The Death Of A Corporation.

                                                                               Mick McCann

 

I only had 58 followers or friends or whatever the fuck y call ’em. I was angry, still am, if truth be told - she’ll never get that time back. Yet now, there’s no-one really left for me to be angry at… cunts. 

 

Now, I channel that anger against whichever sicko corporation is in the news and use it as a way of ignoring my shame, but I need the money, sort of. Now, I just feel like some disgraceful grief-porn star but we all exploit and get exploited, just give it comfier names that’s all. I reckon it’s part of the human condition. Well, that’s my excuse and it doesn’t matter, fuck all matters. That’s not true, the people I love matter. She matters.

 

That’s another excuse I tell myself, my walk on angry man role convinces the people I love that I’m coping. I’m not. 

 

Anyway, as I said, I only had 58 followers, it was just a pointless howl in the dark. That’s what I kept calling it. They liked that. Once I saw their eyes light up I kept using it and kinda slipped into character for them. Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome….. Mr Abused, Exploited Millions. I suppose that was one good thing to come out of it, my foundation, Young Leeds Creatives - as soon as I mentioned it was in her memory, it went mental, every stranger wanted to associate with my pain, my ‘cause’. Made them feel more alive, more on social message, more interesting… cunts.

 

I even had to split it into three tweets, three tweets to 58 followers, how unlikely is that? Nothing much goes viral nowadays unless it’s a cleverly disguised corporate message. ‘Ey @ATV,’ I wrote, ‘just t let y know Clare’s dead now.’ Fuck ‘em, I thought, I ‘ant signed owt. ‘Y’know the woman who gave 20 yrs of her life to y, leaving at 6 in the morning, getting home at 9 or 10 at night, barely seeing her kids, who was selfish enough t get cancer, so that you had the inconvenience of having to bully her out of her job. You were right, she wasn’t productive in the end, the cancer killed her… good call… corporate cunts.’  I dint think about grammar, could barely see the screen.

 

It was shocking, went mental, 5 hours later I was on national news. I think it was pulling out the hot threatening emails live on telly that really hooked people. I mean I dint check the legal situation but as I asked the nation, ‘Morally, how can ATV expect a dead woman’s signature, on a gagging order they paid a few grand to obtain, to carry across to her grieving husband? She’s not here to enforce it anymore…. Anyway, fuck ‘em, I’ve nothing else they can take…. I’ll go to jail.’  I felt the close-up on that one, tear perfectly in focus.

 

Interesting that at sommat past six they let the f-word out. I saw them flinch when

I said it but later heard the producer whispering about it being ‘authentic’ and

‘heartfelt’ sommat about not gagging a man grieving his wife, speaking out against

corporate Britain, ‘anyway, it was live.’. In reality, they just liked it, made it more edgy,

more dramatic, better TV, I could see it in their eyes. 

 

‘They wore her down,’ the cunts, I said, without the c-word, doubt they’d’ve let that

one out. She was powerful and ballsy, gobby, union rep for a while, always fighting

other people’s fights. Anyway, she went right to the top of ATV about her treatment,

as her managers insisted she had her appointments out of company time and were

agreeing in front of her that if she couldn’t work the long hours, she could no longer

do the job. 

 

Fatal mistake, going to the top, the Chief Executive and Head Of Human Resources stopped the managers breaking the law again… and again. They did just enough to stop Clare from being able to go to tribunal, when the time came. How could she when they ‘changed’? They didn’t stop the bullying though, the cunts, the managers just got smarter at it, smarter and more vindictive, bullied her out of the building. What the fuck happens to people when they’re given power? When is our society going to value people? Two more hours of daytime TV, per question, those got, with add-ons: later and without the fuck.  

 

The media lapped it up for a few days, ‘already wounded David against cruel, corporate Goliath’, and the public boycotted ATV, nobody watched and then that became the story. Their share price plummeted and then that became the story, Advertisers pulled their ads and then that became the story,- they didn’t come back, well not in time. FTSE 100 to fuck all in less than a month and lots of cheap TV for those companies left behind.

 

Now there’s a few spaces to flick through on the nations TV’s and fake government turmoil as to what to do - they must be rubbing their hands together, they’ll make a killing to share with their mates… cunts. 

 

Now I’ve got an agent, apparently I’m some sort of fucked-up voice of the people, dragged out (for a fee) whenever there’s an exploited worker/individual story, which is all the fucking time, now they’re looking for them. I’m the worst kind of media whore… got shit-loads of ‘followers’. 

 

As I said, we all exploit and get exploited, just give it comfier names that’s all. I reckon it’s part of the human condition. 

 

I miss her y’know, Clare, I really fucking miss her. I sometimes think about joining her, except there is no afterlife and I couldn’t do that to the people I love… but I really do fucking miss her.