Poets Corner

WHEN WILL WE STOP

23-02-2007

The Stirrer's poet laureate Brendan Hawthorne offers something for the weekend - a few reflections on Britain's bottom of the table ranking for kids' happiness amongst other things.

When will we stop?

When will we stop?

When will we stop

listening to politicians

who believe in their own statistics?

Their own hype

their own sound bite

Those big-shot rim-shot

tactical bigots

who get off on the ricochet

The ones who do not wish to see

the raging reality of social tension

reacting with generational degrade-ation

as it falls out onto the street

from plastic bars and grant-led schools

underpinned by sanitised promises

from those lip service sector facades

on redundant working class streets

through the eyes of privilege

When will we stop?

When will we stop?

When will we stop

accepting second best?

Excuse on excuse?

Accepting failure and loss

and dressing it up as success

Led astray by bean counters

who keep their gaze fixed

on interest and credit us with debt

Build second and third houses

for the rich and the speculative

to hike up the bottom rung

on the property ladder

so high that first-timers

can't reach it from the hole of college fees

But anyone with a giro in the private sector

can be ‘rent paid'

with the desire to bring an area down

because the council evicted them

from their own doorstep

on anti-social grounds

When will they stop?

When will they stop?

When will they stop

encouraging young women to get pregnant

so that they can get a flat?

And be given more free money

as long as they live separately from

their off-spring's father

not living together as a family

When will they take on the responsibility?

When will we wake up?

When will we stop being shocked

that Britain is no longer great?

Now we're bottom in a European league table

for successfully letting down generations of young people

Things will have to get better, Mr. Blair

if we're to get back on the moral high ground

that you so deeply love

then you can preach with some dignity

from the shop window of the world

Copyright Brendan Hawthorne 2007