"Between 1979 and 1983 something strange happened. The British government mutated from an annoying and often disreputable body, that spent people's taxes on the wrong things, into a hostile regime contempuous of anyone who did not serve or would not yield to its purpose. 'Work' was transformed from a right into a privileged reward....

"'Shipbuilding' started out as a piano melody composed by Clive Langer....I was leaving for an Australian tour with Clive's demo in my bag. The government was in the process of reversing their disastrous fortunes by springing to the defence of an obscure and obsolete Imperial coaling station and sheep farming outcrop. In as much as you can spring to the defence of The Falkland Islands when you are in the Northern Hemisphere and they are in the South Atlantic. Especially after the nincompoops in the Foreign Ministry have done everything possible to suggest to the particularly vicious junta in Argentina that their claim to 'Las Malvinas' might go unchallenged if they would only care to invade...Oh, what a lovely war. Except that it was never called 'A War.' It was always referred to as the 'Falklands Crisis' and later the 'Falklands Conflict.' Thank God CNN wasn't what it is today or we'd have had a theme tune and a logo overnight: 'South Atlantic Storm: The Falkland Countdown.'

By the time I reached Australia the bloody liberation was underway. I thought I'd seen it all in the British media coverage: grown men drooling over the hardware, the sick illusion of invincibility before HMS Sheffield was hit by an Exocet missile. The Sun's 'Gotcha' headline when 300 Argentine sailors drowned when the Belgrano went down, the construction of the odd heroic myth to cheer everyone up after a series of blunders that led to a pointless and brutal slaughter of Welsh Guards and of course the real star of the show: The Prime Minister [Margaret Thatcher] arriving on our screens each day as if directly from the theatrical costumiers. Sometimes as Boadicea. Sometimes as Britannia. Oh! I nearly forgot the raving lunatic who reared up from the Tory backbenches to suggest a nuclear attack on Buenos Aires. However none of this could prepare me for the depravity of the Australian tabloid coverage. To listen to them the 'Poms' were getting slaughtered Gallipoli-style and the 'Argies' were eating Falkland babies.

Most of the above was beyond words but the notion that this might really drag on and become a war of attrition seemed as believable as anything else. Ships were being lost. More ships would soon be needed."

- Elvis Costello, 2003

Note: "Stand Down Margaret" is a song by The English Beat. The first set of lyrics below are "Big Sister's Clothes," followed by "Stand Down Margaret."