It was the first night of Blackpool’s Illuminations, when seven miles of promenade are transformed into a parade of glitter set against the ink-black Irish Sea. The traffic had poured in from across Lancashire to crawl, bumper to bumper, beneath the dazzling arrays. Yet by the following morning, the tourists had disappeared, and despite the September day of brilliant sunshine, the promenade was almost empty — apart from the rough sleepers.
From her bench facing the sea, one elderly lady rearranged her sleeping bag and sat up to light her first cigarette of the day; another rough sleeper was angry as he stumbled, yelling into the waves: “Yer English, yer oughter to be ashamed of yersain.”
He has a point. Britain’s biggest seaside resort is home to a sharp and uncomfortable paradox: while it accommodates millions of visitors every year, several of its wards are among the most deprived in the country and with the worst life expectancy. This is a place which, for all its beauty and associations with pleasure and fun, results in shortened lives blighted by debt, ill health and substance abuse.
When William Beveridge set out to eradicate five “Giant Evils” from Britain, “want” was first on his list. In the early Forties, as the social reformer gathered his data and prepared his plans, this priority seemed straightforward: people needed basics such as food, shelter, warmth and clothing. His plans for a social security system “from cradle to grave” would ensure that no one would go short. But 80 years on, Blackpool provides a grim example of deprivation not seen since the Thirties. Food banks report a 54% increase in the need for food parcels in the last year, dependence on charity has become normal for hundreds of families in the town, and the rise in energy prices brings particular hardship in a place with poor housing stock, well-known for its bitter winds and rain sweeping in off the sea.
Further up the coast, in Morecambe, a similar story is playing out. The North Lancashire Citizen Advice Bureau (CAB) has seen a massive rise in clients desperate for help — in some places, a staggering 566% increase in the last year. The most common issue is struggling with utility bills, followed closely by problems with debt. Households get caught in a pattern of borrowing and relying on charity because levels of benefit are not sufficient, suggests Joanna Young, the CAB’s head of research for North Lancashire. She adds that their clients talk of how one “mini-crisis” — it can be as routine as the need for a new pair of school shoes — can set a family back for months. Precarity has become a way of life.
What would Beveridge make of places such as Blackpool and Morecambe? No doubt he would view his dream as a failure, despite a huge increase in the country’s GDP in the intervening 80 years. But what would also have surprised Beveridge are the causes of that poverty, and the fact that at least some can be traced right back to gaps and mistakes in his original plans.
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SubscribeNow we have illegal migrants sent to seaside hotels, who are living on benefits and certainly won’t make seaside places any better but add more misery to seaside resort life for those already in dire straights.
They’re keeping hotels running. Why not give the refugees ( they’re not illegal migrants ) money or tokens to spend in the local shops? Would reinvigorate local business.
They are not refugees they come from a country that is not at war. What ever reason they come here in their thousands only time will tell.
The councils of seaside resorts have not got enough money to look after the local community without them being able to keep those who are coming into Dover illegally and putting them in hotels.
They obviously don’t come just from one country, but it is true that some countries are not at war, such as Albania, though they may be very poor and poorly governed.
Britain is poorly governed, too. No wonder so many people want to leave. Albanians evidently don’t get the true picture of life in the UK before they come. They may as well stay where they are.
Britain is poorly governed, too. No wonder so many people want to leave. Albanians evidently don’t get the true picture of life in the UK before they come. They may as well stay where they are.
They obviously don’t come just from one country, but it is true that some countries are not at war, such as Albania, though they may be very poor and poorly governed.
Naive.
You give them your money.
Most of them came here for handouts, it’d be a pity if you let them down.
They are not refugees they come from a country that is not at war. What ever reason they come here in their thousands only time will tell.
The councils of seaside resorts have not got enough money to look after the local community without them being able to keep those who are coming into Dover illegally and putting them in hotels.
Naive.
You give them your money.
Most of them came here for handouts, it’d be a pity if you let them down.
I worked in both Torquay and Exmouth in the 1990s, and lived in Plymouth. Under a vague sheen of seaside-holidayness both Torquay and Exmouth were plagued with drug problems, mental health issues, alcohol trouble, [very] young mums, and corruption. I can’t imagine they’re any better now.
Plymouth, as a city, was hard. But it never pretended to be anything else – a naval city through and through.
In the USA, Benton Harbor, Michigan was a world famous resort town, home of the House of David and their businesses.
When Indiana residents found out welfare benefits were much more generous, a huge influx of poor Indiana Black folks turned Benton Harbor into a desolate crime ridden ghetto virtually overnight.
The mayor was on TV when I was staying in a hotel on business, and said he could shoot a cannon down Main St. with no fear of hurting anyone.
This has since extended up the coast.
I guess things are the same all over.
In the USA, Benton Harbor, Michigan was a world famous resort town, home of the House of David and their businesses.
When Indiana residents found out welfare benefits were much more generous, a huge influx of poor Indiana Black folks turned Benton Harbor into a desolate crime ridden ghetto virtually overnight.
The mayor was on TV when I was staying in a hotel on business, and said he could shoot a cannon down Main St. with no fear of hurting anyone.
This has since extended up the coast.
I guess things are the same all over.
Not to mention importing diphtheria…
And COVID-22.
And COVID-22.
Yes, they need somewhere to lay their heads, and take showers. I wish towns would pay out for tiny houses, or renting hotels. However, the people need to be able to clean their spaces, and someone has to pay liability insurance if there are rapes or stabbings.
The govt. seems prepared to do this for refugees, so I wish they would do for people who have got themselves mentally off the rails at a point in their lives.
Handouts of bananas with slogans, one Christmas or Thanksgiving meal, or fruit gummies and cereal bars are not going to change lives. They need shelter they can count on, showers, and nutritious food.
Correct. I live in one of the towns mentioned and agree completely with the analysis. The preponderance of old people, untrained ‘carers’ and care homes, together with a dearth of GPs because they move to better places creates a horrible decay. I’m moving out soon…
They’re keeping hotels running. Why not give the refugees ( they’re not illegal migrants ) money or tokens to spend in the local shops? Would reinvigorate local business.
I worked in both Torquay and Exmouth in the 1990s, and lived in Plymouth. Under a vague sheen of seaside-holidayness both Torquay and Exmouth were plagued with drug problems, mental health issues, alcohol trouble, [very] young mums, and corruption. I can’t imagine they’re any better now.
Plymouth, as a city, was hard. But it never pretended to be anything else – a naval city through and through.
Not to mention importing diphtheria…
Yes, they need somewhere to lay their heads, and take showers. I wish towns would pay out for tiny houses, or renting hotels. However, the people need to be able to clean their spaces, and someone has to pay liability insurance if there are rapes or stabbings.
The govt. seems prepared to do this for refugees, so I wish they would do for people who have got themselves mentally off the rails at a point in their lives.
Handouts of bananas with slogans, one Christmas or Thanksgiving meal, or fruit gummies and cereal bars are not going to change lives. They need shelter they can count on, showers, and nutritious food.
Correct. I live in one of the towns mentioned and agree completely with the analysis. The preponderance of old people, untrained ‘carers’ and care homes, together with a dearth of GPs because they move to better places creates a horrible decay. I’m moving out soon…
Now we have illegal migrants sent to seaside hotels, who are living on benefits and certainly won’t make seaside places any better but add more misery to seaside resort life for those already in dire straights.
Tories, Labour and LibDems to the middle-class: “You’re screwed!”
Tories, Labour and LibDems to the working-class: “You’re even more screwed!!”
Tories, Labour and LibDems to veterans living on the streets with PTSD: “Guess what?!….”
Tories, Labour and LibDems to illegal immigrants: “You can have an upgrade because all the four star hotels are full now.”
Tories, Labour and LibDems to the working-class: “Don’t look at the rich ripping the country off for billions! LOOK! Some refugees!”
And you fall for it.
‘some’ illegal economic queue jumpers? 40,000 + this year and counting.
What is an illegal economic queue jumper? Someone who wants a job more than someone else? What do you mean illegal? Refugees are not illegal. Those who are not refugees get deported, or would do if the government actually invested in the immigration system. Most of the boat people are refugees btw and are not economic migrants. And are you aware how small that 40,000 is in the overall figures? https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/news/2022/08/25/immigration-at-all-time-record-level-with-record-1-1-million-visas-issued-to-come-and-live-in-the-uk
Try as you might, mass migration will never be anything but evil, either for those wrenched from their homes, or those being invaded.
