My nan crossed water.

My dad crossed rain.

My mum crossed every question at the border gate.

I was born here.

That should be the end of it.

Island of strangers, Starmer said it on the floor

Island of strangers, my dad cleaned the corridor

Strange how the stranger held the country through the cold

Island of strangers, that's the story never told

Say stranger like they didn't hear the accent build the road

Braverman said swamp, then Starmer echoed strain

Close your eyes and guess which mouth is selling the pain

Same headline, different party, still the same old shame

Red tie, blue tie, they're both hunting the same game

The Sun don't need a policy, the fear sells itself

Every boat that crosses moves more papers off the shelf

September, Farage's march, six figures in the street

Misinformation dressed in boots with army feet

Southport. July. The feed filled up.

Twenty-seven million posts before they checked the name

He wasn't from a hotel, nothing like what they said

Just a boy from Cardiff but the hotels took the blame

Rotherham that August, somebody's nan sleeps scared

Twenty years on the estate, three stamps to prove she's there

The bouncer runs the border like he owns the whole club

The fire always knows exactly which door stays locked

Island of strangers, Starmer said it on the floor

Island of strangers, my dad cleaned the corridor

Strange how the stranger held the country through the cold

Island of strangers, that's the story never told

Say stranger like they didn't hear the accent build the road

He left with just a photograph sewn into his coat

Iranian on paper but the Channel don't check notes

The water's forty-three miles wide and doesn't hold a grudge

The tide don't ask your paperwork before you start to judge

July, Starmer flew to Paris, shook hands on the deal

One in, one out, a nightclub bouncer working for the reel

Four deported in the first three months, they called it done

He was number three, got France, then caught another one

Not the gangs that brought him back, no traffickers involved

Just a man who couldn't stay somewhere left unresolved

They logged him interchangeable

A unit in a brief

The Channel's forty-three miles back

It doesn't charge a fee

The paper called him a number, the water called him cold

You can't deport a destination, that's the truth he told

Island of strangers, Starmer said it on the floor

Island of strangers, my dad cleaned the corridor

Strange how the stranger held the country through the cold

Island of strangers, that's the story never told

Say stranger like they didn't hear the accent build the road

I was born in Birmingham, my mum came here by plane

She brought plantain and patience to a flat on Smethwick Lane

My dad grafted twenty years in a ward on the night rounds

They called him key worker when the country hit the ground

I'm watching Rotherham on a cracked phone in the heat

The crowd outside the hotel gates, I recognise the street

The flags they're holdin', I can see the eyes inside those frames

My mum is in the kitchen, I don't want to say its name

Yvette Cooper said small boats, Starmer said the same

Labour crossed the floor and brought the tabloid in the frame

Strange how power always finds the same address to knock

Island of strangers, Mum, what did they call your block?

Strange.

I've got a British passport and a Birmingham postcode

The island was always full of strangers, that's the note

I was born here to be called it

Island of strangers, Starmer said it on the floor

Island of strangers, my dad cleaned the corridor

Strange how the stranger held the country through the cold

Island of strangers, that's the story never told

Say stranger like they didn't hear the accent build the road

The Channel is forty-three miles and doesn't count the cost

The file says interchangeable, the water says who's lost

Four in three months, one came back, the headline barely blinked

The policy keeps sailing, never stops to think

Mum's in the kitchen, she hasn't seen the news

The British passport in the drawer's got my name on it too

Strange.