Uploaded October 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
NINETEENTH – CUT OUT
By P B Taylor
I
Time only dictates a delicate beauty in rounded verse
To which there may be some polite conference applause
Running throughout the ever-contemporary significant curse
As champion of a revived inspired defeated liberal cause
A parliamentary vote system faces its constant present plight
As a miserable morning desert all hot and burning
And extremes to freeze by the dead black of the night
Submitting new ideals democratically always infiltrating
A torrid minor fight against vapid conservatism
Or the quiet social contract socialism of the day
Rides high above the crest of wavy wet liberalism
As differences seem near never awfully far away
Always the stylist barrister in flamboyant diverse persuasion
Dealing with an equipped effectiveness for a permanent opposition
II
We wonder what the future holds and might now be
Or could there ever be a future at this stage?
Ever adopting Asquith’s indecisive wait and see
As election clouds burst all around in a rage
That Edwardian image of the hat watch and waistcoat
Might describe what is or was or should be what
As suspicious political poems which tend to gloat
Over an up and down history marked with devastating spots
Sadly, that past another place of what has gone away
Can sometime return to many who justly frequent
Participating in the politics of up to date today
As the Man between beautiful houses of parliament
Always that unknown potential leadership quality
And always unfortunately lacking experience of quantity
JT Harrogate September 1973
NINETEENTH – CUT OUT
By P B Taylor
I
Time only dictates a delicate beauty in rounded verse
To which there may be some polite conference applause
Running throughout the ever-contemporary significant curse
As champion of a revived inspired defeated liberal cause
A parliamentary vote system faces its constant present plight
As a miserable morning desert all hot and burning
And extremes to freeze by the dead black of the night
Submitting new ideals democratically always infiltrating
A torrid minor fight against vapid conservatism
Or the quiet social contract socialism of the day
Rides high above the crest of wavy wet liberalism
As differences seem near never awfully far away
Always the stylist barrister in flamboyant diverse persuasion
Dealing with an equipped effectiveness for a permanent opposition
II
We wonder what the future holds and might now be
Or could there ever be a future at this stage?
Ever adopting Asquith’s indecisive wait and see
As election clouds burst all around in a rage
That Edwardian image of the hat watch and waistcoat
Might describe what is or was or should be what
As suspicious political poems which tend to gloat
Over an up and down history marked with devastating spots
Sadly, that past another place of what has gone away
Can sometime return to many who justly frequent
Participating in the politics of up to date today
As the Man between beautiful houses of parliament
Always that unknown potential leadership quality
And always unfortunately lacking experience of quantity
JT Harrogate September 1973
