{"id":602,"date":"2010-03-25T10:18:21","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T10:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=602"},"modified":"2010-03-25T10:18:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T10:18:21","slug":"geoff-stevens-is-going-ratting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/geoff-stevens-is-going-ratting\/","title":{"rendered":"Geoff Stevens is going ratting"},"content":{"rendered":"


Earlier this week there was a documentary shown on UK TV about King Edward VII. By coincidence, regular IS&T contributor Geoff Stevens has submitted a poem inspired by one King Edward's more infamous social put-downs \u2013 when he saw Lord Harris in a brown bowler hat and tweeds in the Royal Enclosure at
\nAscot, the King quipped “Morning Harris, going ratting?”<\/span>
<\/p>\n


GOING RATTING HARRIS?<\/span>
 <\/span>
According to King Edward<\/span>
it\u2019s turning up<\/span>
for the Royal Enclosure<\/span>
wearing tweeds.<\/span>
 <\/span>
These days, it\u2019s asking for egg & chips<\/span>
in The Chinese.<\/span>
It\u2019s not eating pizza<\/span>
or wearing jeans.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s going to Margate<\/span>
for your holidays.<\/span>
It\u2019s not wearing a red nose<\/span>
or giving to Comic Relief.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s being quiet in libraries<\/span>
or asking for a beer<\/span>
at a book launching.<\/span>
It\u2019s not buying The Guardian.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s owning an iPod<\/span>
or using your laptop on a train.<\/span>
It\u2019s calling a railway station<\/span>
a railway station.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s not shaving off body hair<\/span>
or having a tattoo<\/span>
It\u2019s not liking hip-hop<\/span>
or spinning on your head.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s not having a loyalty card.<\/span>
It\u2019s paying cash<\/span>
It\u2019s being quick.<\/span>
It\u2019s singing Rule Britannia in schools.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s having common sense<\/span>
instead of being politically correct.<\/span>
It\u2019s greater than winning the lottery<\/span>
or being voted in as a MP.<\/span>
 <\/span>
It\u2019s someone asking<\/span>
\u201cGoing ratting, Harris?\u201d<\/span>
it\u2019s a badge of honour<\/span>
it\u2019s better than a MBE.<\/span>


* <\/span><\/font>Geoff
\n Stevens<\/span> is a regular IS&T contributor, who as well as being a painter and poet, has run the Purple Patch magazines for may year. Last year he was awarded The Ted Slade Award for
\nServices to Poetry.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week there was a documentary shown on UK TV about King Edward VII. By coincidence, regular IS&T contributor Geoff Stevens has submitted a poem inspired by one King Edward's more infamous social put-downs \u2013 when he saw Lord Harris in a brown bowler hat and tweeds in the Royal Enclosure at Ascot, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/602\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}