NHS and Health

This is the text of my contribution to the debate at TUC Disabled Workers' Conference on 10 March 2019.

Hi. I'm Janine Booth, representing RMT. Our members work in the rail, road transport, shipping and offshore energy industries.

What if I can't stand the train
without the carriage to myself?
What if I can't stretch and strain
to reach up to the luggage shelf?

What if all the outside seats
are taken and the queue's too long?
And I don't recognise the streets
and can't see left or right or wrong?

Day 1 confined to room - no going out

Day 2 do push-ups, Netflix, clean the floor

Day 3 phone friends and scrub the tiling grout

Day 4 a breakfast bag outside the door

Day 5 phone friends and tell them how I'm feeling

Day 6 lean out the window for some air

Day 7 sit-ups, Netflix, clean the ceiling

Day 8 phone friends to tell them I still care

Boris is sorry - deeply sorry -
for every life that's been lost
Johnson is worried - deeply worried -
about the political cost

He takes responsibility - full responsibility -
for all of the government's actions
Johnson is possibly - in all probability -
counting financial transactions

It's Thursday evening, eight o'clock, no sound
No passing cars or footsteps on the ground
No pots or pans or cheering to be found
As nobody is clapping this time round

When this began, we clapped them off to war
Then came reports that we could not ignore
Low pay, long hours, no P.P.E. in store
Now no-one claps for carers any more

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’

On 27 September 2020, Janine Booth broadcasted an hour-long show on Facebook Live, tackling the two biggest issues of the year: the coronavirus pandemic and police brutality.

Stick that needle in my arm

And get me safe and vaccinated

Hush the waves of false alarm

Stick that needle in my arm

Protect the herd from virus harm

Stay cool and keep refrigerated

Stick that needle in my arm

And get me safe and vaccinated

It looks as though the lockdown

is going to end in tiers

For while we count the clock down

it looks as though the lockdown

is ending with a knockdown

of haircuts, meals and beers

It looks as though the lockdown

is going to end in tears

From very slightly different points of view
To lose an eye has given me perspective
It isn't quite as good as having two
But one eye is surprisingly effective

To lose an eye has given me perspective
At first it made my vision go quite flat
But one eye is surprisingly effective
Once the brain's acclimatised to that