Strong and stable
Theresa’s been
given her lines.
Yes, Strong and Stable
it’s on the table,
not fact but fable,
it’s just a label,
hopeless, not able,
propaganda Babel.
May
38 years ago today,
a blonde haired woman
spoke out of the TV screen
and made a commitment
to my 16 year old self.
‘Where there is discord,
may we bring harmony.
Where there is error,
may we bring truth.
Where there is doubt,
may we bring faith.
And where there is despair,
may we bring hope.’
I look at Thatcher on the screen now
all tight blonde perm, pointy features,
pearl earrings and lurid blue suit
and even now I wonder
if she ever meant it,
any of it at all.
For since then,
this country has had
bucketfuls of discord,
error, doubt and despair.
And never more than now
as another Maggie
lurks on Downing Street’s steps.
For May will bring discord,
May will bring error,
May will bring doubt,
May will bring despair.
* Stuart Laycock joined the SDP branch at his university in the early 1980s and joined the Lib Dems in the 1990s. He is a writer, historian (author of All the Countries We’ve Ever Invaded) and poet (author of Zone, based on his experiences doing aid work in Bosnia during the war there).
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4 Comments
Does repeating the Tory slogan seem to you a helpful way of increasing the number of people voting for us ?
May might bring problems but it is problems that the people have brought. Neither May, nor the government at the time wanted Brexit. They told the British people that they thought leaving was a bad idea but that only the people could decide it. The people choose leave. If your own party hadn’t blocked the referendum in 2010 then perhaps we would have got remain and settled it at that? We will never know now. But what would you have her do now that is actually democracy? If you really want to claim that people were mislead because unlike those on the remain side they were to stupid to know what they were voting for you will see what the people make of that in an election.
El Sid
Tiresome repetition. The people voted to leave the EU. They did not vote to leave the single market or the customs union.
Brexit is the result of a Tory initiative. Cameron failed. They own it.