This poem has a comic tone. Unrelated Incidents This poem has a comic tone. Tom Leonard was born in Glasgow, and still lives there. He has described his childhood upbringing as "working class West of Scotland Irish Catholic. Almost all his poetry is written in his own Glaswegian dialect.

It is written phonetically in a Scottish accent. this is thi six a clock news thi man said n thi reason a talk wia BBC accent iz coz yi widny wahnt mi ti talk aboot thi The poem is humorous and challenges our prejudices “This is the six a clock nyooz” slightly comical way of announcing the news. The lack of capital letters and speech marks makes it sound informal like someone is talking. The poet is not only mocking the insistence on Standard English but also attacking his own people for not having enough pride in their own culture.

trooth wia voice lik wanna yoo scruff trooth wia voice lik wanna yoo scruff. if a toktaboot thi trooth lik wanna yoo scruff yi widny thingk it wuz troo. jist wanna yoo scruff tokn. no one will take the news seriously if it's read with a 'voice lik/wanna yoo/scruff'. There is almost no punctuation. There are lots of slang and colloquial words ('scruff, belt up').

thirza right way ti spell ana right way to tok it thirza right way ti spell ana right way to tok it. this is me tokn yir right way a spellin. this is ma trooth. yooz doant no thi trooth yirsellz cawz yi canny talk right. this is the six a clock nyooz. belt up. The newsreader talks directly to the reader (or viewer). TRUTH

Feeling and Attitudes He is annoyed at the power of posh English accents on the TV news and the fact that working class, regional accents are not heard. He mocks the idea of snobby people looking down on regional accents as inferior. He disapproves of this snobbery in a mocking way by translating it into his own dialect. What he’s getting at overall is that you should not judge people by the way they speak.

Structure If you pronounce it exactly as it's written, it should sound like a Glaswegian voice. This poem uses non-standard English. Shorter lines sound angrier, as thought the words are being spat at you. The narrow way it is laid out comments on the way the poet feels that his language is being constricted. The poet says working class people are denied their chance to use their own voice (L23-28). When they listen to the news it’s a posh English person telling them the “trooth”. Suggests there are different versions of the truth according to your background.