Atos Kills (A Sort of Sonnet)

Since I left the UK for Sardinia I've been keeping in touch as best as I can with everything that's going on back home. Few things have touched me, or made me as angry and indignant, as what appears to be happening to very sick and disabled people who are having their benefits taken away as a result of a very crude test by ATOS called the Work Capability Assessment. It astonishes me that very senior politicians like Cameron, Grayling, Osbourne and Duncan Smith are turning their backs on the fact that a large number of people, who have been found fit for work as a result of a WCA test, are dying shortly after the test (something like between 32 and 73 a week depending on what figures you believe.) It's as though these politicians wish to pretend that this tragedy isn't happening. Here's a poem I've written about it:-

Atos Kills (A sort of sonnet)

ATOS kills, or so they say,
The tragedy and distress,
Subterfuge, unholy mess;
It's like a William Shakespeare play.
The laws of decency can't apply
To sufferers of cancer, heart disease
Or schizophrenia, if you please;
Found fit for work and then they die.
"Zero points. Go get a job!
If you die it's hardly worse
Than sponging off the public purse
You weak, pathetic, scrounging slob!
Just think of all the dosh we'll save
While you are resting in your grave."

Geoff Davis © 2012