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Poetry
Diddled
By roy
31 May 2007
Unfairness

Diddled

George is over eighty and he’s seen it all before

He was born in the depression and was wounded in the war

He hadn’t been a hero, but George had done his bit

His legs had both been broken when a piece of shrapnel hit


George with his new ungainly gait really didn’t care

He had served his King and Country and was proud that he’d been there

Once the war was over and he got a steady job

George worked hard and did overtime to earn an extra bob


He was careful with his money but you couldn’t call him mean

He had known the pangs of hunger as a child when times were lean

He never wasted money in the bookies or on ale

He wanted some security in case his health should fail


Came the National Insurance Scheme in 1948

George gave the scheme his full support thinking it was great

If we all join in together and we pay our weekly dues

We should all get good pensions that can only be good news


What with all our contributions and the taxes that we pay

Well never in the future should we see a rainy day

No humiliating means tests, no more workhouse for the poor

The old can hold their heads up like they never could before


Now George is getting frail and weak and needs a little care

The pension that George thought he’d get simply isn’t there

The savings that old George accrued long ago had dwindled

The Council now want George’s house, no wonder George feels swindled


Every evening in the news on all the TV stations

Our M.Ps. hand out OUR cash to lots of foreign nations

What’s more it is a well-known fact that cannot be disputed

Folk come here and claim benefits but never contributed


Our leaders throw our cash around with philanthropic zeal

Massaging their ego’s, not caring how we feel

To George an honest British man the real reward is owed

We should be taking care of him, not stealing his abode

Reviews
Too True
Written by Josie (2785 comments posted) 31st May 2007
The same applied to my mother and father. My father died at my home because the hospitals were full at the end of February. My mother had a horrific accident and was unconscious for a week. Maggie Thatcher shut down the only ward that she could have been moved into from the emergency ward, and we were forced to find a private nursing home to move her into as the hospital had no accommodation. She was there for 2 years and never knew us from that day forward. My father fought in the last Battle of the Somme in May 1918 and was prepared to give his life for this country. Where did their contributions go?

Written by stevetroster (1555 comments posted) 31st May 2007
Can't argue with that, but how come the people keep voting for them? 
There seems to be no way back from the abyss.

Written by Phil (6730 comments posted) 31st May 2007
Bring back lumpy mashed potato too. 
 
Abyss? 
THEM?
Written by Josie (2785 comments posted) 1st June 2007
I'm not sure what you mean by "them". Maggie Thatcher hasn't been in office for many years, and neither have the conservative party. Who are "them"?

Written by fellpony (1617 comments posted) 3rd June 2007
Good piece of folk / ballad - it reads as though you could sing it like some of the political songs of the 1960s: 
 
at the turn of the century I was a boy of five. 
Me father went to fight the Boers and never came back alive 
Me mother was left to bring us up, no charity she'd seek;  
so she washed and scrubbed and scraped along on seven-and-six a week.
 
 
 
Much in the same vein. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. 

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