Come on, Labour!
Tell us where the country went
When Maggie promised individuality for everyone,
As though she did invent
And then bestow Free Will itself on all.
And do describe the gall her regime had
To asset strip the Brits with nasty tricks
That caused the very rip that Blair repaired in tokens
While he carved, bespoke, the Neoliberal Way
So effing deep, the bastards of today need no instruction
Come on, Labour!
Tell us why the grand construction of austerity
Is hogwash-speak
And shout about that money tree the BoE admits exists
And why it’s quite alright to use it
If it’s sensibly applied
To stuff like Capital Investment
In our national infrastructure –
Do explain how it is vital
For societal sustainment and prosperity
Come on, now, Labour!
Tell us how the spin of choice insults us
When it comes to the utilities
And health and education;
How the nearest school and hospital
Should be as good as every other;
How we should have ownership of things that everybody needs from one day to another
Or occasions of emergency.
And say that public service is a noble cause
And how it costs us less if it’s collectively resourced
Because the act of pooling risk is sensible
And ultimately cheaper to afford
And that the end reward becomes
More evenly assured.
Say how the vision of a well-run State provision serves us all
And that, as much as it ties everyone to shared responsibility
It also gifts a stress less space for individual liberty
Oh, Labour call a halt to this cruel, arbitr’y assault
On any easy demographic.
Name and shame all those who undermine the fabric of society
By splitting all and sundry into categoric lines
And why and how the welfare bill has climbed to plug the gap
Between employer and the neo-serf and profiteering landlord.
Say you’ll cap the corporate ilk that milks us
In the name of phoney isms and expose free market fraud
That grows this top-down corporate socialism;
How this scam is propped up by the tax of those,
Now lucky few who earn enough
Come on, now, Labour!
Tell us there’s no need for all this tough-guy act;
How rare it is, in fact,
For those in need to shun an actual, proper, decent opportunity
And how, if those in government
Have done their own job properly,
There will be plenty chance to work
And that unnecessary, cruddy, blanket threats as policy
Are ignorance and fear
Turned to the useful shirking of a regime’s liabilities
Oh, come on, Labour!
Tell us how Democracy has been usurped
By corporate stealth and bankster wealth
That each successive government
And many of our institutions aid
With so much cynical collusion
And complete contempt
For nearly every British voice
For years and years
Until, our freedoms, hopes, good faith and rights
Are recklessly diminished.
Come on, Labour: tell it like it really is –
Allay my fears and speak for me
Or risk that you are rightly finished.
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