I once lived in a Land where things had gone wrong
And the Powers that be had decided
That men had made such a mess for so long
Control should be passed to the sex once derided.
So they communed for some time about
Getting the right candidate
Who could be charged with sorting things out
And putting them back in the right state.
Of course there would be the old Status Quo
Where the chosen few took the lion’s share
Of wealth and power; to reap but not sow
Whilst the rest made do with the market’s care.
They had seen the danger preached by those
Who had begun to challenge the basic laws
of a skewered distribution of wealth flows
The Establishment ordained created flaws.
So the lady chosen began with great care
By adopting a policy of little disruption
Or, so she thought, the monetarist’s fanfare
Resulted in Industry’s near destruction.
Three million thrown out on the dole
Was the sacrifice set up as a foil
To later take on the workers in coal
Funded by the incoming North Sea oil.
With ratings so low – they were nearing the floor,
A dictator thought with her to make sport
By invading an island no one had heard of before
Whose islanders claimed she was bound to support.
Up sprang the Iron lady in righteous wrath
Up sprang flag wavers of all shapes and shades
As Task Force was sent with instructions to crush
The despicable Argentinean raids.
The battle was won, the lady acclaimed
And with decks now cleared for the major game,
Her enemies crushed and her opponents shamed
She was primed for her new found fame.-
There’s no such thing as society, she’d insist
Each one of us by our efforts fall or rise,
While the back room planners prepared a list
Of those allowed into the great enterprise.
We must have a fairer tax system too
Why should the deserving rich pay more?
Reduce top rates and a stimulus new,
A flat local tax to encourage the poor.
With the middle classes baying for more
She sold off the Nation’s assets cheap –
The City bankers who had doubted before
Could scarcely keep up with shearing the sheep.
A second term brought scarce a pause;
The coal miners were provoked into fight
To save their jobs, as the lady roars
These were not in danger, protest as they might.
The enemy within she called the working man
Defending his job, community and kin –
As she unleashed the Metropolitan Police when
It looked as though the miners might win.
But the Poll tax raised people’s fears
And her views on Europe became absurd –
To burden from saviour in eleven years –
So a cabal of ‘suits’ gave her the bird.
They showed the lady to the door
Her sell by date beyond recall;
An experiment failed, but there’ll be plenty more –
Only hubris caused this one to fall.
What the lady achieved in eleven years :-
l) Proportion of population living on or below social assistance level rose from 6% to 19%
2) Number of children raised on social assistance rose by over one million.
3) Living standards of poorest fifth of population rose by 1%
4) Living standard of richest fifth of population rose by 30%
5) Tax cuts to richest 0.1% of population was 21%
6) Tax cuts to poorest 11% of population was 2%
April 2009