PENNY LANE

by John Coopey

Thursday 13th October 2016 11:47 am

(I bet you didn't know this)

Penny Lane commemorates the town’s complicity

From the income it received from certain trade

And the fortune James Penny made

From shipping slaves

Across the waves.

Mr Penny at the Privy Council testified

His investigations left him satisfied

That only 1 in 12 slaves died

From leaving port

“Not bad” he’d snort.

Remember how the owners made insurance claims

For the price of ‘cargo’ lost upon the “Zong”

The Captain didn’t think it wrong

To throw the slaves

Into the waves.

They were surplus with supplies of water running low

They were manacled by hand and foot and neck

They were jettisoned from the deck

To Caribbean graves

A hundred slaves.

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes

There beneath the blue suburban skies

I sit and meanwhile back

Penny Lane commemorates the town’s complicity

From the income it received from certain trade

And the fortune James Penny made

From shipping slaves

Across the waves.

Comments

John Coopey

Thu 13th Oct 2016 17:40

Indeed, MC. Although I for one am not in favour of historical denial. Removing statues and monuments to those who we look on less favourably these days. Cecil Rhodes springs to mind. They did what they did, good and bad, in their times when mores were significantly different fronm now.

M.C. Newberry

Thu 13th Oct 2016 17:18

Good to see you tying in a famous song with an infamous
trade and one of its major ports (the other rhymes with
"pistol"!). The cruelties resonate down the years and
one wonders at the arrogance & greed of the gentry
that benefitted in an age when they could attend church
and spout the scriptures to suit their interpretations of
the "Good Book". The basic and base reality is that they
were able to convince themselves that the victims were
somehow less than human and beyond the protection of God's laws as they were accepted then. The Arabs had
been engaging in the trade under Islam and had (have?)
had their own rationale to suit their behaviour and the
power and profit it yielded. Indeed, one North African
country has only recently (in historical terms) declared slavery illegal...and there is evidence that there are
forms of it still practised now in less general terms.

Graham Sherwood

Thu 13th Oct 2016 14:19

Depends how long Harry Kane is out for and if Son can stay on fire. I'd settle for beating the bloody Arsenal for once. Good start though!

G

John Coopey

Thu 13th Oct 2016 13:37

Thanks, Graham. Title contenders?

Graham Sherwood

Thu 13th Oct 2016 12:11

A Mc'Coopey classic if ever there was one.

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PENNY LANE

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