OK, I'm going to pick a quarrel on that point.
You can say many things about Billy Bragg's lyrics, but that they are intelligent is not one of them, in my frank opinion.
Take "Between the Wars", a song I love very, very much. As for the lyrics, you can laud its committment, dedication, poetical qualities and other things besides, But taken as a statement about what it purports to be about, I would say it is deficient to the point of downright stupidity. As far as I can tell, he's angry at the government for re-arming against Hitler, as if it was still 1932 and it was all about avoiding a re-run of the first world war. He's paying wistful homage to the anti-war sentiment of the 20s and early 30s, as if that didn't turn out to be disastrously misguided. It was understandable at the time after the carnage of the trenches of the great war, but by the 1980s you'd think he'd noticed Auschwitz and put 1+1 together. I know, obviously he had, but then why write a song that argues that arming to confront that evil was inherently contrary to working class interests and idealism? Does he think Hitler would have let him keep his green fields and factory floors in peace? Then again, maybe as a historian I am hearing it differently from other people.
Great song though, as long as you don't think too much about the lyric.
cheers