odourofdevonviolet.com
The Scent That Captures That "1930s Moment"!
All material copyrighted to odourofdevonviolet.com © 2014
or to the various credited sources © 2014
XXI
These malodorous dissenters will then say, with militant
Truculence, almost grim satisfaction: ‘Such is the British Way
In the 21st Century of Fiscal Consolidation’; they’ll make
Cheap puns on patriotic prime ministerial tropes, which
They instantly dismiss as ‘duplicitous promotional spiel
Of a bankrupt premiership’– so, “a small island with a big heart”
Is interpolated as “a big society with a small purse”… All
Contemporary policies, no matter how compassionate, are
Designed (apparently) to sacrifice the poorest by stealth, cuts,
Caps and whiphands; stigmatise them out of recognised
Parameters of humanity, until Joe Public stops perceiving
Anyone without private means, capital, employment, property,
As human beings, but next to worthless, subhuman nothings,
Morally irresponsible, sinful, parasitic, unworthy of ethical
Consideration, “feckless” (a term which frequently freckles
Their attitudes towards the tabloids –O contrare!), “workshy”,
Non-contributory”, “skivers” in the “strivers”’ long grasses,
Squashed-molusc footnotes of ‘Scroungerology’, excommunicate,
Anathema, vermin, “useless eaters”, Arbeitsscheu, parasites
Sculpted from our shadows, sponging microbes absorbed into
The lampblack bacteria of the Daily Express and Daily
Mail-thusian (as they’ll amateurishly lampoon it), imprinting
Indellible memes and signatures of social hygiene on
Impressionably browsing publics under ‘reprehensible’
Bylines blotting on ubiquitous papers like mould-spores –
Casualties of austerity, collateral damage, undeserving of our
Sympathy, deserving only our antipathy, resentment and contempt
(Why would we resent poverty?); fiscal victims attitudinally
Handcuffed, there to be auctioned off as stigma-targets
To “hardworking taxpayers” –those begrudging Antinomian
Giants who resentfully fund their un-benefiting “benefits”,
Which are, in spite of caps, nonetheless, still “too generous”’…
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!