The media

Richard Sharp

Likes to whinge and to carp

That report was bad luck

Now off he can fuck

We'd like you to strike
when it doesn't disrupt us
when it won't interrupt us
going about our daily life

We'd like you to strike
when it won't cause strife
when no-one will notice
Please don't misquote us

Of course we support you
we don't want to thwart you
just asking for some consideration
Don't get ideas above your station

Janine performs her poem 'Babyface' in Cambridge in 2016.

Bring out the braziers on Ramsay Street,
close down the kitchen and turn up the heat
No more exploitation of the workers' labours -
the staff are going on strike in Neighbours!

The ranks of the workers' movement swell
as the comrades at Lassiters Hotel
flex their muscles and show some clout
by downing tools and walking out

Janine Booth reviews ‘The Reason I Jump’

I don’t watch many documentaries about autism, and on the rare occasion when I sit down to watch one, I am overwhelmed with a sense of dread. So much rubbish is said on the subject, even by people who want to be on the right side. So many patronising tropes, so much pity, not enough solidarity.

China jails citizen journalist for Wuhan reports

Four years in jail for citizen reporter
Who spread the news from virus-struck Wuhan
Her mother cries in court to lose her daughter
She showed the world the sickness, did Zhang Zhan
So ominous the charges that they brought her
For breaking China’s free expression ban
Their stricken morals under smoking rubble,
‘Picking quarrels and provoking trouble’

Julie Burchill

Will fight them on the beaches like Churchill

She's been cancelled and silenced by opinion shapers

She'll tell you all about it in the national newspapers

pic: Pete Linforth at Pixabay

Teachers say:
Let Daily Mail writers be heroes

Let them walk naked through war zones
Let them battle with an invisible enemy

Let them fall on the battlefield
in even greater numbers than they already have

Safe in the knowledge that they will be
lionised at the Daily Briefing

And that Matt Hancock may
issue a badge in their honour

A response to an appallingly bigoted cartoon (pictured) which appeared in the Morning Star.

An oversight has come to light
our usual process
transgressed, broke apart

and through the cracks
crept a carnivorous
cold-blooded cartoon

a hand-drawn saurian,
fawning, crawling, stalking
readers bravely pleading for safety.

I peeled back the adverts and found
a beautiful town

Waiting at the bus stop
I stilled the rotating displays
and pasted timetables and useful information
in their place

I restored all the lamp posts
to their role as posts bearing lamps
rather than gallows
from which buy-me banners hang