Three poems by Michael Rosen

Beggars

The ‘economy’ … how we love to hear that the economy is doing well, the economy is picking up, there’s a strong economy. When we hear that, we know that things are looking good. Things are getting better. The economy. How we love the economy when it’s doing well. If fact, you can be doing very badly when the economy is doing well. That doesn’t matter, though. If you know the economy is doing well, you feel good. In fact, many hundreds of thousands of people may be doing very badly, and still the economy might be doing well. How mysterious. How could that be? Could it be that the economy is doing well precisely because hundreds of thousands of people are doing badly? Could it be that when people are paid less or hardly anything at all, this makes it easier for very few people to make much more? Could it be that what goes for the ‘economy’ is really a way of talking about how successful are those people at doing well out of paying people less or hardly anything at all? Yes, an economy can be doing well, with people begging in the street. Never mind that, though. The economy is doing well. We love to hear that. Even the beggars love to hear that. They can’t afford a radio or TV so you’ll have to tell them. Why not pop down to a soup kitchen near you and say, ‘Hello everyone, the economy is doing well, the economy is strong’? They’ll love it.

Hurrah

Hurrah for mortgages, say the zero-hour contract workers.

You want a house? You want a mortgage? You want to get on the first rung of the housing ladder? You want to be part of the property-owning democracy? Are you happy that this is what the government is doing for you?

Yes – hurrah for mortgages, say the zero-hour contract workers, and thanks to you, there are now many more of us on zero-hour contracts.

Jolly good, they say back to the zero-hour contract workers, thanks to you not having a mortgage you won’t be ‘sub-prime’ you won’t trigger a crash

Hurrah for mortgages anyway, say the zero-hour contract workers we love our property-owning democracy even though we’re not property-owning. We love spending most of what we earn so we can’t save to buy our way into the property-owning democracy

And thank you, David Cameron for telling us on the Today Programme of your ‘thrill’ that day you walked through the door of your first flat knowing that it was yours.

Everyone on zero-hour contracts cheered when you said that …

Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah.

Miliband, UKIP and the ‘I’m not racist but …’ people

I am fascinated by these ‘I’m not racist but’ people they show us. They say things like ‘it’s all got too much’ and ‘there’s too many of them’ etc etc So what do they think UKIP is going to do for them? Put people on trains and ship them out? And how will these people be chosen? And who is going to do the choosing? And if the people refuse to go? Will UKIP have special police to do that? And this is not racism? And UKIP isn’t deliberately holding out hopes for people who say those things that that is precisely what they would do? And Labour can’t say that about UKIP? And that Labour should keep saying that ‘people have concerns’ instead of saying what I’m saying here? For f.sake Miliband, it’s what your parents fled from. Say it. Say it. Say it.