The England I Knew Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The England I knew

When I came to England in the seventies, I settled
in a dreadful town called Elsmere Port
the saving grace, it had a library and was near Chester
and Liverpool.
My education was a woeful lacking substance I took
classes in counselling, philosophy, literature and of all
thing acting, an art that always has fascinated me.
The chasm between workers and bosses was not deep
even the Tory party had a human face
Then came the catastrophe, in the form of a female
called Margarete Thatcher.
Greed is right; there is no society, and workers were
encouraged to buy their council homes and social
housing virtually stopped.
Factories closed "get on your bike" was the mantra
England stopped being a pleasant place to live.
It got worse; BREXIT came and tore Britain apart
people had been seduced to think it was patriotic
to vote for Brexit. (To take the country back)
The decline is for all to see, foodbanks and poverty
among riches, and it was with sorrow I saw the once
fine nation falls into cynicism. and the murder
of NHS, a pearl in a tattered crown