Connoly

Connolly

This is less a poem; more a rant in rhyme

Pertaining to a racist, doing time

For posting online, her evident desire

To see asylum centres set afire,

With the occupants still inside; leading

To a jail sentence, upon her pleading

Guilty to inciting racial hatred;

A “Category A offense” the judge said,

Before giving her 31 months no less;

And media barons of populist press,

Along with purveyors of far-right reach,

Henceforth decried the laws of free speech.

However: her time inside was decreased

By sixty percent; and she was released,

Albeit still under supervision,

Upon having spent ten months in prison.

And very soon after, the self-proclaimed

“Political-prisoner” and unashamed

Racist, appeared on stage, at Reform UK’s

Conference, to rapturous applause and praise;

Attendees, raucously clapping along

To what sounded like a Gary Glitter song;

And then came a speech and an interview,

That I couldn’t listen to all the way through,

And it seems to me, from what little I heard,

She obviously didn’t regret one word,

Of her inflammatory tweet; which led

Me to conclude: maybe instead

Of jail, she should have done community

Service, and had the opportunity

To meet the innocent recipients

Of carnage, starting with the residents

Of Southport; helping to clean up the mess

She helped create with her thoughtless address.

As it is, jail time for posting racial hate

Has led to a deflective debate

On free-speech, an increase in racism

And an outbreak of faux patriotism,

Akin to celebrating being a Brit

By sticking a flag in a pile of dogshit.