Games people play - how high are the stakes?

They play a lot of games in politics.  No where in the world are more games played than in the corridors of power. 

They play games with us - the electorate.  They write a comprehensive manifesto - so compelling that we believe in what they promise and we tootle off to the Polling Station at the crack of dawn, on our way to work, to put our cross beside their name. Then when they are elected, they completely ignore reasons for their election, they change the boundaries, to make sure they are re-elected and start jetting off around the world, to promote our wonderful country and our interests, while spending our hard-earned money on luxury hotles, room service and extra-marital affairs.  We used to give them security of tenure for three years and then at least we could kick them out for lying - oops sorry, playing games with us - but the clever buggers changed the law, so now they are in for another five years. 

Meanwhile, our children run up £30k plus student debt trying better themselves; the elderly , who were promised that they could keep more of the savings that they have worked for all their lives are still forced to sell their homes and die virtually penniless in sub-standard, care homes and disabled people are committing suicide  because they are being forced to look for work in a dog- eat-dog world, where the legal requirement to make 'Reasonable Adjustments' is a myth and the reality is that employers will always chose a healthy, young worker over someone with a neck injury who needs an expensive chair, a different mouse and two days a year to rest after spinal injections. Politics is the mother of 'Games People Play.'

They play games with the opposition. We hear them, braying like donkeys across the floor of the house. They don't actually debate the crucial issues affecting our economy, the state of our welfare services, the education and future of our children.  No they mud-sling at each other like kids in the playground, wasting the time we pay them for, on nonsense. 

They play games with other members of their own party too.  It is alleged that these games often take place during 'Conference.'   My poem (slightly changed from the original) was commission by The Imperial Hotel, Blackpool, where many Conservative and Labour Party members have stayed during conference weeks. When I use the inclusive pronoun 'ours' - I speak for the hotel. 

Currie, Egg and Chips
Edwina Currie, friend of Thatcher,
cracked British egg manufacture,

crowing, “ Salmonella’s running rife,”

falling foul of every farmer and his wife.
 

As the Minister for Health,

she caused a plummet in their wealth,
when she was overheard to quip,
'Northerners die of ignorance and chips.'

When winter struck the weak and old,
she said, “Long Johns keep out the cold.”
Soon mass public consternation
forced her into resignation.

A woman scorned is fury’s hell.
Edwina wrote her 'kiss and tell',
revealing shifty shades of Grey:
a no holds barred sex expose.

Affair with married Major John,

Edwina with suspenders on

swept through corridors of power

and may have even crept through ours.

A wily bird, she caught the worm,
she made her former colleagues squirm.
Egg on their face, she licked her lips.
Edwina Currie had her chips!

Now she’s always in the news,
voicing her outspoken views,
She made her game show debut
on 'Have I Got News for You'.

Then she kicked up Strictly heels,
tried sweating over Ramsey's meals. 
Last year she jetted off to be 
a 'Get Me Out of Here’ celebrity.

Edwina just won't go away,
It's just the game she loves to play. 

 

Thanks for reading.  Adele