Tuesday, February 11, 2014

PLEBGATE! - poetry

PLEBGATE!

“On yer bike!”, Norman Tebbitt.
“Off yer bike!”, PC Toby Rowland.

(Ex-Conservative Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell,
on being refused permission to cycle through
Downing Street’s security gates, allegedly swore
at PC Toby Rowland calling him a “Pleb”!)

The Chief Whip of a Government,
Of ‘Posh Boys’, ‘Toffs’ and ‘Debs’;
Allegedly in ire, described,    
The ‘Boys in Blue’ as “Plebs”!
If true it shows the sheer contempt,                 
That politicians feel;
For those they think inferior,                                                          
A scorn they can’t conceal.

You’d reckon with the Miner’s Strike,
The ‘Bullingdon Boy Fops’;
Would be forever grateful to,
Their heavy mob, the cops!
The cops, too, shouldn’t act so hurt,                      
(And we’re not quite so dumb)  
Considering at the said strike,
They called the Miners, “Scum”.

Soon after the Chief Whip affair,
One Officer then spun;
His version of the incident,
To that slag rag, The Sun!
Whose Hillsborough news headline ‘The Truth’, (1)  
Summed up the sordid mess;
That happens when cops leak and sell,
To Britain’s Tabloid Press.

The de Menezes shooting and                     
The Tomlinson case, too;                                        
Revealed both police and government,
Said much less than they knew.
As those in power everywhere,                       
Consider it absurd;
That they’re expected to defer,
To us, the common herd!

But in this case of power play,
One has to be a sleuth;
To tell if it’s the Officer,
Or Whip who’s told the truth!
In past times such integrity,             
Would not have been in doubt;
But these days M.P.’s and Police,
Have jointly been found out!

REFRAIN
If a Policeman nicely says,
“Oi you-get orf yer bike”;
It isn’t wise to swear at him,
Nor say “Go take a hike”!
Though swearing is a manly art,
To use a word like ‘Pleb’;
Against a jolly constable,
Can cause a ‘Cause Célèb(re)’!

(1) The Sun published the official Police
version of the Hillsborough disaster and
has been shunned on Merseyside ever since.

© Richard Layton

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