I heard it back then
about lesbians and gay men
Now I hear it again
The deniers of rights
now have trans in their sights
Echoes from the Eighties
Article
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
Conspiracy (a poem for Joe)
Article
Sunday, April 6, 2025
Conspiracy (a poem for Joe) Banging on your door at dawnStrong-arm tactics – brains or brawn?Eight hours in a holding cellWhat you’ve done – well, who can tell?Held on evidence unknownTook your laptop, took your phoneMaking plans to stop pollution?Colluding … Read More
Drill, baby, drill
Article
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Drill, baby, drill
with greed-driven skill
Twisted and screwed
short-sighted and crude
Station Road
Article
Monday, January 13, 2025
I live in a village with a Station Road.
It has houses with low walls
the village hall, community library
no shops, a couple of bus stops
the Parish Council office
and a Station Drive coming off it.
10 questions for Disability History Month
Article
Friday, November 22, 2024
All4Inclusion asked me ten questions, and posted them and my answers on its website as part of its Disability History Month celebrations Ten questions for Disability History Month 1. Can I start by asking you to tell us a little … Read More
What Rough Beast: poems on Trump and Trumpism
Article
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
As citizens vote in the Presidential election in the USA, an anthology of poems opposing Donald Trump is published in the UK – and it includes Janine Booth’s poem, ‘Hallelujah President Trump’.
Pantoum: At Kindergarten in Lviv
Article
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Put on their coats and follow teacher
Away from danger from the skies
Air raids are a schoolday feature
Rachel Reeves says that her Budget will be
Article
Sunday, October 27, 2024
A Budget for strivers
for staying-alivers
No tenners or fivers
for dossers or skivers
duckers and divers
smokers or drivers
What Doctor Kendall ordered
Article
Friday, October 18, 2024
You think you need some space to breathe
some peaceful time away
But no! You need some handy hints
to spruce your resumé
Tough Decisions
Article
Friday, September 20, 2024
Villanelle: Tough Decisions
Governments must make tough decisions
Sorry choices, hard selections
Daring shares and long divisions
They’re Oasis
Article
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
THEY’RE OASIS
Their tour’s extensive
Their interviews somewhat defensive
The tickets are rather expensive
But they need more dimes
Patriotism
Article
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
a guest poem by Vicky Thomas St George is cross. The soldier saint says He’s at a loss To understand these days. You who take his flag And use his name As some kind of brag – He is ashamed. … Read More
Anti-union laws bar striking on crucial working-class issues
Article
Thursday, September 12, 2024
Published by Free Our Unions A discussion article by Janine Booth, Free Our Unions supporter. Tory leader Rishi Sunak’s line of attack on the Labour government’s unpopular decision to scrap winter fuel payments for most pensioners is to accuse Prime … Read More
If You Should Win
Article
Wednesday, August 7, 2024
If you get your wayIf the foreigners are kept at bayIf we wind the drawbridge and mine the beachesReach a state of monocultureCreate an all-white social structure Would your wages rise? Or would you find to your surprise your payslip doesn’t grow … Read More
Debating neurodiversity
Article
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
Janine Booth replies to John Cromby and Lucy Johnstone’s post, Neurodiversity – what exactly does it mean?, on Mad in the UK’s website. Throwing the neurodivergent baby out with the bathwater John Cromby and Lucy Johnstone have contributed an interesting … Read More
Ta-ra Tories
Article
Tuesday, July 9, 2024
Ta-ra Penny
Let’s hope that the end of Ms Mordaunt
turns out to be some sort of portent
of Conservative death
the Tories’ last breath
and spares us from more of their torment
Nancy Astor: another statue to fling in the sea
Article
Friday, June 28, 2024
Nancy Astor
in fancy plaster
in copper not in alabaster
Disabled people: Labour manifesto offers little
Article
Wednesday, June 26, 2024
Labour’s general election manifesto offers little more than vague mentions to disabled people, and drops many of the party’s specific pledges.
War, Occupation and Mental Health
Article
Saturday, June 1, 2024
A personal view published in Asylum magazine, Summer 2024.
District 6
Article
Friday, May 24, 2024
District 6 is an area of Cape Town, South Africa, that had a population that was racially mixed until the Apartheid government decreed in 1966 that District 6 become whites-only. Sixty thousand black and coloured residents of District 6 were evicted and their houses demolished.