THE FALSE LEADER

                                I

Just for a foreign gold medal he sold us,
   Just for a ribbon to stick on his coat -
Claiming the honour of which he bereft us,
   Squand'ring the trust, people gave with their vote;
Those, with the gas to give, doled him out hot air,
   So much they stole, who so little allowed:
How all our hard work had gone for his Labour!
   Jeans - were they purple, his heart had been proud!
All who had loved him so, followed him, honoured him,
   Lived in his wild, Christian, moralist's eye,
Learned his New language, caught his weird accents
   Made him a pattern to live and to lie!
Hardie was of us, Bevan was for us,
   Burns, Shelley, were with us - they watch from their graves!
He alone sullies a Europe of freemen,
   - He alone sinks 'midst America's slaves!

                                II

We shall march comradely - freed of his presence;
   Goals will inspirit us - raised from his mire;
Deeds will be done - while he boasts his quiescence,
   Still bidding fawn, who the rest bid aspire:
Blot out his name, then, record one black heart more,
   One new Third Way war, one old true way untrod,
One more devil's-triumph and sorrow for angels,
   One wrong more to man, one more insult to God!
Life's night begins: let him never come back to us!
   There would be scorn, slow-handclaps and pain,
Spun praise on our part - the Sun's dirty twilight,
   Yet things could never get better again!
Best fight on well, and strike in our unity,
   Strengthen men's hearts for what can't be atoned:
Let him discover the depth of his perfidy,
   Arraigned in the Hague, our false leader - disowned.

                    (Apologies to Robert Browning)