Poetry and clog dancing

The former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, recently commented that poetry had the same social cachet as clog dancing during an interview with The Independent. After the recent round of funding cuts by the Arts Council of England (ACE), it seems that poetry now has an even lower status. Several small presses and publishers such as Enitharmon, Flambard, Arc and Salt are going to lose all their funding from 2012. Worst of all; the Poetry Book Society (PBS) which has done such an excellent job in promoting poetry since 1953, is also to lose all its ACE funding. This is a particularly savage and barbaric act since the PBS has done more than most to raise the profile of poetry today. The current Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, has published an angry response in today's Guardian in the form of a parody of Louis MacNeice's Bagpipe Music:-

"It's no go, dear PBS. It's no go sweet poets.
Sat on your arses for fifty years and never turned a profit.
All we want are bureaucrats, the nods as good as winkers.
And if you're strapped for cash, go fish, then try the pigging bankers."

I like the not-so-subtle omitted rhyme of "bankers" and "wankers". In the extensive notes to her poem Duffy quotes the poet Carol Rumens:- "The withdrawal of Arts Council England support for the PBS is an incomprehensible act of vandalism."

The ACE has had a very difficult balancing act in deciding how to allocate the misery of cuts, but the cutting of the PBS funds is definitely a cut too far. On the other hand I'm delighted to note that ACE has decided to continue its support for the English Folk Dance and Song Society, with significantly increased funding.

On a lighter note here's a poetic tribute to one of the finest clog dancers of all, Sam Sherry 1912-2001:-

Poetry in motion

His feet land with a snap
and a slap;
with a rapid tappity-tap his heels
spin like wheels
before coming to a full stop.

Then a leap, and a hop,
and off he goes
heels and toes
forward and back
clickety-clack.
That's the way to do it; and now
he makes a low bow.

© Matthew Edwards 2010

Born in the NHS

A friend who is 62 today is very active in campaigning against the so-called "reforms" to the NHS promoted by the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley - reforms which threaten to undermine the whole ethos of free and universal healthcare in Britain. So here is a little song by way of a birthday present for her.

Born in the NHS

I was born in Britain after the War.

My parents knew what they were fighting for;

It wasn’t King and Country they aimed to save,

But to get a Welfare State from cradle to grave.

I was born in the NHS;

Nye Bevan spoke

And my mother said, “Yes,

I want to give birth in the NHS.”

I don’t want choice in 57 varieties,

I want high quality not Big Society.

I put my trust in my doctor and nurse,

Don’t make them put their budgets first.

I was born in the NHS;

Nye Bevan spoke

And my mother said, “Yes,

I want to give birth in the NHS.”

Nye Bevan promised us, loud and clear,

A civilised community, free from fear;

So Mr Lansley, don’t make it a mess –

It’s mine, it’s yours, it’s our NHS.

I was born in the NHS;

Nye Bevan spoke

And my mother said, “Yes,

I want to give birth in the NHS.”

© Matthew Edwards 6 April 2010

From Matthew for Corrie to wish her a Happy Birthday.

Note: A recent Diary article in the London Review of Books by Andrew O’Hagan  tellingly contrasted the forthright clarity of the language used by Bevan in introducing his National Health Bill in 1946 with the obfuscatory prose used by Andrew Lansley in his proposals for reforming the NHS. While Bevan's speech is worth reading in its entirety there are some resonant phrases which deserve to be recalled at this time:-

            “I believe it is repugnant to a civilised community for hospitals to have to rely upon private charity. I believe we ought to have left hospital flag days behind. I have always felt a shudder of repulsion when I have seen nurses and sisters who ought to be at their work, and students who ought to be at their work, going about the streets collecting money for the hospitals.”

 And

            “... the first evil that we must deal with is that which exists as a consequence of the fact that the whole  thing is the wrong way round. A person ought to be able to receive medical and hospital help without being involved in financial anxiety.”

Matthew Edwards