Try as you might, mass migration will never be anything but evil, either for those wrenched from their homes, or those being invaded.
What is an illegal economic queue jumper? Someone who wants a job more than someone else? What do you mean illegal? Refugees are not illegal. Those who are not refugees get deported, or would do if the government actually invested in the immigration system. Most of the boat people are refugees btw and are not economic migrants. And are you aware how small that 40,000 is in the overall figures? https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/news/2022/08/25/immigration-at-all-time-record-level-with-record-1-1-million-visas-issued-to-come-and-live-in-the-uk
Rich ripping the country off. What a dishonest old trope
Successive governments have let the population down. Lack of investment and billions of pounds squirrelled away into offshore accounts have made this rich country into a very unequal country. Our rulers use their rightwing media to convince the public that all our woes are to do with the poor and unfortunate souls of society and nothing to do with their greed. The worst thing of all is that people believe it just like many on here do. Disappointing.
Hardly a new phenomenon, though. Ever read Oliver Twist?
Hardly a new phenomenon, though. Ever read Oliver Twist?
Huh your new PM is richer than the royals, then his wife …
Of course those last two PMs failed in performance ?
We used to tar & feather Tories in the USA
Not a trope, a simple fact.
Things will not change until the politicians agree to have houses in their neighborhoods available to refugees or people who ended up on the streets.
it would also help if whole charity were given. That is, responsibility for a family or group, rather than attending charity dinners that actually give a pitiful amount of money to charities. cereal bars and fruit rolls and bananas with slogans should also not be seen as acceptable.
The charitable dinner folks should give the cost of a Givenchy dress or two to support families, one at a time. Once stable, they can contribute, if people provide jobs.
But they are, and Mass Migration is how.
It would not happen if they didn’t derive benefit from it.
Successful people are not inherently evil, but it is not vaguely unusual.
Most people got their wealth the old fashioned way:
They stole it.
Successive governments have let the population down. Lack of investment and billions of pounds squirrelled away into offshore accounts have made this rich country into a very unequal country. Our rulers use their rightwing media to convince the public that all our woes are to do with the poor and unfortunate souls of society and nothing to do with their greed. The worst thing of all is that people believe it just like many on here do. Disappointing.
Huh your new PM is richer than the royals, then his wife …
Of course those last two PMs failed in performance ?
We used to tar & feather Tories in the USA
Not a trope, a simple fact.
Things will not change until the politicians agree to have houses in their neighborhoods available to refugees or people who ended up on the streets.
it would also help if whole charity were given. That is, responsibility for a family or group, rather than attending charity dinners that actually give a pitiful amount of money to charities. cereal bars and fruit rolls and bananas with slogans should also not be seen as acceptable.
The charitable dinner folks should give the cost of a Givenchy dress or two to support families, one at a time. Once stable, they can contribute, if people provide jobs.
But they are, and Mass Migration is how.
It would not happen if they didn’t derive benefit from it.
Successful people are not inherently evil, but it is not vaguely unusual.
Most people got their wealth the old fashioned way:
They stole it.
It’s why the ruling class rule… divide people.
I just don’t understand why people go on these tangents when you posted the whole answer in one concise sentence.
I just don’t understand why people go on these tangents when you posted the whole answer in one concise sentence.
As you related to Nye Bevan by any chance?
And how are they doing it?
By mass separation of immigrants from their heritage and divorcing citizens from theirs and giving them a polyglot in return, comprised of various migrant heritage and powered by state sponsored miscegenation, that’s how.
‘some’ illegal economic queue jumpers? 40,000 + this year and counting.
Rich ripping the country off. What a dishonest old trope
It’s why the ruling class rule… divide people.
As you related to Nye Bevan by any chance?
And how are they doing it?
By mass separation of immigrants from their heritage and divorcing citizens from theirs and giving them a polyglot in return, comprised of various migrant heritage and powered by state sponsored miscegenation, that’s how.
Tories, Labour and LibDems to the working-class: “Don’t look at the rich ripping the country off for billions! LOOK! Some refugees!”
And you fall for it.
Tories, Labour and LibDems to the middle-class: “You’re screwed!”
Tories, Labour and LibDems to the working-class: “You’re even more screwed!!”
Tories, Labour and LibDems to veterans living on the streets with PTSD: “Guess what?!….”
Tories, Labour and LibDems to illegal immigrants: “You can have an upgrade because all the four star hotels are full now.”
Beveridge identified idleness, but this ‘evil’ has been suppressed in the cradle to the grave welfare industry, derided as ‘workfare’ and ‘victim shaming’. What Beveridge failed to anticipate, just as in the US with the Great Society, was that in removing responsibility from those most able to discharge it, people themselves, to a remote and disinterested ‘state’, the safety net of welfarism would turn into idleness and dependency.
On the subject of Beveridge “… his great achievement, the founding of the NHS.”
Some might say it was the worst disaster ever foisted on the British people
“The road to Hell is paved……………..”
…….with good intentions.
…….with good intentions.
The NHS was brilliant for generations, it’s crumbling now – as is everything. You have to be very strange to hate it though.
“The road to Hell is paved……………..”
The NHS was brilliant for generations, it’s crumbling now – as is everything. You have to be very strange to hate it though.
The article says the poor are often working. Low pay in the service industry is a big problem.
On the subject of Beveridge “… his great achievement, the founding of the NHS.”
Some might say it was the worst disaster ever foisted on the British people
The article says the poor are often working. Low pay in the service industry is a big problem.
Beveridge identified idleness, but this ‘evil’ has been suppressed in the cradle to the grave welfare industry, derided as ‘workfare’ and ‘victim shaming’. What Beveridge failed to anticipate, just as in the US with the Great Society, was that in removing responsibility from those most able to discharge it, people themselves, to a remote and disinterested ‘state’, the safety net of welfarism would turn into idleness and dependency.
There are rough sleepers in seaside towns and inequalities exist, true. Some rough sleepers become so because of their bad circumstances and some because of their poor choices.
But moaning about it achieves nothing. Are you prepared to compel rough sleepers to be housed in camps, barracks, or workhouses elsewhere? If not then you lack the moral strength to resolve the problem. Other solutions are possible but merely increasing benefits is unlikely to have a major impact… and none of the major parties appear to give a damn.
There are rough sleepers in seaside towns and inequalities exist, true. Some rough sleepers become so because of their bad circumstances and some because of their poor choices.
But moaning about it achieves nothing. Are you prepared to compel rough sleepers to be housed in camps, barracks, or workhouses elsewhere? If not then you lack the moral strength to resolve the problem. Other solutions are possible but merely increasing benefits is unlikely to have a major impact… and none of the major parties appear to give a damn.
I know Blackpool, I grew up in the fishing port of Fleetwood just miles away. Spent my teenage years enjoying the entertainment and had my first job at the Bank Hey Street Woolworths. These seaside towns were very robust, people had jobs and pride, until cheap overseas travel (and the decline of out-of-season industries to support the winter economy) killed the seasonal hospitality businesses. Remember when the major political parties and the TUC held their annual conferences in Blackpool? The place was smart and energetic. And the homeless and drug-addicted haven’t found their way to Blackpool by choice, they have been placed there, in their thousands, by councils far from the coast, using the emptied bed and breakfast accommodation now bought up by absent landlords.
The elderly population in Blackpool and other seaside towns represent the best of the generations who worked and built these places, and they should not be treated as a burden now. Indeed it is the younger generations in these areas who are often sickest and most dependent on state help. But there are always pockets of good people – the council, many community groups – trying to keep people from wasting their lives.
I know Blackpool, I grew up in the fishing port of Fleetwood just miles away. Spent my teenage years enjoying the entertainment and had my first job at the Bank Hey Street Woolworths. These seaside towns were very robust, people had jobs and pride, until cheap overseas travel (and the decline of out-of-season industries to support the winter economy) killed the seasonal hospitality businesses. Remember when the major political parties and the TUC held their annual conferences in Blackpool? The place was smart and energetic. And the homeless and drug-addicted haven’t found their way to Blackpool by choice, they have been placed there, in their thousands, by councils far from the coast, using the emptied bed and breakfast accommodation now bought up by absent landlords.
The elderly population in Blackpool and other seaside towns represent the best of the generations who worked and built these places, and they should not be treated as a burden now. Indeed it is the younger generations in these areas who are often sickest and most dependent on state help. But there are always pockets of good people – the council, many community groups – trying to keep people from wasting their lives.
