Quite a lovely poem it is.
I do wonder about this verse:
“And his mother goes to meetings,
While his father pulls the maid,
And she stirs the tea with councilors,
While discussing foreign trade,
And she passes looks, as well as bills
At every suave young man”
Is “pulls the maid” some British slang for sex?
And the Mom seems to be political but what does “bills” refer to?
Dennis
This colonial’s interpretation: Dad is shagging the help while Mother is attempting to. By bribery if necessary.
Screwing the help? Perish the thought! She’s paying for the company of young gentlemen who can at least play the part. Third sons and all.
I familiar with the phrase as in something like “did you pull that bird last night?” Means something like seduce, “get with,” bed, anything in that general spectrum. ETA: something like “pick up” in US English, perhaps.
Going out “on the pull” is going out looking for a hookup; saying his father pulls the maid is, yep, dad shagging the maid while mum’s out of the house.
“She passes looks as well as bills” is her flirting while passing bills - bills as in legislation, not bills as in dollar bills.
That’s what I thought at first. But then the “every suave young man” doesn’t connect.
Dennis
I am not familiar with the song but there is an anomaly in the language - probably artistic license.
‘Councillors’ would typically mean local government officials. The lowest form of government and people who rule on local issues. Think rubbish collection and traffic management.
In real life they might might well discuss ‘foreign trade’ in terms of encouraging a foreign company to bulld a factory to boost the local economy. But the initial connotation of ‘councillors’ is to mean low level, local matters.
However the reference to ‘passing bills’ (creating leglislation) would usually apply to central government (who would typically be called ‘ministers’ or ‘MPs’ rather than ‘councillors’).
So my guess is ‘bills’ could be a poetic choice mixing a political term and also a slang term for money.
TCMF-2L
I think the family described in the song is meant to be pretentious, so it could be that we’re meant to think the mother is the sort of person who would discuss foreign trade without understanding how much interest or influence local officials had over such things.
“Councillor” is a local government official.
“Councelor” or “Councellor” is a high-ranking diplomat.
The spelling in the OP could go either way.
I always sang along using the phrase “while his father paws the maid.” Guess I made a mondegreen.
Local councils also pass bills in the form of Bye-laws
I am going to take a guess and say yes…:smack:
I was eleven when that song came out, as green and inexperienced as an altar boy could be, and it never occurred to me that the notes were anything but banknotes or mash notes, and though I didn’t know what gigolos did besides provide companionship, I knew those suave, young men were not on the local council. Since I can’t have the good rolleyes emoji back I will need to use my words and ask where you people get these ideas. 
And a woman of her class could discuss foreign trade seriously, from a proper Tory standpoint, while tittering daintily because she is only a woman. Though better than the rest.
ETA: Added a wink instead of the crap rolleyes because I don’t really want to sound that hostile. Or snobby.