Laureatically Speaking

As the Day approaches when Andrew Motion and his notebook will no longer be welcome at the Palace to drink tea and discuss, rhyme, meter and metaphor and how it applies to the modern Royal Family, there is much speculation as to whom the role will be awarded to next.

William Hill’s odds for the next Laureate can be found here, there is a campaign to ensure that the next laureate is a female and Wendy Cope still has high odds despite the fact that she has scorned the role itself and said that she would not accept it if it was offered…

So as L-Day approaches and the excitement reaches fever pitch, due to an unprecedented state of affairs existing, never has a fixed term Laureate come to the end of the tenure. Before Mr Motion, the reason you left the Laureateship was when you breathed your last, but when Mr Motion leaves he will be breathing and I hope this is the case for many years to come…

So what do I want to happen? Well, I would like them to update the position so that the future Laureate will be an ambassador for British poetry as a whole, not just someone who tosses off the odd rhyme for a family that anyone would find it hard to write about, but that is not going to happen. So I would like it to go to Roger McGough, I think he deserves it, he is a wonderful word-juggler who would do the role justice and he is the reason, probably, that I write poetry. (Although this in itself is not reason to give it to him.)

But I do not just want it to be awarded to him, I would like a chain of events to take place that sees Roger McGough receive the award.

In 1999 Tony ‘Part of the Rock’N’Roll Generation’ Blair, did not want Carol Ann Duffy to be Laureate because, of her sexuality, so I hope she is offered the post and she tells them that, ‘You didn’t want me last time so Sod off.’. Then it is awarded to Wendy Cope who tells them, ‘Did you not hear what I said?’ and then after much embarrassment, they decide to offer it to Mr McGough who was the best person for the role in the first place…

Apparently Carol Ann Duffy has been offered the role so we will see…