This is the kind of ‘Gosh I’ve just noticed that the Pope’s a Catholic’ shock revelation you get when you let journalists pretend to be academics.
Mixing up the problems of coastal communities with very different demographics and economics just because you’ve noticed that the road ends when it gets to the sea.
Are academics any better?
Neither appear to get out much.
No, but The 2nd Smartest Man in the World is. He is hosted on Substack and he answers accurately many of the mysteries that confound people on this and other boards.
Check him out, he can use support, and offers subscriptions but doesn’t block anyone for not paying, not even comments because he is spreading truth, not turning a buck on censorship refugees.
And he wouldn’t want these coastal folk blocked from finding out who is manipulating them and why.
Who is he?
Who is he?
Neither appear to get out much.
No, but The 2nd Smartest Man in the World is. He is hosted on Substack and he answers accurately many of the mysteries that confound people on this and other boards.
Check him out, he can use support, and offers subscriptions but doesn’t block anyone for not paying, not even comments because he is spreading truth, not turning a buck on censorship refugees.
And he wouldn’t want these coastal folk blocked from finding out who is manipulating them and why.
I still remember the last mass-poverty safari in 2016 following the ‘shocking’ Brexit vote. In enough six years the cycle will repeat again.
A great book: Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey. Puts into words what working class people experience every day, but what those in power just do not seem to comprehend, no matter how many safaris they venture on.
They comprehend just fine, it’s all intentional and they have been playing this game for a millennia.
No money means no power, simple as that.
They comprehend just fine, it’s all intentional and they have been playing this game for a millennia.
No money means no power, simple as that.
A great book: Poverty Safari by Darren McGarvey. Puts into words what working class people experience every day, but what those in power just do not seem to comprehend, no matter how many safaris they venture on.
Are academics any better?
I still remember the last mass-poverty safari in 2016 following the ‘shocking’ Brexit vote. In enough six years the cycle will repeat again.
This is the kind of ‘Gosh I’ve just noticed that the Pope’s a Catholic’ shock revelation you get when you let journalists pretend to be academics.
Mixing up the problems of coastal communities with very different demographics and economics just because you’ve noticed that the road ends when it gets to the sea.
Intriguing to imagine what Beveridge would have made of the vast ‘issues’ of relationship breakdown and substance abuse in driving the rise of poverty and despair in these grim areas – or whether he would have even understood those terms. Autre temps…
I imagine Beveridge was aware of Hogarth’s Gin Lane and the English history of substance abuse.
He would have been a lot blunter than that (was my point).
I don’t like the superior tone, ‘English history of substance abuse’ we like to have a good time, heard the saying work hard, play hard? If you’d been raised in margate or ramsgate, you’d understand the appeal of a gin.
You have your fair share of problems too Mr usa, at least we’re not all hooked on opiates and painkillers, didn’t your own big pharma cause that? Wasn’t Afghanistan an American opiate war? All the people in Afghanistan growing poppies for the Americans on the hush? Then they decided they could cut out the middle man and you lost control. Part of the reason they haven’t enough wheat is because they all moved to cultivating poppies.
Quote: in October 2001 poppies were grown on around 74,000 hectares – 285 square miles.
The new figures showed production had increased more than four-fold in 15 years: now opium was being grown on 328,000 hectares – 1,266 square miles.
Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47861444.amp
Brewing alcohol is as old as the hills, you read the iliad? Doesn’t noah get trollied in his vineyard in the bible and God tells him off? As are recreational drugs, history of substance abuse is not unique to England, neither is the brewing of alcohol, these things become problems in all places where they are the ONLY escape. You go visit Margate or Ramsgate, Chatham or Stroud if you’re feeling brave. Where hope goes to die. I spent a fair amount of time down there as a teenager, worrying my mum, no jobs, no hope, everything apart from £1 shops and betting agencies was either shut down or falling down. It’s probably only got worse. You’d have to be half cut to walk round and not immediately feel the urge to jump off the closest building….
These places need enormous investment, they look like no one’s bothered since 1900. And they probably haven’t.
Chatham and for that matter Stroud were sacrificed in 1984 to placate the wretched Scotch, and thus keep the worthless base at Rosyth open!
There is absolutely no need for such a base so far north, it is simply a strategic extravagance.
It had a use in 1911 when we faced the Kaiser and even later when we still used Scapa Flow,* but NO longer.
(* Until the sad sinking of H.M.S. Royal Oak, by Gunther Prien & U-47.)
American here. Our big pharma produced the supply but not the demand. If nobody wanted opioids except for legitimate medical purposes, they wouldn’t get produced. Meanwhile, big pharma produces, at a very affordable price, the medications that keep me alive and reasonably healthy.
We have our coal mining regions, you have those plus I guess seaside resorts. Bundoran, Ireland isn’t looking too good either.
I don’t know about Brits, but Americans used to migrate in search of opportunity when things dried up in their place of origin. That is how California got 40,000,000 people. Now that the unemployed are paid to stay in place as long as they remain unemployed, we’ve stopped moving. The average American used to move house every 5 years, now it’s every 11. The social cost of this stagnation is unbelievable.
From the source I provided above:
The White House declared it a national public health emergency in October 2017. More than two million Americans are addicted to opioids, and opioid overdoses have become the leading cause of death in America, ahead of car crashes and gun violence.
The American epidemic began with prescription drugs but, as the rules around prescribing opioids were tightened, addicts had been increasingly turning to heroin, as well as synthetic opioids like Fentanyl.
Your big pharma actively encouraged prescription of those strong opioid painkillers, often in cases where they were unnecessary, then took them away, that’s what I mean by them causing your opiate and heroin problems.
The demand was often created by doctors in the pockets of the Pharma industry. Moving house isnt the same as moving city. People moved house more within cities because the housing was cheaper. And a good percentage of that 40M are immigrants. So almost everything is wrong there.
From the source I provided above:
The White House declared it a national public health emergency in October 2017. More than two million Americans are addicted to opioids, and opioid overdoses have become the leading cause of death in America, ahead of car crashes and gun violence.
The American epidemic began with prescription drugs but, as the rules around prescribing opioids were tightened, addicts had been increasingly turning to heroin, as well as synthetic opioids like Fentanyl.
Your big pharma actively encouraged prescription of those strong opioid painkillers, often in cases where they were unnecessary, then took them away, that’s what I mean by them causing your opiate and heroin problems.
The demand was often created by doctors in the pockets of the Pharma industry. Moving house isnt the same as moving city. People moved house more within cities because the housing was cheaper. And a good percentage of that 40M are immigrants. So almost everything is wrong there.
Pharma? Britain came out untouched by the Death Jab?
There is zero superiority expressed by staying on topic, and guess what the topic is?
Hint: Not Outer Mongolia.
You seem to have a chip on your shoulder.
Chatham and for that matter Stroud were sacrificed in 1984 to placate the wretched Scotch, and thus keep the worthless base at Rosyth open!
There is absolutely no need for such a base so far north, it is simply a strategic extravagance.
It had a use in 1911 when we faced the Kaiser and even later when we still used Scapa Flow,* but NO longer.
(* Until the sad sinking of H.M.S. Royal Oak, by Gunther Prien & U-47.)
American here. Our big pharma produced the supply but not the demand. If nobody wanted opioids except for legitimate medical purposes, they wouldn’t get produced. Meanwhile, big pharma produces, at a very affordable price, the medications that keep me alive and reasonably healthy.
We have our coal mining regions, you have those plus I guess seaside resorts. Bundoran, Ireland isn’t looking too good either.
I don’t know about Brits, but Americans used to migrate in search of opportunity when things dried up in their place of origin. That is how California got 40,000,000 people. Now that the unemployed are paid to stay in place as long as they remain unemployed, we’ve stopped moving. The average American used to move house every 5 years, now it’s every 11. The social cost of this stagnation is unbelievable.
Pharma? Britain came out untouched by the Death Jab?
There is zero superiority expressed by staying on topic, and guess what the topic is?
Hint: Not Outer Mongolia.
You seem to have a chip on your shoulder.
I don’t think the English are particularly noted for substance abuse. The Russians and the Irish are particularly noted for alcoholism, and the USA for opiate abuse, and cocaine, and Jamaca for smoking weed, but I don’t think that substance abuse is particularly what people think of when they think of the English. They think of the atrocities of colonialization and are appalled that so few Brits feel any remorse about what their country did to so many other parts of the world.
