BREXITUS (Bread and Circuses)

It was the breast of times
It was the wurst of times
Double D or even G-sized silicon implants into the breasts of celebrity women
Still made the headlines
And the endless reports of 'Will we? Won't we?' Brexit-related headlines 
Became like a sausage machine
Out of whose mouth churned ever more negative congealed masses of
Shit-shaped news

Are we walking towards a cliff edge?
Or into the dawn of a new age:
And will there still be bread and circuses when we get there?

Nobody knows

But like that notorious idiot from the Middle Ages
Who obviously did not have the benefit of hindsight
Or 24/7 news reports and the Internet
We grope blindly in the dark
Hoping, against hope, that life won't be nasty, brutish and short

(from 'Poems from the Kardomah Cafe' - available from Surrey University bookshop at £10)

Brexit - Illegal, Indecent, Dishonest, Untruthful...

If a manufacturer sells a pot of paint or a can of beans, you can get your money back if the product does not live up to its advertising promise. This is now well-enshrined in consumer law and no manufacturer would expect to keep its customers if it did not abide by this legislation.

Why then, despite all the European and home-grown legislation to which we are reputedly bound, can political parties and other bodies behave in a way which is not acceptable in other areas of our national life?

I listened to all the arguments and then cast my vote. 

Even though my ‘team’ won, I find that leaders of all parties have now changed their minds about what was and is being promised. Meanwhile the voters are not allowed to change their minds. Again, to make a comparison with a purchase, IKEA have big posters in its stores saying, ‘It’s okay to change your mind’.

To compare the situation with a well-known paint manufacturer, the situation is far worse than not being ‘what it said on the tin’, it’s like buying a tin of paint without any label at all.

Ultima Thule - January 2 2019

New Year. New Horizons. A poem from me called 'Ultima Thule'
(Brian May said he couldn't think of anything to rhyme with 'Ultima Thule'. So here we are Brian. Enjoy!)

So cool. So cool.
NASA'S just flown past Ultima Thule

This piece of flying stuff''s got everyone in a spin
Apparently, it looks just like a 'bowling pin'

'It rocks' said Brian, who sang about it yesterday

'Yes. I believe in Yesterday' sang Paul.
refusing to be consigned to the past
And getting ready to give those strings another blast

5,4,3,2,1. And ready, steady go!
We're rockin' rollin' ready to get on with the show.

Ultima Thule
So cool. So cool
You maybe heard about it when you were at school.

Fast forwarding our lifetimes
To where we are today
And all our new horizons
We can visit them today!

'Yeh yeh yeh. Enough' says Paul,
'We need to be contented to just be'

'Never, never, never enough for me' sings Katherine
'Never enough for me!''

All these different viewpoints spinning round the stars
Will we go to the moon (again)?
Or will we go to Mars?

Ultima Thule
So cool. So cool.