What the Dickens is this?
As parliament breaks up for Christmas
We are visited by the ghosts of promises;
As Brexit consumes the policies
Once pledged to deal with ‘burning injustices’,
The ghost of past oaths and assurances
To tackle rouge bailiffs and rip-off leases
Are abandoned as inequality advances;
See the ghosts to be crouched on cold streets,
Lives, not just statistics in rising homelessness,
The ghost of past undertakings and vows
To confront domestic violence, here and now
With electronic tags for known offenders
And forced rehab for abusive substance users,
How many victims are no longer with us
Since broken pacts to protect survivors?
Ghosts of lawful guarantees to defend us
In the word they gave they’d shield workers
From still legal wage-theft by some businesses,
People treated like those caged wild creatures
Still allowed to be trapped in certain circuses,
As the cabinet prepares to sleep this December 24th,
May they hear the howling wind knocking at their doors
And see the ghost of now, shades of what came before
And the spectre of the future if they don’t change course.
Antonia Sara Zenkevitch
The 48% 
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