The SKWAWKBOX would like to wish all its readers a wonderful Christmas and a healthy, happy and prosperous 2017. Sadly, under this government, all too many of us will not enjoy either of those things.
Record numbers of people in this country, including over 120,000 children, will have no home of their own this evening to wait for Father Christmas. Disabled people are preparing for a £1500 cut to their income, imposed by a Tory government happy to spend hundreds of millions on refurbishing Buckingham Palace.
Many people in work are struggling because of low hours and poor wages, demonised for claiming benefits in spite of working hard to try to make ends meet, while in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and many other places, children go to bed each night – if they’re lucky enough to have a bed – not knowing whether the house will be blown apart on top of them. Those escape the war-zones arrive to be vilified and kept in camps, treated as – and called – vermin.
So here’s a Christmas carol for the country and world we live in, written by Andrew Weeks, a consultant at a cash-strapped, understaffed Liverpool hospital. I hope it doesn’t apply to you as you read it – except for the last verse, which needs to apply to all of us.
Silent night, holy night!
Sleeps the world, hid from sight.
Homeless laid in alleyways bare
Rich men pass, full of Christmas fare
To sleep in uneasy peace,
Sleep in uneasy peaceSilent night, holy night!
Children cower, cold with fright
Scared of all that the darkness might bring
Bombs, or conflict, or beatings that sting
Where’s the heavenly peace?
Where is the heavenly peace?Silent night, holy night!
Comes the morn, warming light
Rouse in us transformative zeal
With resolve to truly make real
Justice this Christmas time!
Peace at this Christmas timeJustice this Christmas time!
Peace at this Christmas time
May the heads of those responsible rest uneasy on their pillows tonight. For the rest of you, God bless you and may the new year bring better.
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