The driver peers through smoke, looking for the flag.

Annus mirabilis. How Noel Coward despised young people.

Well, he would, wouldn’t he? The trick is making connections,

if there are any. The end of National Service.

The Establishment caught with its trousers down.

You had to be with-it. These funny little railway lines

 

really weren’t. John Betjeman might scribble a few lines.

For the last time, the guard waves his green flag.

Green flag, or Green Shield stamps? Some people

might grieve but steam was outdated, and lost connections

would only inconvenience a few. Instead a bus service.

Never mind Lady Chatterley. Profumo failed to face down

 

a scandal, satirists revelled, old streets were torn down,

replaced by homes in the skies. James Bond, the secret service,

end of empire. Was there a connection?

Flanders and Swann mourned in song the lost lines.

The Big Freeze, ice on the inside, a poet’s flag

of surrender. Goodbye to the anthem in cinemas. Had the people

 

had it with deference? Was it with-it, to be common people?

Rattle yer jewellery! For a while, toffs saluting the flag

made them figures of fun. Or were the far-right battle lines 

of King and country formed back then? Don’t Bring Me Down,

sang the Pretty Things. I knew she would meet her connection,

sang the Stones, who were singled out by the police service.

 

The war minister and the Russian naval attache, serviced

by the same woman. Read all about it in the Sunday People!

British soldiers killed in Aden before we ran down the flag.

Miniskirts, kinky boots. The mellifluous names on our uprooted line -

Newton Poppleford, Tipton St Johns, East Budleigh. Down

goes the signal, last branch train for the main line connection.  

 

The Fat Controller got his way. So what was the connection?

Marples was the transport minister, and ran railways down

because his family firm built roads. Disused lines

succumbed to the power of wildflowers. The people

wanted cars, flyovers, hard shoulders, service

stations. Only dedicated followers of fashion flew the flag.

                                                                                

These days the Union flag is brandished by people

who make false connections, talk of blood lines,

rely on fake news services. They bring our country down.