William Franklin, of Pett Franklin explained that his secretary, Jennie Kitching, is a Black Country poet and on October 3 was called at about 5pm by the BBC after getting back home. She was asked to prepare a poem with a share scheme/financial theme to be broadcast the following morning during the Radio Five 05.30am programme “Wake Up to Money” as it was National Poetry Day.

It sounded like a hoax to William. But it wasn’t, and in an amazingly short period of time on such an unpromising subject for poetry she produced the following verse in the wake of Ed Miliband’s ‘One Nation’ speech earlier in that week.

‘One Nation’

by Jennie Kitching

Will our 14 year olds be good as gold, playing their
financial instruments?
Will they be inventive with incentives or sense the
cessation of our ‘One Nation’?
Will they be procuring the pecuniary within an
economical economy and will their employers have
a scheme to let them ‘live the dream’ and be profitsharing keen?
… breathing harmony and cooperation into the
heart of our “One Nation”?
where our lawyers and accountants come together,
moving mountains
in multi-disciplinary deliberation of disguised
remuneration
handling income tax and NICs, together with
HMRC,
making each and every employee an owner of their
company
Will it be profit-sharing, management caring, ego
snaring, burden bearing, be owner managed or
taxation ravaged? Our future. … dis-integration …
So, will your 14 year old watch their future grow –
or sit in the corner as an MLG pro?

“For the uninitiated, ‘MLG pro’ refers to being a ‘Major League Gaming’ professional (a term used often by our 14 year olds!),” added William Franklin, share scheme accountant.