And Did Those Cheats In Modern Times Poem by Tom Higgins

I never thought I’d live to see

Widespread food-banks in this country.

Where people who can’t afford to eat

Can receive enough for them to beat

Off starvation for another week

And where daily many more have to seek

Help because they have no money

In this land of milk and honey.

And more and more of these folk

Are not those of the standing joke

You know the unemployed and pretend “ill”

No, more frequently those seeking help will

Be working full time for lousy pay

Which always runs out before the next payday

So now they’re forced to seek charity

To be able to keep the electricity

And the gas with which to cook

The free food which has got them off the hook,

Which will only last about a week

Before once more they’re forced to seek

Another hand-out from which to survive

Without it how will they stay alive?

Now contrast their lot with that of those

Faceless men and women who rose

To the prime positions in the corporations

Which are in business to blackmail nations,

Who have just hiked up prices by over ten per-cent

Whilst millions struggle to pay the rent.

They are given millions of pounds for what they do

You know ripping off the lot of you,

And no politician has any intention

Of raising the issue they’d rather not mention

Because the money which goes in the pot

To pay to run the parties amounts to a lot.

And then of course it would be a pity

To jeopardise that place on the board or in the city

Simply in order for them to do

What we thought we elected them to

Which is to do things which benefit all

Not simply line the pockets of a small

Minority of the extremely rich who

For the last thirty or so years have proceeded to

Asset strip our land in such a way

They never have to wait for their pay

They won’t invest where they have to wait

They want quick returns on a plate

Everything is done for their short term gain

No matter how much misery and pain

Is inflicted on the people of the land

This was not accidental, this was planned.



Tom Higgins