The Kemptown Verses

By JJ Leahy

Instigators of Austerity

Callous bank bosses with holidays to decide
While the victims of their greed, contemplate suicide.
Are these monsters not products of a caring society?
Ignore the conflicts of interest when trading proprietary.

From pensions and hedge funds the cash they misused,
To the poor working people – their trust they abused.
Trading floor greed, spoon feeds them peace of mind
Herculean task, the honest broker to find.

Not just the management that’s corrupt and fake
Who manipulate the needy, just for money’s sake.
Suited and shady, both dodgy and bombastic
Like a Diamond of glass and Flowers of plastic;

Reckless takeovers and rampant corporate excess,
Aggressive expansion, fashioned a bloody mess.
No sign of relief, of no possible prosperity
Just many more years of this damned austerity.

Devious bastards have callously crippled industries
Now left the poor suffering long term indignities;
Posh foot soldiers, all fresh from Business school
Running fast on cocaine, working the Dark Pool.

Selfishness powered and obsessed with greed,
Not a care in the world, of those who are in need.
Extensive fraud at Fannie Mae, Washington Post attack;
Federal regulators fine – the criminals at Freddie Mac.

While customers suffer, bank charges are lewd
The boss’s non-dom tax status betrays real attitude.
They have poisoned the wells and polluted the soil
Like Madoff the fraudster, his poor victims recoil.

Now bully boy Wasserstein he slurped all the honey
While Swiss HSBC were laundering drug money.
Over one thousand jobs, Brighton’s dignity a loss
Thanks to incompetent take over, of the failing HBoS.

Underprivileged pay for the self-indulgent thief
Leave nothing for the poor, except a funeral wreath.
Ferraris and boats, the leaches preserve toys
All friends indeed, in a club for posh boys.
Wealth affords power, chaos and more wealth
Poverty affords depression and impacts on health.
We know who was to blame, where lays the onus
Yet corporate criminals still – earn millions in bonus.

Mrs Threadneedle and the FSA, both blindly box ticking
If in league with the depraved, they need a good kicking.
Smart suits no boundaries, still launder and smuggle
Dilute not the truth, of the poor’s constant struggle.

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