Things Can Only Get Better, Tony

A poem for those who were around for the 1997 UK general election.

Do you still sing the tune that played
when you stepped onto that stage
you promising...the nation believing...
that things could only get better?

Will things get better in Gaza
when you’ve brokered a real estate deal
on genocide-soaked ground
still wet with blood as red as New Labour’s rose?

Do you think things will get better in Iran
by telling someone to buy and sell
the same lie you used—a weapon of mass distraction
to start a war for oil?

Do the right-wing, billionaire cheques make it better?
Are they big enough to shield your eyes
from the devastation they have brought
to communities 
democracies
workplaces
education
healthcare
the environment…
All the things you campaign-promised
could only get better.

Things can only get better, Tony.

I believe you do still sing that tune. 
But the difference is who 
you are singing it for.

- Donna Fisher

It was a different time…come and see what convinced a lot of us to vote for Tony Blair in 1997, in fairness, the alternative wasn’t great.

D:REAM the group whose song Things Can Only Get Better, used by New Labour in their successful 1997 election campaign, banned Labour from using it again in 2024