Football Poets

Jubilee Week-End World Cup

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 So Sven, what stress do you go for?
Ju-bilee or Jubi-lee?
Well, they were bothered about it on Radio 4,
(I was more bothered with the Swedes,
On Sunday morning, June the second)
But it’s another instance of how Middle England
Likes correctitude, consistency and uniformity,
Rather than embracing diversity –
But I suppose all minority groups need protection,
Even those besotted with pronounciation.
But I don’t know what some of the Bradford kids I met,
With their Asian-Yorkshire accents would make of this,
And I have no idea what they would have made of New Nation,
And its analysis of Black British multiple allegiances in the World Cup,
And how support for England
Would depend on just who the opposition was,
Argentina and Nigeria being at opposite ends of the spectrum –
For these Islamic kids were total English patriots to a girl and boy,
In a New Millennium Bradford,
Where I saw a skyline headlined by a church, a mosque,
And an old mill chimney, in Lister’s in Manningham;
After that I saw a burnt out school,
Now occupied by travellers,
Hanging out their carpets for sale along the railings,
Before walking past Bingley’s Three Locks
And canal side graffiti protecting trade union rights,
And so back to the hotel for breakfast,
Where the proprietor stood, pencil poised above her order book,
Midway, as it were, between the scrambled egg and the mushrooms,
Giving us an uninvited ten minute rant about
“How I wasn’t racist until I moved to Bradford,
I know it’s like Middle England where this hotel is,
But round the corner, they’re more Indian than the Indians,
And more Pakistani than in Pakistan,
And yet they’re the ones who get all the money…”,
Blah, blah, blah as the minutes ticked by,
And I wondered as I listened to her logic,
Which ultimately led to a search for a fastness, or fighting,
How an inclusive Britain somehow needed to address these fears,
Without moving to the Right,
And without castigating her as irrational –
You hear these things too often –
But it’s ignorance that is the root and route of these fears,
And that means that education is needed to re-direct these people,
Education as lifelong learning –
And that might just mean progressive income tax
And government spending,
A move to the Left not the Right,
So that the pubs with their Cross of St. George and Union Flags,
And their mass produced brewery signs,
“Land of Hope and Glory”,
Help this England, this Great Britain, this United Kingdom,
With its rain-swept Jubilee street parties,
And its Belfast street riots,
And its firework Sun Queen “L’Etat c’est Moi”
Disneyfied Peoples’ Monarchy,
Become a rainbow country –
Where people of all faiths can sing, if they wish,
Sing that a Christian God Will Save The Queen,
And where 4 rainbow countries will pass the ball to each other,
Without losing self-possession –
“All you need is Love”,
Oh, and taxes too;
Now, is there anyone out there rich enough to pay?

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