1058 - Views on the news

So what’s been in the news recently, then?
Seeing not much is happening with me?
And maybe that’s okay; it’s better when
Peace reigns, not war. I’m sure that you’d agree.
Talking of war, there’s been a lot lately
In the forgotten zone, Afghanistan
A few more British deaths and we soon see
Great interest, replacing lack of concern
Swine flu died a death, then resurrection
To the front page. MPs’ expenses? Gone,
Brushed under Westminster carpet quickly
Flush from their clean sweep in by-elections
The Tories bide their time. The time to spend
Is over for government. Not for me
Tue 28 July 2009

1022 - Demonstrating in the street

The summer's here and (yeah) the time is right
For demonstrating in the streets (again)
John Simpson always likes to catch a fight
That's why he's currently down in Tehran
Ah, those fond memories of Tiananmen
And seeing Saddam's statue toppling o'er
He loves his foreign travel, specially when
There's oppressed people dying on the floor
Who cares where it may be, or what it's for?
It's thrilling viewing each and every night
Forget the boring politics, rerun
That cellphone video you showed before
The one where that poor girl was hit and died
And for a while we'll care about Iran
Mon 22 June 2009

1016 - Just flu in from Mexico

A woman's died from swine flu in Scotland
And a colleague who sits two seats from me
Is going next month to the very land
Where the outbreak began, on holiday
Hey, let's go to Mexico, we all say
The rooms are cheap right now, the plane seats too
If you're fed up of fever caused by hay
Then Mexico's where you should fly for flu
Remember all those colds caught when you flew
On other, shorter flights? Well, when you land
Back in the UK, you'll say 'Excuse me...
I think I'm going to sneeze. A-a-achooooo!
If you don't want the bug, cover your hands
Not your face. Enjoy Mexico City!
Tue 16 June 2009

1009 - Brown nosers

So, Gordon says he will not walk away
That's no surprise, how he loves Number Ten
And cowardly ministers will let him stay
Maybe they don't want to be leader when
Labour gets kicked at the next election
Let Brown take the blame for the bad result
Labour backbenchers wanted something done
Faced with losing their seats, though that insult
Dished out by voters will be to the cult
Of Brown and his cronies, for the UK
Public can't elect or sack its PM.
Following their failure to catapult
Brown into the Thames, Labour must now pray
To the god Mandelson for redemption!
Tue 9 June 2009

1006 - Bad blood

D-Day’s 65th anniversary
Presidents and royalty viewed the graves
Sullied by a little controversy
That led to boos for Brown instead of waves
The Queen was not invited, and that leaves
Questions about France, why it snubbed Britain
And why Brown did nothing, but seems to heave
From one storm to another like the men
Who crossed the Channel, so young and fresh then,
Back in’44. Seems that Sarkozy
Wanted to pose with Obama by waves
Of Omaha Beach once red with fallen
American blood. Unfortunately,
Politicians just can’t seem to behave…
Sat 6 June 2009

1003 - Late night news summary

It’s nearly half-past one in the morning
I’ve been off work, at home most of the day
Then out in Yorkshire this sunny evening
To Hebden Bridge, to sing a song, and say
A poem; both went well. It’s a long way
To go and balls it up, after all. Saw
Live coverage of the House of Commons. They
Were lining up to slag off Gordon. Poor
Prime Minister (unelected). He swore
To end boom and bust, and to start cleaning,
Just like a broom, the dust of years away
Enacting all sorts of complex new law
He must finally now be regretting
Seizing power, without us getting a say
Wed 3 June 2009

991 - Hug a politician!

