The Last Living Rose Lyrics

Lyric discussion by yurig 

Cover art for The Last Living Rose lyrics by PJ Harvey

what does she mean the thames river was hastily sold for nothing?

The line about selling gold hastily for nothing is an attack on Gordon Brown who did exactly that while he was Chancellor.

From Wikipedia:

Between 1999 and 2002 Brown sold 60% of the UK's gold reserves shortly before gold entered a protracted bull market, since nicknamed by dealers as Brown Bottom. The official reason for selling the gold reserves was to reduce the portfolio risk of the UK's reserves by diversifying away from gold. The UK eventually sold about 395 tons of gold over 17 auctions from July 1999 to March 2002, at an average price of about US$275 per...

@yurig She said it was glistening like gold hastily sold for nothing. The Thames wasn't sold. The gold sold for nothing is a simile for the way the river was glistening,

@yurig London was the hub and nerve centre of the British Empire. We plundered the the riches flowed back to London like a golden river.

As some others have said this is also a rebuttal to Gordon Brown's sale of some of Britain's gold reserve. He was criticised for selling too much, too soon and therefore deflating the price.

However, I would also take that line to refer to the privatisation (sale) of many national industries that started under Thatcher's era - she sold the majority - and continued through to the present time. Similarly, Thatcher has been criticised...