Gripe Poem by Mary Champion

The sanctimonious self-righteousness
of the rural middle class is irksome.
They buy their food at the local farm shop -
and it is good to support the farmers.
But they blithely ignore the rural poor
who can scarcely afford Lidl prices
and, anyway there's no Lidl for miles.
Of course, they shop and do all their journeys
in their flashy gas-guzzling four by fours.
Not their fault there are no country buses -
except they consistently vote Tory.
It's a 'countryside as theme park' lifestyle -
with their trendy wood burning stoves installed
lethally polluting the country air.
But their most irritating assumption
is that they're morally superior,
simply by virtue of geography,
to those who live in towns and in cities.
But if we all followed their example
and decamped to live in the countryside,
their demi-paradise would be transformed
overnight, into a teeming suburb.
So instead of looking down their noses
at city-dwellers, they should thank us all,
from the depths of their self-satisfied hearts
that we are happy to inhabit towns.