Unangelic Voices EP by Kerry JK

It came on the news after stirring overnight
That the language of Lenin is now the weapon of the right
The true way’s the new way
The old ideals are toast
If this is treason, let us make the most

They talk of unity when they really mean submission
They punish dissidence rather than admit contrition
Authority is measured by the brashness of the boast
If this is treason, let us make the most

Moguls mask the margins
To marginalise the fight
A pebble’s like a boulder
If dropped from sufficient height
The disgruntled are distracted
With an enemy off coast
If this is treason, let us make the most.

United in diversity
Divided by conformity
Resist the creeping terror
Of thankful uniformity
Invoke Mandela, Ghandi and Bodicea’s ghost
If this is treason, let us make the most.

While we’re waiting for the papers
To be delivered in the post
If this is treason, let us make the most.

—-

This was a response to a series of increasingly worrying headlines by UK newspapers over the years leading up to 2016’s Brexit vote, which were a little to casual for my liking in the way they would declare dissenting voices “enemies of the people” and if a vote against the right wing zeitgeist wasn’t actually declared an act of treason it was certainly implied.

When the USA voted to declare independence from the UK, Patrick Henry famously declared, “If this is treason let us make the most of it”, a sentiment that strikes a chord with how I feel about the direction my native country has taken recently.