Career Opportunities
"The offered me the office, offered me the shop
They said I'd better take anything they'd got
Do you wanna make tea at the BBC?
Do you wanna be, do you really wanna be a cop?
Career opportunities are the ones that never knocked
Every job they offer you is to keep you out the dock...
What "dock" are they referring to? Was it the union controlled ports, or the welfare roles? It might be the first of these and the song may be refer to a stratified union economy and welfare state.
The "Dock" referred to is the court system, I think.
From dictionary.com....noun: place in a courtroom where a prisoner is placed during trial.
idiom: in the dock, being tried in a court, especially a criminal court; on trial.
No. The dock they're referring to is the defendant's dock in court. They're saying that society offers dead end jobs to keep people from becoming criminals.
I've always thought the Clash's best conservative line was "If you find an Afghan rebel that the Moscow bullets missed, ask him what he thinks of voting Communist. Ask the Dalai Lama in the hills of Tibet, how many monks did the Chinese get?"
IIRC the Clash are a bit more conservative than the average band. When it comes to taxes they’re all conservatives.
“The dock” is slang for Criminal Court Docket.