By Alan Morrison
Their colour the turquoise
Of the sea that surrounds
Our island fortress
Which they seek to reinforce
With fire-lit vigils
Guard-patrolled battlements
Raised drawbridges
& thoroughly closed borders
(Lapping up votes
In aid of “stopping boats”)
Immigrant internment camps
& permanently open
Departure lounges for
Refugees fleeing persecution
England as a holding depot
A port for deportation
In hope of transporting
Us back to a pre-
Multicultural time
Before a welfare state
Dismantle last remnants
Of social democratic
Institutions that managed
To stay intact but in tatters
In spite of Thatcherism
Stick up lots of Union Jacks
Re-make Britain “Great”
Hope is drowning in this sea
Of ubiquitous turquoise
A colour normally
Associated with psychical
Receptiveness believed
To bring positive vibes
& protect against
Negative energies
Yet this one-note party
Sends out nothing but
Negative energies
Viscerally divisive
Unreceptive to minority
Sensitivities
Un-empathetic
& persecutory
Of its pet scapegoats
Political shock troops
Spouting racist tropes
Is England’s future now to be
Its picture-postcard past
Of warm beer & cricket whites
Straw boaters & flannel suits
Rubicund yeoman & all other
Assorted John Bulls & Gammon
& flagpoles & laughing Farage
& fluttering turquoise rosettes
Those black letters on fat white
Right-pointing arrow worn
On turquoise armbands
Ubiquitous emblem on brassards
Tomorrow’s gentrified swastika
The British boot stamping
On an immigrant’s face
In the revanchist Shires
& mumbling bellwethers…
8th May 2026
