Spring the Changes

How quick the daffies disappeared.
Spring rings the changes now it's here.
Each kind of flower makes fleeting show,
The colours change in endless flow,
Brought to me by the wobbly bus,
Which drags me slowly to and fro.

Though now the winter's gone at last,
The folk are all too cold or hot,
We're never happy with our lot.

Castle Gardens

The flowers burst out through the bars,

Reaching out toward the cars.

A kind I have not seen before,

White and spiky balls of light

Which glow in the warm springtime night.

Their escapist exuberance

Creates a kind of balance with

The crucified trees that lie within.

Nailed upon an iron frame

They seem to almost be in pain.

When daylight comes the garden turns to vile;

The winos sit upon their benches,

They shout into their mobile,

Or chat with drunken wenches,

Whilst swigging from a can of special strength.

They laugh and curse and dominate.

The people keep on walking through,

This garden's not for me and you.

Who'd sit upon the next bench to

These tattooed men who swear and shout.


More on winos:Drunkards of the Dosshouse

The Falklands Factor

We are told by one of Dubya's Texas cronies that he intended the Iraq War even before winning his first Presidential election. He and other politicians are fascinated by the 'Falklands Factor', the popularity boost that Margaret Thatcher got from winning the Falklands War. He started a war to 'have a successful Presidency'.
    But do they understand the Falklands Factor?
    I suspect that they do not. They don't understand the extent that it was due to the bumbling of Opposition Leader Michael Foot.
    The war transformed Thatcher from a hugely unpopular and obviously doomed PM to one who was riding high in the polls and effortlessly re-elected. I believe this was due to the way in which Foot vacillated between the two wings of his party. One wing was for the war, the other bitterly opposed.
    He attempted the ridiculous feat of trying to appease both, while the war raged. All he succeeded in doing was convincing people like me that he and his party were unfit for office. No matter how much I eventually came to despise Thatcher, I never voted Labour.