Bloody hell another high horsed American. You lot just keep coming.
What utter b*llocks, where did you learn such tosh?
If I may quote from a renowned Spanish philosopher, who had the misfortune to teach at Harvard, one Georges Santayana, this is what he had to say about the British Empire in 1912 :
“Never since the heroic days of Greece has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls, and fanatics manage to supplant him”.
Do you seriously contend that he was wrong?
I don’t think we have any lessons to learn about remorse from the nation that committed genocide of its native peoples and, until 50 years ago, practised apartheid in many of its states.
You Americans carry on, we’re not asking you to take lessons from us, but before you decide to make sweeping assumptions about ‘English substance abuse’, our love of a gin and the people living in our seaside towns, maybe you should understand what you’re talking about first.
Yes, you will do the teaching , owning as you do the Black British Prototype, which served as the World Model.
India, Ireland, the sun never set on British rapacity and greed, and no nation has more experience in genocide than England .
Shall we have another war?
I suppose without your hysterical fantasies your entire world view woukd collapse . Ever heard of the Mughal Empire, for example? The clue is in the word empire, and it was the second Moslem Empire to invade Hindu India.
Shall we have another war?
I suppose without your hysterical fantasies your entire world view woukd collapse . Ever heard of the Mughal Empire, for example? The clue is in the word empire, and it was the second Moslem Empire to invade Hindu India.
Good Lord!
You Americans carry on, we’re not asking you to take lessons from us, but before you decide to make sweeping assumptions about ‘English substance abuse’, our love of a gin and the people living in our seaside towns, maybe you should understand what you’re talking about first.
Yes, you will do the teaching , owning as you do the Black British Prototype, which served as the World Model.
India, Ireland, the sun never set on British rapacity and greed, and no nation has more experience in genocide than England .
Good Lord!
An American can lecture me on colonialism when they hand back Guam, Guantanamo, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and everything west of New England.
You R Wright
Wright could not be more absurdly wrong if he tried.
Wright could not be more absurdly wrong if he tried.
Why exclude New England? Does naming it that legitimize it,or would it be too hard to pretend England didn’t found it?
What ethnicity do you imagine accomplished the Western Expansion?
Was Captain Cook a Pole? How about Paulette?
Why was the English flag over each Island, and Hawaiian flags burned?
Was an American the first to make contact, or a Brit?
Was Hawaii a British Protectorate?
Do you know what you are on about? At all?
Ever heard of South and Central America?
Ever heard of South and Central America?
You R Wright
Why exclude New England? Does naming it that legitimize it,or would it be too hard to pretend England didn’t found it?
What ethnicity do you imagine accomplished the Western Expansion?
Was Captain Cook a Pole? How about Paulette?
Why was the English flag over each Island, and Hawaiian flags burned?
Was an American the first to make contact, or a Brit?
Was Hawaii a British Protectorate?
Do you know what you are on about? At all?
Irish alcohol consumption is below the European average, and DNA damage from the British Genocide is linked to alcoholism in Ireland.
It’s at once largely untrue, but to the extent that it is true, it is “:your” fault.
Why are there so money Americans on website that supposed be about Britain? Our constituencies? Why do you care about Margate or Ramsgate? Bet you wouldn’t even know where they were on the map! Did we ask you?
You’re right, I don’t know where those two towns are. But I am very interested in Britain. I get a kick out people on both sides of the pond saying how happy they are they don’t live in the other’s country.
You’re right, I don’t know where those two towns are. But I am very interested in Britain. I get a kick out people on both sides of the pond saying how happy they are they don’t live in the other’s country.
Why are there so money Americans on website that supposed be about Britain? Our constituencies? Why do you care about Margate or Ramsgate? Bet you wouldn’t even know where they were on the map! Did we ask you?
Well, “atrocities of colonization” doesn’t come to mind when I think of Britain.
More money was spent building hospitals in our colonies and ex colonies than in building them in the NHS. Then there is every inch of road, railway, sewage plants, water supplies,.. etc.The colonies were an incredible drain on Britain.
Bloody hell another high horsed American. You lot just keep coming.
What utter b*llocks, where did you learn such tosh?
If I may quote from a renowned Spanish philosopher, who had the misfortune to teach at Harvard, one Georges Santayana, this is what he had to say about the British Empire in 1912 :
“Never since the heroic days of Greece has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls, and fanatics manage to supplant him”.
Do you seriously contend that he was wrong?
I don’t think we have any lessons to learn about remorse from the nation that committed genocide of its native peoples and, until 50 years ago, practised apartheid in many of its states.
An American can lecture me on colonialism when they hand back Guam, Guantanamo, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and everything west of New England.
Irish alcohol consumption is below the European average, and DNA damage from the British Genocide is linked to alcoholism in Ireland.
It’s at once largely untrue, but to the extent that it is true, it is “:your” fault.
Well, “atrocities of colonization” doesn’t come to mind when I think of Britain.
More money was spent building hospitals in our colonies and ex colonies than in building them in the NHS. Then there is every inch of road, railway, sewage plants, water supplies,.. etc.The colonies were an incredible drain on Britain.
He would have been a lot blunter than that (was my point).
I don’t like the superior tone, ‘English history of substance abuse’ we like to have a good time, heard the saying work hard, play hard? If you’d been raised in margate or ramsgate, you’d understand the appeal of a gin.
You have your fair share of problems too Mr usa, at least we’re not all hooked on opiates and painkillers, didn’t your own big pharma cause that? Wasn’t Afghanistan an American opiate war? All the people in Afghanistan growing poppies for the Americans on the hush? Then they decided they could cut out the middle man and you lost control. Part of the reason they haven’t enough wheat is because they all moved to cultivating poppies.
Quote: in October 2001 poppies were grown on around 74,000 hectares – 285 square miles.
The new figures showed production had increased more than four-fold in 15 years: now opium was being grown on 328,000 hectares – 1,266 square miles.
Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47861444.amp
Brewing alcohol is as old as the hills, you read the iliad? Doesn’t noah get trollied in his vineyard in the bible and God tells him off? As are recreational drugs, history of substance abuse is not unique to England, neither is the brewing of alcohol, these things become problems in all places where they are the ONLY escape. You go visit Margate or Ramsgate, Chatham or Stroud if you’re feeling brave. Where hope goes to die. I spent a fair amount of time down there as a teenager, worrying my mum, no jobs, no hope, everything apart from £1 shops and betting agencies was either shut down or falling down. It’s probably only got worse. You’d have to be half cut to walk round and not immediately feel the urge to jump off the closest building….
These places need enormous investment, they look like no one’s bothered since 1900. And they probably haven’t.
I don’t think the English are particularly noted for substance abuse. The Russians and the Irish are particularly noted for alcoholism, and the USA for opiate abuse, and cocaine, and Jamaca for smoking weed, but I don’t think that substance abuse is particularly what people think of when they think of the English. They think of the atrocities of colonialization and are appalled that so few Brits feel any remorse about what their country did to so many other parts of the world.
I imagine Beveridge was aware of Hogarth’s Gin Lane and the English history of substance abuse.
Intriguing to imagine what Beveridge would have made of the vast ‘issues’ of relationship breakdown and substance abuse in driving the rise of poverty and despair in these grim areas – or whether he would have even understood those terms. Autre temps…
The writer conflates many different issues… and as a result can’t provide a solution for any of them.
Not mentioned in the article are the rough sleepers who do so from “choice.” The not insignificant number of people who don’t want to work and don’t want what they see as restrictions on their freedom.
Quite right it’s a poor article, mostly pointing out the bleeding obvious. Seaside towns have been homes for the poor since tourists stopped visiting them.
There are many reasons why people are poor; sometimes misfortune, sometimes bad choices. And sometimes some people are hard to help.
The writer points out that many of the poorest seeking help are employed on low wages. The thing is how to help? Or perhaps how can people help themselves?
The article is full of sad stories of serious poverty but no suggestions how to improve things.
In the UK pretty much all rough sleepers do so by choice. The only way you won’t have a hostel bed for a night is if you’re a hardened drug addict.
A recent survey of London’s rough sleepers revealed that a disproportionate amount of them were/are Scotch.
I think you’ll find that’s Scottish (though they may well have a bottle of the other stuff handy).
I believe many of them are ex-servicemen – trained for combat not for employment or housing themselves.
