Jubilee
Jubilee
A step across the great divide
From this side to the other side
A cautious step, a careful stride
Centuries long and twice as wide.
Carefully place your stumbling feet
There’s caterpillars in the street
ghost butterflies with ‘nowt to eat
a life to live and death to cheat
TV screens in shop windows
Relay the parties and the woes
Resentment in the doorway grows
A tally of the highs and lows
A golden coach rumbles by
Reflecting where the fallen lie
A husband weeps a wife will cry
This place is where the homeless die
Upon her head a golden crown
That weighs the working classes down
And still they stroke the ermine gown
In every city, village, town.
A joyous day for all they say
For everyone a holiday
They don’t record the price we pay
For Little England being this way
Some cannot heat, some cannot eat
For some the trifles won’t be sweet
This joyous moment’s passing fleet
For some a throne, for some a seat.
The bunting flutters in the breeze
Hung from lampposts and from trees
A country brought down to its knees
Shackled, thrown away the keys
A Royal, A celebrity
Paddington calls in for tea
Not the place for you or me
A sorry state. A Jubilee.
M.C. Newberry
Mon 13th Jun 2022 23:35
The business of "costing" the Royal Family is a ceaseless merry-go-round. The Crown Estates represent the business
of commercial interests of property vested in Royal ownership.
As for the total per annum paid from the public purse towards
the upkeep of the institution itself, that is accommodated by
the vast income generated by their prestigious presence in
international relations and the tourism industry, in all their
many forms. Politicians decide how that money finds its way
back to benefit the public at large and it is certainly the case
that this is often far from satisfactory, depending on one's
point of view.