"Shocking News"

Sometimes
When you go abroard
There's no time
For news from back home.
Always the same
Wherever I roam.
The papers are free
But in Flemish or French
Only fit to line a dossers pew
On a foreign park bench.
My phone's for phoning
And the camera's for pics
I've none of those gadgets
With a million and one tricks.
Seven hours from Brussels
After a week away
At Victoria station
Grab the Standard and Metro
To see what's happened today.
I'm going into shock
I feel like crying
That can't be true
Bob Crow dying!
Right wing press pretend to mourn
Tory politicians hypocritally fawn.
For me it's the end of a era
Demise of our proud unions
Just got a step nearer.
They said train drivers were greedy
Striking at the drop of a hat
In reality
Fighting for work and conditions
Which were not all that.
Just like his football team
No-one liked him
But he didn't care
The Lion of the Left
Who drove Tories to despair.
Proud to be of council house stock.
Standing firm solid as a rock.
A working class hero
In the way it was meant
Unlike the dead Beatle
Who chose to flee
Not a man of the people
But an exile overseas.
Never believe the lies
Of union greed
It's the R.M.T. unity
The rest of us need.
To a train drivers wage
We should all aspire
Looking onward and upwards
Raising our standards higher.
A principled man
Who never sold out
Whose strength in attack
Gave his members such clout.
Granted he earned a huge wage
But not compared
To fat cats in suits
For all their nasty smears
He didn't give two hoots.
If it were not for strong men
Like Bob who stood firm as one
The right to a decent rail wage
Would never have begun
All concessions won in the past
Would have been chipped away
And there'd just be the bare minimum wage
In their non-unionised pay.
Couple that with
Non existent safety checks
And I dread to think
How many dead in train wrecks.
Sticking to his beliefs
Rather than selling his soul
Living proof of whan you can achieve
With socialism your goal.
Farwell Bob Crow
A giant among men
I doubt if we'll see
Your like ever again.
Taking comfort from
I'm gutted inside
But as a solid trade unionist
You fill me with pride.

Dulwich Poet 17th March 2014

(I had a week away in Belgium, when I got back last Wednesday I picked up a couple of free papers, sat down on my train home & read that Bob Crow, leader of the .R.M.T. union & a Millwall fan as well, had died the day before, aged only 52. He was a true hero of mine)