London Fri 14 Apr 23
I got the Council “Happy letter” through the door. It led with the news that the residents’
association of some estate in Holborn had started a scheme for sending food
parcels to needy residents.
WTF ?? WTAF ??
Why are they treating this like a normal situation to be negotiated ?? Why aren’t they outside their MP’s office or Parliament screaming ??
For its survival, a Govt needs to feed its people. All that stuff about “There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy”.
They must know about it if it’s being featured in the Council literature. Not a squeak from them on the declining situation.
I went out. On my way I came across a doctors’ strike demo outside UCH.
WTF ?? WTAF ??
Hospital doctors are on strike because their standard of living has dropped 25% in a decade. (Chancellor Osborne’s austerity, for starters.)
Nurses and other health workers are also holding strikes over pay.
It’s an extraordinary situation. These are professions that never go on strike, they’re too essential. This is the pass we have come to.
I walked the length of the demo with my fist raised in solidarity.
Down the back of Tottenham Ct Rd I discovered that Pollock’s Toy Museum is now an “Investment for Sale”, or at least its site is. It was a landmark
WTF ?? WTAF ??
I gather they’ve been at that address for fifty years. Now they can’t afford the rent, though I puzzle who can ??
The big shops, and many of the smaller ones, are now gone from Tott Ct Rd. Likewise Oxford St now has only Selfridges and John Lewis as department stores. Its days as a shopping attraction are gone.
Rounding off my trip, a corner I’d passed earlier now had some camper bedded down. It was 11.30 am. They weren’t begging, they were asleep.
Poverty and homelessness have been “in yer face” for the last dozen years but it wasn’t good for the two decades before that. A characteristic of all Govt’s in that period has been their consistency in failing to address the deteriorating situation.
A
survey last Nov found that one in six adults were living hand to mouth and
one in four couldn’t find a hundred quid in an emergency.
Inflation is supposedly running at 10% but that’s diluted with domestic
appliances and other stuff people without a hundred quid aren’t affected
by.
Their concern is the price of food. It's what they mostly spend their money on.
Over the last year, dairy produce prices are up 60%, potatoes are up
60%, supermarket brand pasta 35%.
So one in four adults are getting financially hammered, just on buying food.
Start fretting about a rerun of the London Riots in 2011
"There's no way to delay that trouble comin' every day."