Irish surely. Ireland chucked out their
needy’ people to Britain till it became more prosperous in the ’90s . Up to the era of our beloved Windrush generation, the vast majority of our prisoners were Irish..
I think you’ll find that’s Scottish (though they may well have a bottle of the other stuff handy).
I believe many of them are ex-servicemen – trained for combat not for employment or housing themselves.
Irish surely. Ireland chucked out their
needy’ people to Britain till it became more prosperous in the ’90s . Up to the era of our beloved Windrush generation, the vast majority of our prisoners were Irish..
A recent survey of London’s rough sleepers revealed that a disproportionate amount of them were/are Scotch.
Quite right it’s a poor article, mostly pointing out the bleeding obvious. Seaside towns have been homes for the poor since tourists stopped visiting them.
There are many reasons why people are poor; sometimes misfortune, sometimes bad choices. And sometimes some people are hard to help.
The writer points out that many of the poorest seeking help are employed on low wages. The thing is how to help? Or perhaps how can people help themselves?
The article is full of sad stories of serious poverty but no suggestions how to improve things.
In the UK pretty much all rough sleepers do so by choice. The only way you won’t have a hostel bed for a night is if you’re a hardened drug addict.
The writer conflates many different issues… and as a result can’t provide a solution for any of them.
Not mentioned in the article are the rough sleepers who do so from “choice.” The not insignificant number of people who don’t want to work and don’t want what they see as restrictions on their freedom.
Unless UK GOV is going to make Med vacations illegal what exactly is the solution for Blackpool?
That is fundamentally the problem. Cute villages in Cornwall even South Coast resorts will always have a pull. Blackpool and Skeggie? Less. Their economies need diversifying, including support a w/e tourist economy.
You have a point.
I was in Blackpool a couple of years ago and I would pay extra to stay at work rather than spend a week there.
Yes, it is scary to help where people are dangerous. We need guards and police so there are safe places to invite people for help. Please, also, can rich criminal gangs stay away from ripping of goods meant to provide for poor people?
I wish people like Barack Obama, who was a community organizer to make a resume, could open his Rolodex now and find people to help fund guards to get students to school in Chicago. Charity changes when people become fat cats. He thinks a few souvenir sales jobs at his museum will pay back the city enough, though he will gain so much more through his museum. Tickle down…a few drops won’t change things. He should organize now he CAN. Same goes for the Meghan Harrys and so on.
O’Bunmer is a driving force in destroying the West, and has no intention of doing anything but evil and never has had any such intention.
O’Bunmer is a driving force in destroying the West, and has no intention of doing anything but evil and never has had any such intention.
Yes, it is scary to help where people are dangerous. We need guards and police so there are safe places to invite people for help. Please, also, can rich criminal gangs stay away from ripping of goods meant to provide for poor people?
I wish people like Barack Obama, who was a community organizer to make a resume, could open his Rolodex now and find people to help fund guards to get students to school in Chicago. Charity changes when people become fat cats. He thinks a few souvenir sales jobs at his museum will pay back the city enough, though he will gain so much more through his museum. Tickle down…a few drops won’t change things. He should organize now he CAN. Same goes for the Meghan Harrys and so on.
They were supposed to be saved by making gambling legal only in those zones, like in the U.S. Unfortunately Gordon Brown ended that and made it legal on every high street instead.
It should be transformed into a giant immigrant holding centre, rather like the Isle of Man was during WWII.
After all it has the correct nomen, rains continually, and can easily be cut from both rail and road system.
The indigenous inhabitants should receive very generous compensation for ‘their’ sacrifice.
It would also be very convenient when ‘transporting ‘them, to Ireland rather than Rwanda.
After all in the 1840’s Ireland had a population of over 8.5 million before a little problem with the food supply. Now it is about 7 million (North & South) so there is plenty of space.
So the moribund Foreign Office should start ‘making a deal’. It should be “win win” for all concerned.
You are nearly displaced in Ireland and continuing your millennia of evil is dependent on weakening Ireland.
But nothing will send bombs signed P. O’Neill faster or more furiously than what you propose.
We kind of managed in WW2 even with a neutral Ireland who were very pro Hitler, as De Valera showed.
We kind of managed in WW2 even with a neutral Ireland who were very pro Hitler, as De Valera showed.
You are nearly displaced in Ireland and continuing your millennia of evil is dependent on weakening Ireland.
But nothing will send bombs signed P. O’Neill faster or more furiously than what you propose.
That is fundamentally the problem. Cute villages in Cornwall even South Coast resorts will always have a pull. Blackpool and Skeggie? Less. Their economies need diversifying, including support a w/e tourist economy.
You have a point.
I was in Blackpool a couple of years ago and I would pay extra to stay at work rather than spend a week there.
They were supposed to be saved by making gambling legal only in those zones, like in the U.S. Unfortunately Gordon Brown ended that and made it legal on every high street instead.
It should be transformed into a giant immigrant holding centre, rather like the Isle of Man was during WWII.
After all it has the correct nomen, rains continually, and can easily be cut from both rail and road system.
The indigenous inhabitants should receive very generous compensation for ‘their’ sacrifice.
It would also be very convenient when ‘transporting ‘them, to Ireland rather than Rwanda.
After all in the 1840’s Ireland had a population of over 8.5 million before a little problem with the food supply. Now it is about 7 million (North & South) so there is plenty of space.
So the moribund Foreign Office should start ‘making a deal’. It should be “win win” for all concerned.
Unless UK GOV is going to make Med vacations illegal what exactly is the solution for Blackpool?
If Beveridge overlooked low pay, it must surely be because it did not result in people sleeping in the streets in 1945. This is a relatively new phenomenon. There is also a major aspect missing from this article related to UK seaside towns – the rush to the Spanish beaches. Think what all the money spent abroad could have done if spent here. Another reason for homelessness, especially with men, is the increasing breakdown of marriages with the men being kicked out onto the streets.
If Beveridge overlooked low pay, it must surely be because it did not result in people sleeping in the streets in 1945. This is a relatively new phenomenon. There is also a major aspect missing from this article related to UK seaside towns – the rush to the Spanish beaches. Think what all the money spent abroad could have done if spent here. Another reason for homelessness, especially with men, is the increasing breakdown of marriages with the men being kicked out onto the streets.
No the big picture is the assumption that ‘poverty’ can be fixed by throwing piles of cash at it.
The ‘poor’ in these ares are suffering from a lack of ambition, a lack of any perceived opportunity for self improvement
We can fix the lack of money to buy food – we’ve been doing it for decades and its not fixed the poverty of achievement.
Governments need to free the population to be creative and to make their own successes – its no use just providing handouts – we need to provide opportunity & fulfilment
Granted there will always be a few who need handouts – and we should be charitable as a society towards them – but these are in the minority
There’s a old saying – Give a man a fish & you feed him for a day – teach a man to fish and you feed him for life – we can’t just keep on throwing fish at the poor.
Geography; people forget that Glasgow used to be the richest town in Britain, and Liverpool was second. Blackpool was a great holiday place for the North.
Geography; people forget that Glasgow used to be the richest town in Britain, and Liverpool was second. Blackpool was a great holiday place for the North.
No the big picture is the assumption that ‘poverty’ can be fixed by throwing piles of cash at it.
The ‘poor’ in these ares are suffering from a lack of ambition, a lack of any perceived opportunity for self improvement
We can fix the lack of money to buy food – we’ve been doing it for decades and its not fixed the poverty of achievement.
Governments need to free the population to be creative and to make their own successes – its no use just providing handouts – we need to provide opportunity & fulfilment
Granted there will always be a few who need handouts – and we should be charitable as a society towards them – but these are in the minority
There’s a old saying – Give a man a fish & you feed him for a day – teach a man to fish and you feed him for life – we can’t just keep on throwing fish at the poor.
And 1.2m job vacancies in UK?
Nail on head. The problem is our welfare system. Why work? No incentive, that’s why.
That’s basically what I said about the U.S. earlier, but there is also a profound skills mismatch. Most of the people who are on the dole are not the people you’d want working for you. You have to have relatively continuous employment to keep your skills up to date, especially social skills such as showing up, being roughly on time, dressing adequately, and staying sober until after work.
That’s basically what I said about the U.S. earlier, but there is also a profound skills mismatch. Most of the people who are on the dole are not the people you’d want working for you. You have to have relatively continuous employment to keep your skills up to date, especially social skills such as showing up, being roughly on time, dressing adequately, and staying sober until after work.
Nail on head. The problem is our welfare system. Why work? No incentive, that’s why.
