These are polemical and activist poems written to predict and hasten the demise of our tottering government and—hopefully—of the Conservative Party itself. The present-day Tory party and its leading representatives are unequalled in their incompetence, arrogance, greed, mendacity, corruption, and systemic criminality.

The past fourteen years of Conservative rule have surpassed even the Thatcher period in terms of the social, cultural, and economic damage inflicted on the vast majority of ordinary people, especially the poor, the sick and the homeless.

Another Vote for Sunak!

Me, I’m your typical swing voter –
The only thing I care about’s my car.
Just keep your hands off me and my old motor
Else you’ll find out how narky us lot are.

That Sunak, he won’t screw my daily rota.
He knows this barmy Ulez thing’s by far
The biggest issue for your cash-strapped floater –
It’s all them doomsday types whose voices jar!

If I was Rishi’s party-line promoter
I’d say ‘just get old Clarkson as your czar
For drivers’ rights – he’d push the Ulez boat a
Whole lot farther out, our all-time star!

So tell the world we don’t care one iota
How anxious for their grandkids’ lungs they are,
Those Greens – we say ‘Jump back in your Toyota
And we’ll jump back in our old bangers, ta!’

These intensely political poems are consummate examples of the art of resistance. They range widely in their targets, moods and formal structures, though they mostly concern some specific, invariably shameful abuse of office.

The volcano of satire, disgust and righteous indignation erupting from the texts is supercharged by Martin Gollan’s brilliantly pointed, ferocious cartoons. These poems and drawings are timely examples of how cultural workers across the arts can join forces in the unsparing exposure of political wickedness and evil.

Convulsions, 2021-24: a Trusstercluck, by Chris Norris, ISBN 978-1-912710-64-5, is £12 inc. p. and p. in UK, £12 plus £5 p. and p. elsewhere.

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