The plan had been to put Margaret Thatcher's face with a Nazi swastika on the cover of The Clash's EP, The Cost Of Living on the day in May 1979 that she won the British General Election. At the last minute, the band went instead with an image of a soap powder box. In December of that year, they released the single 'London Calling' which featured lead singer Joe Strummer singing dire warnings about what he saw as the Iron Lady's apocalyptic policies which would lead to riots and police brutality: "War is declared/We ain't got no swing, except for the ring of the truncheon thing."