by Alan Morrison
Starmer talks of an “island of strangers”
(Adapting a trope from Enoch Powell)
Of non-integrated immigrants & refugees
Who must all learn English & “earn the right”
To live in our “great” country
That is so welcoming to refugees
To the point of sending vigilantes
To storm “migrant hotels” or attempt
To burn them down (riotously)—
So we’re back to the Tory “hostile environment”,
Nigel Farage driving agendas again…
Yet Starmer leads a Government of Strangers,
Unrecognisable to grassroots members
& many of its own backbenchers,
A ‘Labour’ Government in name alone,
A travesty of its own traditions torn
To vestiges through betrayals & purges,
Now ‘Labour’ is a John Bull party draped
In ubiquitous Union Jacks
& xenophobic tropes trying to outflank
Reform by selling what’s left of its brand’s
Bowdlerised soul to the highest bidders
Among billionaires, bond markets
& tabloid bosses—but to what end…?
All that’s achieved by copying & pasting
Far Right rhetoric & policy-making
Is to drive people to vote for the real thing,
All principles sold out for next to nothing
But ingloriously summoning in
A new regime of Faragism—
The Government of Strangers needs
To take heed of this dire warning,
Or else be a lame duck warm up act
For an endgame slowly dawning…
