I was in Manchester a couple of weeks ago attending Salford Magistrates Court on a speeding rap. Yes, I’d been caught on camera once too often and was now facing a 6 month ban. Pleading ‘extreme hardship’ (their terminology) my lawyer managed to get my sentence reduced to a hefty fine – though needless to say the legal fee far outstripped the fine.

Anyway, returning across town on foot to Piccadilly Station I was surprised and saddened to see so many beggars on the street. Manchester is, after all, a reasonably affluent place and the town centre in particular crammed with designer shops, bars and restaurants so the contrast was marked.

Of course, I have no answer to the problem. No doubt many vagrants have drug and alcohol problems exacerbating other circumstances like unemployment, homelessness, poor education and social welfare issues, but one can’t help wonder why there is such a prevalence of vagrancy in this country and in cities like Manchester in particular. My daughter, who makes Panorama and similar documentaries for the BBC, told me she has come across many hard-luck stories in researching her programmes and that often it is the system itself which lets these vulnerable people down. Too much bureaucracy, penny-pinching authorities,  insensitive officials, etc, and simply an unwillingness to spend the time and money required. Working in special education I know that it’s a lot more expensive to deal with people who have problems than those who don’t (obvious really) but in the end it’s a false economy to try and save money there.

So, as I can’t help solve the problem of homelessness I did what I often do with thorny issues, I wrote a song about it. The King Arthur line was going round in my head for ages, till I realised it fitted – beggars and vagrants have been an issue for hundreds of years and we seem no more able to know what to do now than way back then.

OLD KING ARTHUR’S BONES  

I was in a Northern city but it could’ve been anywhere,

The beggars were all huddled in the doorways by the square.

But the people hurried onwards trying not to meet their eyes,

Maybe tomorrow we’ll hear your desperate cries.  

        

Chorus: When old King Arthur’s bones come dancing home.

 

Oh the shops were bright and shiny on the boulevard so wide,

And if you’ve got the plastic you’re welcome to come inside.

But if your pocket’s empty better stay out on the street,

Don’t you know it’s not our problem if you ain’t got nothing to eat.

 

Then up spoke a poor man with a sad and sorry tale,

Of how he’d lived the good life till he crashed right off the rail.

Then drinking to forget about the heartache and the pain,

Give me a break he said to set me right again.  Like old…

 

From the stone age to the cell phone age it’s always been the same,

Some are losers, some are movers and shakers in the game.

And lying in the shadows are reminders of the cost,

Of how the big society, fails the poor and lost. Since old…

 

And in that Northern city as I quickly walked away,

Knowing I’d done nothing to help upon that day.

And left with just one question, with no answer I could see,

When will we turn the pages of our ancient history. And see…

 

When old King Arthur’s bones, when old King Arthur’s bones,

When old King Arthur’s bones, come dancing home.

Come dancing home.