And 1.2m job vacancies in UK?
Once again the author of the article confuses British with English. The resorts in Wales are in a much better state and 10 million English people visit them every year.
Wales sees these annual influxes of English people as a major source of income. There is a move afoot to charge a surcharge/tax on every night spent in a hotel.
Rhyl? Prestatyn?
Years ago, I used to go with my parents to Blackpool, Prestatyn, Conwy, Morecombe. They were all terrible.
Today they are not different from other towns in the North and Midlands and I still wouldn’t go there for a holiday. But 10 million English people visit Wales every year. How do you explain that?
The same way one explains why 15M English people visit Spain each year and 5M people (no doubt including some Welshmen and women) visit Cornwall. People like to go somewhere that’s different from home for their holiday.
Yes, and off course Wales has the most impressive corpus of English medieval castles, in fact unmatched anywhere in Europe!
What more stirring sight can there possibly be than Caernarvon ,Conway, Harlech, or Beaumaris lording themselves over the surrounding area? A visible reminder of the totality of the Edwardian Conquest.
Further south, English ‘robber barons’ intent on plunder & profit have also left us the magnificent remains of Kidwelly, Pembroke, Carreg Cennen, and Caerphilly and so many others to admire.
Yes, and off course Wales has the most impressive corpus of English medieval castles, in fact unmatched anywhere in Europe!
What more stirring sight can there possibly be than Caernarvon ,Conway, Harlech, or Beaumaris lording themselves over the surrounding area? A visible reminder of the totality of the Edwardian Conquest.
Further south, English ‘robber barons’ intent on plunder & profit have also left us the magnificent remains of Kidwelly, Pembroke, Carreg Cennen, and Caerphilly and so many others to admire.
I really can’t explain it.
The same way one explains why 15M English people visit Spain each year and 5M people (no doubt including some Welshmen and women) visit Cornwall. People like to go somewhere that’s different from home for their holiday.
I really can’t explain it.
My visit to the N Wales coast last year was very reassuring. I saw the green shoots of new growth everywhere from Talacre to Penmaenmawr.
Years ago, I used to go with my parents to Blackpool, Prestatyn, Conwy, Morecombe. They were all terrible.
Today they are not different from other towns in the North and Midlands and I still wouldn’t go there for a holiday. But 10 million English people visit Wales every year. How do you explain that?
My visit to the N Wales coast last year was very reassuring. I saw the green shoots of new growth everywhere from Talacre to Penmaenmawr.
Well that makes a welcome change from burning’English’ holiday homes.
Even the the wretched Scotch didn’t stoop to that.
The Welsh like the Scotch should remember they are
“Dediticii” as the Romans would say, and should also recall whose ‘hand’
it is that feeds them.
Both frankly “take the biscuit “ for being incredibly ungrateful.
Really. You shouldn’t post when you’re drunk.
I don’t think CS needs to be drunk to post in his inimitable manner, but he can be quite amusing, on occasion!
It may come as a shock to you Kevin, but as an Englishman I know I have an inalienable right to say what I like, when I like, and to whom I like.
If you and your kind don’t like that….tough!
Incidentally as you should be aware ( but probably aren’t) we have stringent libel laws in this country to protect people, quite correctly from slanderous accusations.
So back to the bogs with you!
If you think you have the right to say what you like to whomever you like, you are fine as long as what you say does not ‘offend’ someone who decides to report it to the police as a hate crime. If the complainant happens to be one of the groups apparently protected by plod, then you will be in deep shit.
Precisely!
And why has this worthless government NOT repealed this pernicious legislation? They have had 7 long years to do something yet remain ossified with fear.
Such a bunch of bed-wetters are beneath contempt.
Precisely!
And why has this worthless government NOT repealed this pernicious legislation? They have had 7 long years to do something yet remain ossified with fear.
Such a bunch of bed-wetters are beneath contempt.
Of course you have a right to say what you like. It’s good because you show yourself up as a pompous arrogant d**k.
If you think you have the right to say what you like to whomever you like, you are fine as long as what you say does not ‘offend’ someone who decides to report it to the police as a hate crime. If the complainant happens to be one of the groups apparently protected by plod, then you will be in deep shit.
Of course you have a right to say what you like. It’s good because you show yourself up as a pompous arrogant d**k.
I don’t think CS needs to be drunk to post in his inimitable manner, but he can be quite amusing, on occasion!
It may come as a shock to you Kevin, but as an Englishman I know I have an inalienable right to say what I like, when I like, and to whom I like.
If you and your kind don’t like that….tough!
Incidentally as you should be aware ( but probably aren’t) we have stringent libel laws in this country to protect people, quite correctly from slanderous accusations.
So back to the bogs with you!
Anything coming from the Greeks or Romans reeks of a man’s world where ‘real’ men had slaves and women almost didn’t exist. In such circumstances it is easy to hold meaningful conversations with other enlightened people while the slaves do all the work.
I am sorry but that is a profoundly ignorant answer if I may so.
You should devote some to the study of the Classical World. I’m sure you will find it most rewarding.
Incidentally Wales is studded with interesting Roman sites:
Might I suggest Caerleon*, one the best preserved Legionary Fortress’s in the Roman Empire, and home to LEGIO II AUGUSTA, and nearby the well preserved Roman tribal capital-town of Caerwent (Venta Silurum.)
(* An unusual word that maybe a corruption of ‘castra legionis – camp of the Legion.)
The Ottoman Empire?
I am sorry but that is a profoundly ignorant answer if I may so.
You should devote some to the study of the Classical World. I’m sure you will find it most rewarding.
Incidentally Wales is studded with interesting Roman sites:
Might I suggest Caerleon*, one the best preserved Legionary Fortress’s in the Roman Empire, and home to LEGIO II AUGUSTA, and nearby the well preserved Roman tribal capital-town of Caerwent (Venta Silurum.)
(* An unusual word that maybe a corruption of ‘castra legionis – camp of the Legion.)
The Ottoman Empire?
Thank you for increasing my belief that Wales needs out of the UK. ( Funny how Tory ‘British nationalists’ aka English nationalists are being so successful in breaking up the UK! 😀 )
Bring it on!
As an English nationalist I don’t give a toss about Britain or the UK.
What I do care about is that we English should not be taxed to pay for the Barnet Formula, i.e. to subsidise Scotland, Wales and NI.
Never mind an independence referendum for Scotland – we need one for England.
How is it that very clever people always forget that the Barnet Formula refers to England as well. Those in the cuddly, warm south are subsidising their cousins in Yorkshire and Lancashire in just the same way.
It seems you’re not one of those clever people, Chris. The Barnett formula is explicitly about the block grants to Scotland, Wales and NI.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/barnett-formula
Thank you for correcting Chris, he can sometimes, inadvertently get hold of “the wrong end of the feather duster”.
Thank you for correcting Chris, he can sometimes, inadvertently get hold of “the wrong end of the feather duster”.
According to Wikipedia, it only affects Scotland, Wales and NI.
It seems you’re not one of those clever people, Chris. The Barnett formula is explicitly about the block grants to Scotland, Wales and NI.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/barnett-formula
According to Wikipedia, it only affects Scotland, Wales and NI.
How is it that very clever people always forget that the Barnet Formula refers to England as well. Those in the cuddly, warm south are subsidising their cousins in Yorkshire and Lancashire in just the same way.
But which problem do you think would be solved by ‘being out of the UK’? And which new problems (such as choice of currency, Welsh government revenue, new land borders) would arise?
I don’t really support Welsh independence. I support a federal UK. I’m not yet going for independence but increasingly sick of English nationalism and it thinking it speaks for all of the UK. I wrote “Thank you for increasing my belief that Wales needs out of the UK”
I don’t really support Welsh independence. I support a federal UK. I’m not yet going for independence but increasingly sick of English nationalism and it thinking it speaks for all of the UK. I wrote “Thank you for increasing my belief that Wales needs out of the UK”
If you spend some time in the north of England you might change your mind. I am from the north and I know how it is.
Who is going to pay your bills, or will you return to squalid world of medieval barbarism from which we kindly rescued you?
I gather that on these pages you are a low grade wind up, but this post makes no sense. The idea that ‘England’ presumably your ‘we’ rescues Wales from “medieval barbarism” is bizarre and utterly without foundation.
I gather that on these pages you are a low grade wind up, but this post makes no sense. The idea that ‘England’ presumably your ‘we’ rescues Wales from “medieval barbarism” is bizarre and utterly without foundation.
