Regardless
Working class or business class,
Europhile or Leaver,
People of Colour or People of Talent,
The Tories care for neither.
Not an awful lot to say about today’s poem because I’m in a bad mood, but if you haven’t seen the news this morning about Boris Johnson’s latest placement of foot-into-mouth (or carefully stage-managed dogwhistle, depending on how much credit you want to give his strategists) then take a look, or else this Door will seem a bit random.
Twitter is, unusually, divided, between whether our esteemed leader said ‘people of colour’ or ‘people of talent’ when referring to immigration. Channel 4 News claimed it misheard and therefore mis-subtitled, many others are claiming they’ve been pressurised into saying that, many others are saying its hypocrisy, from everybody, etc. etc.
Today’s poem is so titled because the Tories have zero regard for the plight or lives of ordinary people – or anyone who’s not rich, basically. It’s also so titled because regardless of what he said today, Boris Johnson is a racist bastard, entirely without redeeming features.
I know this isn’t very festive, but it’s chucking it down and I’m not feeling very festive myself, and having written this I can’t guarantee I’ll come up with anything better later on. I’m currently en route to Battersea to knock on doors for the brilliant Marsha de Cordova and hopefully make myself feel a whole lot better about everything.
Anyway. Nineteen days to go.
Owen x
The Poetry Advent Calendar 