An Ode to Jeremy Hunt
Submitted by Janine on
The Health Secretary’s named Jeremy Hunt
He sits on the benches at front
It would, inter alia,
Insult female genitalia
To call him a vile Tory cunt
My Poems
Having written and performed as The Big J in the 1980s, Janine started again in 2014, after a brief interlude of around a quarter of a century.
Froms sonnets to villanelles, limericks to ballads, the occasional rap and plenty of straightforward rants, serious and humorous and sometimes both, here is Janine's verse.
Janine's poems have been published in numerous poetry and other journals and websites, including Algebra of Owls, South Bank Poetry, the Daily Mirror, PUSH, Hour of Writes, Proletarian Poetry, Confluence Medway, Screaming Violets, Poetry24, Solidarity, Stand Up and Spit, Hastings Independent, Freedom, Women’s Fightback, the Morning Star, Rising and TenFootCity; and in anthologies Spies4Life, Poems for Jeremy Corbyn, Justice: Poems for Grenfell Tower.and Ashes to Activists
An Ode to William Hague
Submitted by Janine on
The Foreign Secretary’s called William Hague
His purpose in life is quite vague
We sent him to Iraq
But they sent him straight back
Saying they’d rather have a dose of the plague
Away In A Palace
Submitted by Janine on
Written for Prince George, then still a foetus, in 2012 - to the tune of Away In A Manger:
It won’t need a manger,
a crib or a bed
For the new royal baby
to lay down its crowned head
The stars and the tyrants
will come and give praise
The little future monarch
whose patronage pays
'British Work for British Hands'
Submitted by Janine on
Seeing this Conservative candiddate's advert in a 1910 issue of the East London Advertiser, it struck me that the 'British jobs for British workers' slogan of a couple of years ago was neither new nor left-wing.
‘British work for British hands’
Not for scum from foreign lands
Tory slogan, nineteen ten,
How much has really changed since then?
Once in Rupert Murdoch's Empire
Submitted by Janine on
To the tune of 'Once In Royal David's City', written in 2012:
Once in Rupert Murdoch's empire
Lived his sidekick Rebekah Brooks
Rose to power through gutter reporting
Hacking phones and bribing crooks
David Cameron was her chum
Jeremy Hunt was under her thumb
West Coast Franchising Chaos
Submitted by Janine on
In 2012, the awarding of the franchise for the West Coast railway route descended into chaos, when the government gave the job to FirstGroup in preference to Virgin, then admitted irregularities and started all over again. Two limericks:
1.
Gideon's Budget 2012
Submitted by Janine on
Two limericks for Gideon George Osborne's 2012 Budget:
1.
We can be sure that in Gideon's budget
However the media judge it
There'll be gifts for the rich
For the rest, not a stitch
And Labour's poor leaders will fudge it
2.
Mrs Wales Is Having A Baby
Submitted by Janine on
There once was a princess called Kate
Who noticed her period was late
Each time she vomited
The media commented
And worshipped the future head of state
An Ode to Tube Cleaning
Submitted by Janine on
A right filthy job is Tube cleaning
We slave while the bosses are preening
We work night and day
No pension or sick pay
And the wages are truly demeaning
But cleaners won’t let them attack us
Harass us, track us and sack us
On protest and picket
We’ll tell them where to stick it
And expect all our workmates to back us
Justice For The 33
Submitted by Janine on
Throughout 2013, RMT members fought a struggle for the reinstatement of 33 agency workers who lost their jobs when their agency was (rightly) kicked off the Underground. I wrote this poem in support of that campaign. Eventually some, but not all, of the workers got permanent jobs on London Underground.
Pages
