The price of progress.

narrative verse

 

 

 The price of progress

 

The banks of Tyne are green again

The skyline boasts no shipyard crane

Our great shipbuilding industry,

 a footnote now in history

 

The riversides no longer ring

 to the harsh sound of riveting

It’s not the Tyne I used to know

 although the daily tides still flow

 

up past Newcastle from the sea

Far cleaner than they used to be.

I wonder was it worth the cost

 a thousand, thousand jobs were lost.

 

There was no clear cut policy

 to deal with mass redundancy.

As usual the government

 addressed the rising discontent

 

With promises of action to

 reduce the ever growing queue.

 On unemployment benefit

But sadly they did not see fit.

 

To do what needed to be done.

 So we were left to struggle on.

The fat cats were protected by

 the old boys camaraderie.

 

Nobody gave a tinkers damn

about the common working man.

One M.P.was heard to say

 this is the price we have to pay.

 

He clearly did not understand

 the working men’s right to demand.

Some action from the powers that be

which would relieve their misery.

 

Correcting mistakes which were made.

As usual the price was paid

By men who lost their livelihood

and not by those who really should.

 

have paid the price because they failed

to see. Just what would be entailed

In closing down an industry

 which had thrived traditionally.

 

From lack of positive support

and even worse from lack of thought.

Though craftsmen could transfer their skill

 there were no vacancies to fill.

 

Whole communities were destroyed

there was no way they could avoid.

Being forced to move away

although they would much rather stay.

 

The banks of Tyne are green again.

Paid for in hardship and in pain.

The working men were hardest hit

 again the rich folks benefit.

 

Because they can afford to buy

Luxury flats that now rise high

 and cater for the wealthiest

Who think that they deserve the best.

 

The working class lose out again

Which is quite easy to explain.

Though working men are in demand

 the wealthiest are in command.

 

They always were through history

There really is no mystery.

The power lies with the elite

The working men cannot compete.

 

The rich get rich at our expense

 and most of them make no pretence.

To care about the working man.

 Who they exploit because they can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http:// blog.myspace.com/poeticpiers

 

 

Reviews

[Dianah]

Well said. Unfortunately the fate of many industrial areas. The last stanza sums it up well.

[Tate Morgan]

I see so much truth ere that I can hear it from over the pond
tate