If only!
Bring it on!
As an English nationalist I don’t give a toss about Britain or the UK.
What I do care about is that we English should not be taxed to pay for the Barnet Formula, i.e. to subsidise Scotland, Wales and NI.
Never mind an independence referendum for Scotland – we need one for England.
But which problem do you think would be solved by ‘being out of the UK’? And which new problems (such as choice of currency, Welsh government revenue, new land borders) would arise?
If you spend some time in the north of England you might change your mind. I am from the north and I know how it is.
Who is going to pay your bills, or will you return to squalid world of medieval barbarism from which we kindly rescued you?
If only!
As I said last week, the middle classes of Wales want to leave the UK and a referendum in England would want Wales to leave. So we do not disagree.
But.. every year 10 million tourists visit Wales. Why do they do this is England is so great? Why do they want to escape? What does Wales offer?
Also, along the North Wales coast thousands of English people have built first and second homes in order to escape from the poverty of the big northern cities. Is this something to be proud of if you are English.
A further statistic produced in 2019. A whopping 45% of the inhabitants of Wales live within 25 miles of the border with England. They obviously prefer to live in a more welcoming country.
A handful of people, probably less than 20 burnt second homes in the 1960s. That was over 50 years ago. How about some statistics from the Romans and Greeks?
We normally holiday in North Wales cos your mountains are considerably closer to us than Scotlands (from the Midlands).That’s what we come for, mountains and lakes and lovely Welsh rivers, normally camper van & take our kayaks, you’ve got some lovely water to paddle, England hasn’t really got the mountains and lakes on the scale of Scotland and Wales. The lake district is a trek further for us than north Wales too.
Yes you are absolutely correct Miss Emery, having incessantly clambered over most of the Welsh mountains more that fifty years agoI totally agree, they are magnificent.
I am also loathe to admit it but, the indigenous people are also far friendlier than the Scotch, although that wouldn’t be hard.
Yes they are normally pretty friendly to be fair, I haven’t anything much against the Welsh, just the usual tribal animosity the welsh and English have always maintained, it would be boring not to it’s kind of tradition, they tend to be hardy no nonsense types, I feel tonight’s football doesn’t matter to me like the USA match.
We always had a good old fashioned holiday in a static near Porthmadog as kids, my dad did used to tell us stories about them burning english holiday homes down though, as far as I know that’s common knowledge, he was also convinced the fish and chips had a local price and an English price 🙂
Yes they are normally pretty friendly to be fair, I haven’t anything much against the Welsh, just the usual tribal animosity the welsh and English have always maintained, it would be boring not to it’s kind of tradition, they tend to be hardy no nonsense types, I feel tonight’s football doesn’t matter to me like the USA match.
We always had a good old fashioned holiday in a static near Porthmadog as kids, my dad did used to tell us stories about them burning english holiday homes down though, as far as I know that’s common knowledge, he was also convinced the fish and chips had a local price and an English price 🙂
Yes you are absolutely correct Miss Emery, having incessantly clambered over most of the Welsh mountains more that fifty years agoI totally agree, they are magnificent.
I am also loathe to admit it but, the indigenous people are also far friendlier than the Scotch, although that wouldn’t be hard.
We normally holiday in North Wales cos your mountains are considerably closer to us than Scotlands (from the Midlands).That’s what we come for, mountains and lakes and lovely Welsh rivers, normally camper van & take our kayaks, you’ve got some lovely water to paddle, England hasn’t really got the mountains and lakes on the scale of Scotland and Wales. The lake district is a trek further for us than north Wales too.
Really. You shouldn’t post when you’re drunk.
Anything coming from the Greeks or Romans reeks of a man’s world where ‘real’ men had slaves and women almost didn’t exist. In such circumstances it is easy to hold meaningful conversations with other enlightened people while the slaves do all the work.
Thank you for increasing my belief that Wales needs out of the UK. ( Funny how Tory ‘British nationalists’ aka English nationalists are being so successful in breaking up the UK! 😀 )
As I said last week, the middle classes of Wales want to leave the UK and a referendum in England would want Wales to leave. So we do not disagree.
But.. every year 10 million tourists visit Wales. Why do they do this is England is so great? Why do they want to escape? What does Wales offer?
Also, along the North Wales coast thousands of English people have built first and second homes in order to escape from the poverty of the big northern cities. Is this something to be proud of if you are English.
A further statistic produced in 2019. A whopping 45% of the inhabitants of Wales live within 25 miles of the border with England. They obviously prefer to live in a more welcoming country.
A handful of people, probably less than 20 burnt second homes in the 1960s. That was over 50 years ago. How about some statistics from the Romans and Greeks?
Well that will stop them coming! You can kill a golden goose by greed!
They stopped burning the homes because there was a trick – you insured them for more than they were worth. So Meibion Glyndwr were actually giving money to their English visitors.
However was there NEVER a single prosecution, such is/was the apathy of the Welsh Constabulary.
Now it is more than 30 years ago I’ll grant you, but yet the ‘Crown’ still feels quite happy to prosecute a former Grenadier Guardsman for a ‘negligent discharge’ more than 30 ago, so what the hell is going on here may I ask?
Further where do you get your research from? It is simply appalling.
For example the Burning of English properties campaign ran from 1979-1994, and over 220 homes were fire-bombed, and NOT the 20 you state!
As you ask for some “statistics from the Romans and Greeks”. If
the Roman were still running ‘Wales’ I would expect them to have crucified about 1,000 for the cottage burning atrocity, sold another 1,000 into slavery, and perhaps kindly sent another 500 to fight in the Amphitheater at Caerleon……’sine Missione’
– without mercy.
That would probably have sorted things out for a couple of generations don’t you think?
However was there NEVER a single prosecution, such is/was the apathy of the Welsh Constabulary.
Now it is more than 30 years ago I’ll grant you, but yet the ‘Crown’ still feels quite happy to prosecute a former Grenadier Guardsman for a ‘negligent discharge’ more than 30 ago, so what the hell is going on here may I ask?
Further where do you get your research from? It is simply appalling.
For example the Burning of English properties campaign ran from 1979-1994, and over 220 homes were fire-bombed, and NOT the 20 you state!
As you ask for some “statistics from the Romans and Greeks”. If
the Roman were still running ‘Wales’ I would expect them to have crucified about 1,000 for the cottage burning atrocity, sold another 1,000 into slavery, and perhaps kindly sent another 500 to fight in the Amphitheater at Caerleon……’sine Missione’
– without mercy.
That would probably have sorted things out for a couple of generations don’t you think?
They stopped burning the homes because there was a trick – you insured them for more than they were worth. So Meibion Glyndwr were actually giving money to their English visitors.
Rhyl? Prestatyn?
Well that makes a welcome change from burning’English’ holiday homes.
Even the the wretched Scotch didn’t stoop to that.
The Welsh like the Scotch should remember they are
“Dediticii” as the Romans would say, and should also recall whose ‘hand’
it is that feeds them.
Both frankly “take the biscuit “ for being incredibly ungrateful.
Well that will stop them coming! You can kill a golden goose by greed!
Once again the author of the article confuses British with English. The resorts in Wales are in a much better state and 10 million English people visit them every year.
Wales sees these annual influxes of English people as a major source of income. There is a move afoot to charge a surcharge/tax on every night spent in a hotel.
I increasingly believe that what Beveridge was trying to do, and the aims of the whole “eliminate poverty” lobby is impossible. Poverty of a segment of the population is a feature of human society in the same way that sickness is. Pursuing the impossible is, I believe a leninist tactic to justify ever increasing control over people – and their money, justifying taxation.
It’s certainly impossible with the current – and quite absurd – official definition of poverty.
In fact, for all the efforts of the welfare state over the past 100 or more years (from the early 1900s), it’s hard to think of many areas where the underlying problems have actually been solved. And all too many where – according to the official statistics – the problems are worse than when the remedial welfar state policies were initiated.
It’s hard from empirical evidence to resist the conclusion that the intervention of state sponsored bureaucracies mainly serves the bureaucracies themselves and does far less to benefit those in real need.
It’s certainly impossible with the current – and quite absurd – official definition of poverty.
In fact, for all the efforts of the welfare state over the past 100 or more years (from the early 1900s), it’s hard to think of many areas where the underlying problems have actually been solved. And all too many where – according to the official statistics – the problems are worse than when the remedial welfar state policies were initiated.
