XX

They’ll say all of this –as if to parrot some mythical red-top

‘Hate-rags’’ stigmatising epithets for the unemployed and Saint

Jude’s other ‘hopeless’ cases –bottom-feeders of the scum

Of human effluence, the lot of them, with grotty little souls

Sunk lower than any average vermin, or grubbing Grub Street

Hacks scraping after libidinous celebrity bylines –And,

To think, in this, one of the most supremely tolerant nations

On the planet, to accuse Us, the British, of verbally birching

Benefit claimants, of rhetorically demarcating between

The “deserving” and “undeserving” poor (as if we’re still

Victorians), even of discriminating against those with

Disabilities, tipping cripples out of wheelchairs, crutching

Atomistic canning factories to strip them of state assistance;

And some campaign groups even have the nerve to hoist black

Triangles as insignias, belligerent emblems, ragged badges

Against our administrators, such deplorably bad taste,

To manipulate deeply emotive leitmotivs for disruptive motives,

Showing no respect for those millions of victims in

The concentration camps –how can they stand there and

So unashamedly accuse this country, which stood up to

Nazism, of countenancing some milkier brew of fascism,

Some sort of brownshirt tiffins tea and antipathy? What did

We do with Oswald Mosley? Did we shake his Heil-ing hand?

Did Stanley Baldwin put him up for the Honours List? No,

We denounced him…eventually –and even the Daily Mail

Followed suit, in the fullness of time, once Viscount Rothmere,

No doubt, came to regret that HURRAH FOR THE BLACKSHIRTS!

Headline of January 1934 in support of the British Union

Of Fascists, complimenting their “sound, commonsense,

Conservative doctrine” –not to say, his YOUTH TRIUMPHANT

Splash of the previous year, praising German fascism,

A minor indiscretion of editorial policy (there was no such

Thing as the Press Complaints Commission in the Thirties,

To play sop to the people, only toothless gums of embryonic

Templates towards today’s more cutting-edge regulation),

Just something along the lines of “The minor misdeeds

Of individual Nazis would be submerged by the immense

Benefits the new regime is already bestowing upon Germany”

(Well, admittedly, Rothermere was a closet supporter

Of Signore Mussolini and Herr Hitler, but so were many

Among the chattering brasses of the time, including the Heir

To the throne, and his significant American other)… Such

Rampant anticapitalism and associated rhetoric breaches

All decency of satirical practice: is scabrously disrespectful,

Cynical, unpatriotic, unacceptable, and flies in the face

Of our reputation as a compassionate nation, a beacon

Of tolerance throughout the world –it vandalises everything

We varnish into values! Such intolerance of national pride

Should not be tolerated –it simply must be STAMPED OUT!