who makes children cry by cooking them a horrible pizza containing sawdust and red dye - but claiming it is cheese and tomato...

[JohnyCanuck]

1. Baker Tony's Pizza:

Baker Tony baked a pizza
very round and thin
He said he added olives
but he never put them in

The stuff that he had grated
and sprinkled on to please
was only yellow sawdust
although he called it cheese
the rich tomato topping
was nothing more than dye
so Baker Tony’s pizza made all the children cry

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=OM1917725H

[sabra]

2. thanks for the link!

now I can see why it won first prize :-)

[rocktivity]

3. Here it is

Baker Tony baked a pizza
very round and thin
He said he added olives
but he never put them in

The stuff that he had grated
and sprinkled on to please
was only yellow sawdust
although he called it cheese
the rich tomato topping
was nothing more than dye
so Baker Tony’s pizza made all the children cry

:rofl:
rocknation

[Boomer]

4. In the tradition of many so-called "children's" songs

Many songs now remembered as silly nursery rhymes began as political statements and satire. For instance, there's this song about plague and death:

"Ring around the Rosy
Pocket full of Posy
Ashes, Ashes,
We all Fall Down"

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Which is a nice story, but almost certainly not true

http://www.snopes.com/language/literary/rosie.htm

No-one even wrote the rhyme down until 1881. No-one suggested the plague reference until the 1960s.

Similarly, I used to be told that "Hickory, dickory, dock" referred to Richard Cromwell, the ineffectual son of Oliver Cromwell, who had one year as Lord Protector of England, but was so bad they asked for a king back again (hence "the clock struck one, the mouse ran down"). But there's no evidence for the rhyme before 1744, and many other ideas (such as that it's a simple counting rhyme).

[Boomer]

6. Thanks for the reference

I'd always accepted the historical origins as an accurate folklorist reference.

[daninthemoon]

7. What do you suppose it's about then? I believe the plague story.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. It's probably a nonsense rhyme

See, for instance, http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/amroth/RATR/versions.html . The work by the Opies is fascinating - I'd recommend it.

[daninthemoon]

8. Thanks for the link. Quite nice.