by Philip Kitcher

“Nurses pledge tougher new strikes as NHS crisis deepens”
—The Guardian

When Tory Ministers are sick,
and hourly feeling worse and worse,
they’re careless of arithmetic:
they’d give their all to pay a nurse.

But when they have returned to health,
old thoughts revive: they’re now averse
to placing curbs on private wealth,
and opening the public purse.

When low-paid workers make a threat
to strike, the government is terse.
How rapidly the rich forget!
So—Merry Christmas, gentle nurse.