Stop! All of you stop! Now! It’s gone too far!
Poor politicians, they’re all feeling down
Because of this expenses blah blah blah
One MP, not some comedian or clown
Has warned of suicides! We must calm down
Leave them alone, or give them all a hug
Say diddums, pat their heads, wave them back down
To their second homes with their fancy rugs
And new mattresses… They can’t have bed bugs
Like us, can they? No! Down in Westminster
They deserve bedspreads of best eiderdown
To rest their heads from hours of claiming. Mugs
We are for stressing them out. Yes, we are!
They have more delicate brains than our own!
Fri 22 May 2009

988 - Everything hurts

Today I drifted semi-consciously
As the flu gripped, and relief was nowhere
As light spread, I slept with difficulty
Even breathing was hard, and it grew clear
I’d be off work again, but also there
Would be no energy even to read
Let alone play music, or leave my lair
I needed stimulation, and indeed
I got it, as the Speaker now agreed
To resign. Watched ‘Picture of Dorian Gray’
Then watched Gordon Brown trying to declare
He was ushering in the end of greed
Yet refusing to sack certain MPs
Right! Now I can slump once more in my chair…
Tue 19 May 2009

984 - Piggies

Those naughty old MPs, they've been found out
Oink oink, with all their snouts deep in the trough
It makes us feel so smart to scream and shout
It makes us feel superior to scoff
Just like they felt superior enough
To write their own rules, laugh at the taxman
Something I can't permit; tax fraud's a tough
One to accept, Hazel-eyed as I am
One fears that Blears and her ilk's milking scam
By t'good folk of Salford is OK - not!
Dirty old town, Westminster! The ride's rough
From here to the finishing post. They ran
For election as thoroughbreds. Truth's out!
They're all just piggies. Now we'll huff and puff....
Fri 15 May 2009

966 - What's going on 2

What’s going on? Well, there’s this new swine flu
South of the border, in old Mexico
A swine it is, too - it’s killed quite a few
The papers make out we’re all gonna go
And catch it… They exaggerate, you know
Of course they do. ‘We’re doomed!’ Maybe we’re not
But Gordon Brown is. Gord was snubbed; no-show
By Pakistani president. It’s hot
Over there and at home, where Gord has not
Got his way over expenses: a new
And stronger wave of opposition grows
Tories prepare for power, Labour plot
I can’t see Prime Minister Balls, can you?
Productivity at thirty-year low
Mon 27 Apr 2009

926 - The science of justice

I’m turning on the news at ten to see
If Josef Fritzl is the main story
Or is it again the economy
What else can compete? Only World War Three
Been at a discussion group (poetry)
To see if they liked my latest poem
And hear others and meet others like me
To see if they think like me, I like them
No, the main story is the conviction
That’s been quashed twenty-seven years on, free
At last. Good for him. Justice is dodgy
When it relies on barristers, those men
Who argue black is white sometimes. Now D
NA is his saviour, belatedly.
Wed 18 Mar 2009

923 - Hug a banker

It’s time to hug a banker, everyone
It’s time to hug a banker, show him love
Cos every banker is some mother’s son
Show mercy like gentle rain from above
It’s easy for us to say not enough
Was done to stop the crash; we’re all too thick
To understand all that financial stuff
Best leave it to him, best not take the mick
It’s just not fair to give him so much stick
You’ve hugged a hoodie like Dave Cameron
There’s someone else for whom life just got tough
Banker’s Relief! Let’s donate one gold brick
Each, paid for by tax rises, to his fund
It’s time to hug a banker, show him love
Sun 15 March 2009

922 - Lady Day

Woke up to see light streaming through the gap
Between curtain and wall, for the spring sun
Was waking me up early with a tap
On the eyelids. Turned the clock radio on
To hear the news just as it turned seven
Went for a leak and a book, having read
Marco Polo (again); Christine de Pizan
Her medieval aristocratic head
Wrapped round the insulting things always said
By men about women. Fifty page trap
‘City of Ladies’ turned into. Now done
With hopes of resumed slumber, out of bed
I clambered, lumbering to the wash tap
Today, those little jobs would all get done…
Sat 14 Mar 2009

