Today ran an item this morning marking the 75th anniversary of the publication of Orwell’s “The Road to Wigan Pier” (8.22am). As you may gather from images used on these pages I am a fan of Orwell’s work but was surprised to hear one of the two gentlemen being interviewed claim that conditions in the working class parts of the north of England are NOW as bad as they were in the 1930’s. What? Big Brother ruthlessly using a literary event to pursue a political agenda.
THE ROAD TO WIGAN PIER
Bookmark the permalink.
Another Beeboid’s Wigan –
http://lancashire.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/broadcaster-stuart-maconie-talks-to-lancashire-life-about-his-home-of-wigan-16939/
On Orwell’s 1930s Wigan:
‘Revisiting Orwell’s Wigan Pier’
by Robert Pearce
http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/ctc/docs/wigpier.htm
“…but was surprised to hear one of the two gentlemen being interviewed claim that conditions in the working class parts of the north of England are NOW as bad as they were in the 1930’s.”
It’s true: many share houses, there’s no running water, no hot water, just one toilet (shed in back garden), no TV, no telephones, no-one owns a car, all they eat is suet and stolen potatoes, children in every family die of pnuemonia etc..
Oh, hang on, no, that’s complete bullshit.
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down t’mill, and pay t’mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing “Hallelujah.”
you lucky, lucky bastard…
You had it easy, you soft bastard.
Span Ows,
“Oh, hang on, no, that’s complete bullshit.”
That’s easy to say, but how do you actually know it’s “complete bullshit”?
One of my neighbours (who died recently in his 70’s) spent the last five years of his life without any gas or electric because he couldn’t afford to the pay the bills and hold on to his home.
One of my friends is virtually housebound due to various health problems. She recieves all the disability benefits she’s entitled to, but even in the depths of winter can’t afford to keep the heating on for more than three hours a day. She’s just recieved a letter from the council saying her rent is going up by 10%.
Recently I’ve seen an increasing number of people queuing up outside the local Salvation Army.
I was shocked the first time I saw that; as was Orwell when he queued up 70 years ago.
Walking past St. Giles in London one late afternoon last week, and seeing an enormous crowd of rough sleepers huddled around a portable soup kitchen, was also a bit of a shock.
This is happening in your country right now.
Just because you haven’t had any experince of it doesn’t mean it’s “bullshit”.
Dez – I think Span Ows’ objection was in relation to scale. Of course one can find instances of hardship in any society, but it’s the suggestion that large areas of this country have suddenly returned to epidemic levels of poverty and destitution that is hard to accept. Even during the current difficult economic conditions, and with the supposed ‘nasty ToryCutz’, we still have a comprehensive welfare system in place. That’s not to suggest that there aren’t people who are struggling, or to diminish the difficulties that they face, it’s that we’ve not returned to the days of malnourished street urchins begging for scraps just yet.
It’s a pity for your housebound friend she’s not an asylum seeker. Under the Revised Tenancy Agreement (April 2001) – produced by the Secretary of State for the Home Office, acting thru’ the Immigration & Nationality Directorate, she would not only have her rent, water rates, gas & electricity bills guaranteed paid for by the taxpayer, but also her phone bill, &, of course, TV licence. By law, all repairs to an asylum seeker’s premises have to be carried out within 7 days.
The last government, & this one, bend over backwards to install often bogus arrivals in relative luxury, while neglecting the unfortunate people you mention. Perhaps they weren’t members of the correct ‘identity group’? Dez, I share your outrage.
Dez, get off your high horse you pompous twat. There have been homeless in London since London existed, I certainly saw them every weekend in the 70s when I ‘went into town’.
I like the Salvation Army, they helped my gran a lot. All your anecdotes aren’t uncommon, a neighbour of my mother spent money on alcohol rather than heating. She made that choice.
“There have been homeless in London since London existed…”
Yes, I agree. But there are many more now than there where a couple of years ago.
“I like the Salvation Army…”
Good for you.
‘Yes, I agree. But there are many more now than there were a couple of years ago.’
Ever stopped to wonder why, Dez? It’s called mass immigration: the ideologically-driven, ethnic displacement of white English people. And the government directive to councils, to house homeless new arrivals at the expense of the indigenous, has led to the subsequent destruction of our once cohesive estates. I agree with you; it’s an ugly & dispiriting sight, seeing our people treated like shit. At least good people like you are speaking out about it.
It’s not bias in itself if a guest is making that comment, but claiming Wigan was back to 1936 conditions of poverty surely merited some form of ‘raised eyebrow’ challenge. The example given of someone losing their Job Seekers Allowance and living on 2 pounds a day was absurd. In 1936 people’s poverty wasn’t something that could be avoided.
Oh, the piece is 8:24
Missed this gem, but did catch a sly little piece about the Welsh not being up for devolution…as opposed to those feisty Scots.
Still, they managed to find a chippy Wrexham T-shirt vendor sneering at beating the English at rugby, and speaking Welsh but advertising in English…as these professional Taffs tend to do.
If the BBC can help further in sliiping ooze between our two countries…and produce its own Alex Boyo Salmond-Jones, then so much the better.
It`s what the BBC does…maybe Chester or Wigan may be the base to re-enact Edge Hill between Scousers and Mancs from…they`ve only been in Salford a few months and they`re already sowing the seeds of discord. At least Thatcher was honest in her intentions as opposed to the sly and snippy BeeB.
Next up…Aberfan Church might have unsettled the tip way back…and the lead tenor was a Tory…Hain calls for an inquiry…
Look at it this way: working class unemployed folk find it just as hard to get flat screen TV and i-pods as they did in the 1930s. Am I wrong?
Are these the poor of Wigan whom Beeboids are so sympathetic to?:-
“Pictured: Hunt for ‘flash mob’ raiders who targeted shops in Wigan”
http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1487928_pictured-hunt-for-flash-mob-raiders-who-targeted-shops-in-wigan
Interesting juxtopsition of opinion on B-BBC:
Thursday: The Mansion Tax is a bad idea because people can be asset rich (a two million pound house), but cash poor.
Friday: No one can be cash poor if they have assets (a TV).
What is wrong with income tax, Dez? It’s paid, and what you do with your money after that is your own business. Why all this sneaking about trying to find ways to tax those who have earned more than others? Perhaps they did something more valuable than sit in a council flat producing babies. Communist are you? The system that failed 350m people in eastern Europe? Want it here Dez?
What’s with all this “envy” about. I don’t give a monkeys what Bob Diamond at Barclays is paid, any more than what you are paid. None of my business.
The problem is the Government is spending more than its income receipts. Perhaps it needs to spend less, not tax more. Novel idea? Live within your means? Its good enough for the rest of us.
London Calling,
Woosh!. That’s the sound of my point going completely over your head.
It went right over mine, too. *DONT_KNOW* Have another go…
…he seems to think we should all have the same opinion.
Scez’s genius is always difficult for us mere mortals to discern, but I think it goes something like this: If a (relatively) income poor but asset rich person can’t afford to pay the the special tax on their mansion, they strip their strip it of any lead tiling and metal piping they can lay their hands on and pop down to the local scrapyard in their Rolls Royce to flog it.
WHOOSH!
Oops, sounds like it went right over my head too!
‘Woosh!’
The sound of it going over Scez’s head that ‘the poor’ dont pay tax on their flatscreens.
It’s getting like the Somme around here. 🙂