THE BALLAD OF CAIT REILLY

for IDS

They told her it was training

and would only last a day,

but she stacked shelves for two weeks

and didn't get her pay.

She raised it with the JSA
in her fortnightly interview,
but they told her to get off her arse
or they'd cut her benefits too.

So she raised it in the High Court,
with Mr Justice Foskett, judge,
who banged his gavel down and said,
"Get to work you bludge!"

They told her it was training
and would only last a day,
but she stacked shelves for two weeks
and didn't get her pay.

So she raised it in appeal court,
said the government broke laws,
said the ministers were slavers
funding profit with the poor.

Lord Pill, Sir Stanley Burnton
and Lady Justice Black
concurred forced labour's unlawful
and sent the regulations back.

They told her it was training
and would only last a day,
but she stacked shelves for two weeks
and didn't get her pay.

Now Cait Reilly is the victor
but the government won't repent
and to Poundland and to Tesco
the jobseekers are sent.

They'll paint them all as scroungers
in the Torygraph and Mail,
but let's fight them with Cait Reilly
and ensure their workfare fails.

They told her it was training
and would only last a day,
but she stacked shelves for two weeks
and she made the ministers pay.


Read Cait Reilly on today's decision here