894 - Happy alone

Tired last night, went to bed and fell asleep
Slept like a log, thank God, neighbours quiet
Valentine’s Day dawned, appointments to keep
With myself and work, no shortage of it
Started with the news, there’s no end to it
Watched a chart countdown, then football preview
Wrote fifteen pages of ‘Love At First Fright’
Then watched the football scores, as boys have to
Followed by rugby (Wales - England), then new
Songs written and recorded; been a steep
Learning curve, but getting there, bit by bit
Not bad when last month didn’t have a clue
I drank and smoked, and now to count some sheep
With Plato for my bedside reading shit!
Sat 14 Feb 2009

879 - There may be trouble ahead

They say the depression's gonna be bad
And Britain's depression the worst of all
This talk of depression could make us sad
Depressed, even, finances in freefall
The bankers caused it, then they had the gall
To ask us all to bail them out again
They lent too freely, now they lend fuck all
Will shares and property rise? If so, when?
My tracker mortgage, so cheap by year's end
Is costlier, my two year deal's been had
Not even worth transferring, I've checked all
Available deals again and again
Thank God I didn't buy that detached pad
In Wilmslow, just before the house price fall!
Fri 30 Jan 2009

854 - Annie Lennox get your gun

Israel should not be invading Gaza
But Gaza should not be firing rockets
Israel should not have walled up the frontier
But Arabs should not become terrorists
The west should not have aided Zionists
The Arabs should not be hostile to them
They should not mind their imposed homelessness
Disputes should end over Jerusalem
The Crusades should not have ever been sent
Muslims should not have left Arabia
Christians should not have spread out to the west
Jews should not have had land promised to them
People should not move to land that’s better
They should stay trapped in poor oppressed pockets
Mon 5 Jan 2009

846 - Read all about it

Israel is bombing Gaza (Palestine)
Because of Hamas’ rocket attacks
The Church attacks Government (about time)
Says it’s financially, morally lax
Meanwhile, the Tories promise to cut tax
Even more money-focused than Labour
An angry abandoned boyfriend kidnaps
A nurse, ten days in the boot of a car
Meanwhile, my stomach, leg, arm muscles are
All nicely aching from yesterday’s fine
Exercises and running over tracks
And now I have to go to Sainsbury’s for
Some milk, some fruit juice (but no beer or wine)
And that is my list of today’s main facts
Sun 28 Dec 2008

787 - News night

I’m sitting watching the news and I’ve seen
The BBC row about Ross and Brand
African troubles in Congo again
The economy’s hard to understand
The presidential race that will soon end
Obama’s still leading, but can he stay
Or, like Lewis Hamilton on a bend
Will he lose the top spot on the last day?
A Scottish by-election on the way
The Scottish Labour Party a has-been?
The news is ending, so what viewing’s planned?
It’s Question Time, this time from USA
It’s Ranvir Singh, hurray, the local queen
Of North West News, waving her little hand
Thur 30 Oct 2008

757 - Northern Rock, stocks and $200 barrels of oil

It's like 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels'
But more exciting - sorry, Guy Ritchie -
Watching as each hard-bitten broker falls
Each bank drowns in negative equity
A vaultful of dollars held uselessly
The cowboys of Wall Street all bite the dust
Another one, and another. Freddie,
You sang about it then, warned of it first
Poor Gordon! - now his credit bubble's burst
He's not only unpopular, but fails
To convince when he claims his pedigree
In financial prudence. Labour's stocks just
Keep dropping. Today, David Cameron sells
His share offer to voters. Buy Tory?
Tue 30 Sep 2008

744 - Credit to the crunch

Give credit to the crunch: it’s natural
It’s Darwinian, red in tooth and claw
Yet more proof that as some rise, some must fall
Yes, I know economics is a bore
But this is more than that, yes, so much more
Like gravity, a basic building block
Things can’t only get better; that’s no law
That Newton knew. The circle of the clock
Encompasses repetition. The shock
Of the new is mere ignorance; it’s all
Happened somewhere before, someplace before
We’ve all been down, then up around the block
A clean slate, then, and start again on Wall
And less glamorous streets like mine and yours
Wed 17 Sep 2008