St. George’s Day

The patron saint of roundabouts
Zip-tied flags and far-right louts
The patron saint of Stop The Boats
And disaffected Brexit votes

The patron saint of LBC
GB News and Talk TV
The saint of plain hostility
To anyone who ain’t like me

The patron saint of wooden crosses
Crumbling and rotten
The patron saint of you can’t have it
Races to the bottom

The patron saint of two world wars
And one lousy world cup
Where are you now our dear St George
How badly did you fuck it up?

David And Goliath

The years in prison were not kind to Goliath
He grew smaller and weaker while David grew strong
His castles kicked over; his crop destroyed before him
It weighed heavy on Goliath how it had gone so wrong

So, he stood and he shouted at the ranks of Israel
From the river to the sea, words laden with dread
David called for his sling and selected five stones
He’d settle for no less now than Goliath’s head

He turned out the lights in Goliath’s prison
Cut off supplies, cut off the outside
Gave Goliath notice of the date and time
We held our breath; David crossed the line

His stones flew hard, his stones flew long
Let only God tell me that I’m doing wrong
Women and children in their thousands gone
While David bayed Goliath you do not belong

We cried stop, David said I will not
Not while Goliath still breathes
Not while my friends in the west send stones
Not while my friends in the west send stones
Not while my friends in the west send drones
And bombs for me to drop
David said, I will not stop

Grand National Cheering On The Killing Of Horses Day

The housewife’s flutter, pick one by its name
The workplace sweepstake’s just the same
Hey Charlie, don’t fancy your horse
The Queen always loved it, of course
It’s the cheery item at the end of The News
Counting up how many horses lose
We can join our reporter now in Aintree Way
It’s Grand National Cheering On The Killing Of Horses Day

A Poem For Easter

Jesus, said Jesus, awake on the cross
What d’you have to go and summon Satan for?
I’m supposed to sleep in for a couple of days
But now there’s all this chaos and war

And he’s everywhere, TV and radio
Right across the social media shitshow
Wherever your midnight doom scrolling might go
With a bunch of leering demons in tow

Wait, you expected hellfire and brimstone
With a laptop and a mobile phone?
C’mon, horns and hooves are a bit mediaeval
These days he manifests as real estate evil

With a raging, rambling, boiling sea of lies
And an infernal wardrobe full of red ties
Every time he smiles a Gazan baby dies
And he has nothing but greed in his eyes

Jesus, said Jesus, awake on the cross
You let out death, famine, conquest and war
You say you’re Christians, but you don’t care for the poor
What d’you have to go and summon Satan for?

Nigel The Talking Frog

Nigel the talking frog’s coin-operated
A cameo Nazi for just a few quid
Birthday greetings for the racist on a budget
Send your pal a Kick-‘Em-Out Farage vid

Nigel the talking frog’s coin-operated
A cameo Nazi bought and paid for
What he’d say for free, he says for a fee
The grift that the internet was made for

Fe-fi-fo-Trump

Raises his fists up to his eyes
Waves them slowly side to side
Waves them like a fist goodbye
To children where his bombers fly

A pumpkin he, made rotting flesh
Dancing ‘til there’s nothing left
His awful orange swaying heft
Of simple principle bereft

An ogre’s dance in tracer light
An ogre’s sleight, an ogre’s spite
An ogre’s drooling appetite
The ogre set the world alight

A Clip Round The Ear

The first one got him in the ear, I hear
The second one a hole away, never got near
The third, the wrong house when he threw his hat in
What price, US, a decent assassin
In a country that shoots fifty thousand a year
And the best they can do is a clip round the ear

Oh Deer, Sir Kier

Son of a toolmaker Kier
Now wants to kill deer

Dear deer-killer Kier
Oh dear
What’s this new frontier?

Venison for tea
For every detainee
Of His Majesty?
While lunchers at school
Or in hospital
Pick shot from their teeth?
Good grief

The poor deer, in fear
Chased on horse by a peer
Then shot in the ear
Or maybe pursued
By a volunteer
With a spear
Not a good idea, Kier

You’ll learn
We await your u-turn
With bated breath
We guess you have
A couple left