Roger McGough: putting the poetry back into
politics
Roger McGough is putting his new political skills to work today in his capacity as Cultural Ambassador for Liverpool. He will be presenting an early day motion in verse at a reception for 200 guests in parliament.
Of course, despite telling the Press Association that he was "very honoured to have been invited to support the city" as Cultural Ambassador, he won't actually be turning up. True to recent form he's decided not to come to the event, and instead will be reading the poem, which congratulates the people of Liverpool for winning European Capital of Culture status in 2008, via videolink.
It was George Howarth, Labour MP for Knowsley North, who tabled the motion, thought to be the first parliamentary motion ever to be submitted in verse.
Perhaps it will catch on? Will Geoffrey Hill's impenetrable rewrite of the ID cards bill bring the parliamentary ping-pong to an end? Can Carol Ann Duffy get Labour to love the Tony Blair's prescription for the NHS?
Or maybe it's already started. Would anybody notice if the education bill had actually been written by Mark Haddon?