It’s hard from empirical evidence to resist the conclusion that the intervention of state sponsored bureaucracies mainly serves the bureaucracies themselves and does far less to benefit those in real need.
I increasingly believe that what Beveridge was trying to do, and the aims of the whole “eliminate poverty” lobby is impossible. Poverty of a segment of the population is a feature of human society in the same way that sickness is. Pursuing the impossible is, I believe a leninist tactic to justify ever increasing control over people – and their money, justifying taxation.
It is said that there are kids living in Lowestoft whose lives are so impoverished that they have never seen the sea.
Lithuanians I gather.
Just put a food bank on the Promenade…
Only impoverished in their imagination – a short walk would do them some physical good & then they can see the sea for themselves.
Lithuanians I gather.
Just put a food bank on the Promenade…
Only impoverished in their imagination – a short walk would do them some physical good & then they can see the sea for themselves.
It is said that there are kids living in Lowestoft whose lives are so impoverished that they have never seen the sea.
Why are some of the most innocuous ‘posts’ being subject to such savage censorship?
It really is quite ridiculous!
Are you being moderated Mr Stanhope? How bloody annoying. Had trouble posting multiple times myself.
Yes I am! And in particular in a reply to your post about holidays in Wales! Just bonkers!
Actually, how stupid of me not to realise sooner I’m being BULLIED!!!
Rude! Not exactly in keeping with their ethos of being a platform for all voices….
Precisely!
I have also just been moderated, my comment above gone too, I object loudly and obnoxiously to the phantom comment flaggers.
John Solomon, we are trying to exercise our inalienable right to say what we like and finding it difficult, that’s the point. Occasionally Mr Stanhope and I like to exercise that right by disagreeing with each other, we can’t play at all though can we if we can’t say what we want and our stuff gets removed or not put up? Not very sporting is it?
Does that clarify the position for you?
I suspect Mr Solomon is really ‘on our side’!
Just making sure….
My post they removed was tame as anything, I can’t help but feel the obnoxious, rebellious urge to exercise my right to offend now 🙂
To quote John Cleese: ‘you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom, where you’re not checking everything you say critically before you move on…..’
Just making sure….
My post they removed was tame as anything, I can’t help but feel the obnoxious, rebellious urge to exercise my right to offend now 🙂
To quote John Cleese: ‘you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom, where you’re not checking everything you say critically before you move on…..’
I suspect Mr Solomon is really ‘on our side’!
I have also just been moderated, my comment above gone too, I object loudly and obnoxiously to the phantom comment flaggers.
John Solomon, we are trying to exercise our inalienable right to say what we like and finding it difficult, that’s the point. Occasionally Mr Stanhope and I like to exercise that right by disagreeing with each other, we can’t play at all though can we if we can’t say what we want and our stuff gets removed or not put up? Not very sporting is it?
Does that clarify the position for you?
Precisely!
You are not being bullied. You are merely witnessing people exercising their inalienable right to say what they like to whomever they like………
I hope that clarifies the position for you.
People are NOT “exercising their inalienable right”, they are indulging in common censorship because they are upset. Simply pathetic in this day and age don’t you think Solomon old chap?
As for BULLIED, surely you recognised that I was being deliberately disingenuous?
Alleged ‘bullying’ is rapidly becoming the new ultimate crime, to be used by the Civil Service to destroy various politicians of the wrong persuasion. Soon it will become more serious than Holocaust denial.
People are NOT “exercising their inalienable right”, they are indulging in common censorship because they are upset. Simply pathetic in this day and age don’t you think Solomon old chap?
As for BULLIED, surely you recognised that I was being deliberately disingenuous?
Alleged ‘bullying’ is rapidly becoming the new ultimate crime, to be used by the Civil Service to destroy various politicians of the wrong persuasion. Soon it will become more serious than Holocaust denial.
You are not the only one. Unherd has some very anti freedom of expression subscribers who also seem to believe they have the right to demand a target states their position on political issues. I noticed Unherd are hosting an evening with Julie Bindel and Helen Joyce debating whether TERFs should unite with the right. The title seems to assume to be a feminist who believes being a woman is based in biology is not to be on the right, and that Julie Bindel and her cronies dictate to other women what their political allegiance should be.
Rude! Not exactly in keeping with their ethos of being a platform for all voices….
You are not being bullied. You are merely witnessing people exercising their inalienable right to say what they like to whomever they like………
I hope that clarifies the position for you.
You are not the only one. Unherd has some very anti freedom of expression subscribers who also seem to believe they have the right to demand a target states their position on political issues. I noticed Unherd are hosting an evening with Julie Bindel and Helen Joyce debating whether TERFs should unite with the right. The title seems to assume to be a feminist who believes being a woman is based in biology is not to be on the right, and that Julie Bindel and her cronies dictate to other women what their political allegiance should be.
Yes I am! And in particular in a reply to your post about holidays in Wales! Just bonkers!
Actually, how stupid of me not to realise sooner I’m being BULLIED!!!
Are you being moderated Mr Stanhope? How bloody annoying. Had trouble posting multiple times myself.
Why are some of the most innocuous ‘posts’ being subject to such savage censorship?
It really is quite ridiculous!
Beveridge did not “set out to eradicate five “Giant Evils” from Britain”, his report was concerned with ‘Want’. See paragraph 8 Beveridge: Three Guiding Principles of Recommendations
‘From the Cradle to the Grave’ was Winston Churchill 1943.
I dont like the angle that landlords are somehow to blame. It always comes through when talking about the underclass whatever the discussion. The landlord must not be blamed for the rise of the underclass. That is totally down to globalisation and mismanagement by government after government.
I am now working in a seaside resort and have upgraded 2 run down flats into really high quality housing. New levels of insulation, and nice new architectural features to bring back to life cold and damp homes.
Why am i a baddy in all this ? The rent has gone up compared to the older rent, but the product is much better and the rent is still affordable. A one bed flat is now £525 per month, before this would have been £450. Six months of unpaid work is the cost to me plus the £12k budget for refurb (i do all work myself) and that is for one flat only.
Yesterday i signed up a new immigrant from nigeria who is working in the NHS. Shes is 25, and will be bringing her husband over soon. She has a 3 yr contract with the NHS as a radiographer on £27k plus over time.
This is a snap shot into how the NHS is running. What i want to know is why cant we not train our own radiographers ? It is not that technical a job.
I have rejected 3 people who message me to say “i want to move to x place because i fancy a change. I’m on universal credit”. That’s all they write and they expect me to get back to them. It really saddens me to see we have so many uneducated people in this country.
The biggest crime is that we have ignored this small underclass over the many decades and then allowed it to grow bigger and bigger. That is the main story we should be looking at. Why have we not invested in our own people and left them to rot in seaside towns or big cities and instead look abroad to pull in the necessary labour our system needs.
So stop blaming the landlord !!!!!!!!
I dont like the angle that landlords are somehow to blame. It always comes through when talking about the underclass whatever the discussion. The landlord must not be blamed for the rise of the underclass. That is totally down to globalisation and mismanagement by government after government.
I am now working in a seaside resort and have upgraded 2 run down flats into really high quality housing. New levels of insulation, and nice new architectural features to bring back to life cold and damp homes.
Why am i a baddy in all this ? The rent has gone up compared to the older rent, but the product is much better and the rent is still affordable. A one bed flat is now £525 per month, before this would have been £450. Six months of unpaid work is the cost to me plus the £12k budget for refurb (i do all work myself) and that is for one flat only.
Yesterday i signed up a new immigrant from nigeria who is working in the NHS. Shes is 25, and will be bringing her husband over soon. She has a 3 yr contract with the NHS as a radiographer on £27k plus over time.
This is a snap shot into how the NHS is running. What i want to know is why cant we not train our own radiographers ? It is not that technical a job.
I have rejected 3 people who message me to say “i want to move to x place because i fancy a change. I’m on universal credit”. That’s all they write and they expect me to get back to them. It really saddens me to see we have so many uneducated people in this country.
The biggest crime is that we have ignored this small underclass over the many decades and then allowed it to grow bigger and bigger. That is the main story we should be looking at. Why have we not invested in our own people and left them to rot in seaside towns or big cities and instead look abroad to pull in the necessary labour our system needs.
So stop blaming the landlord !!!!!!!!
Beveridge did not “set out to eradicate five “Giant Evils” from Britain”, his report was concerned with ‘Want’. See paragraph 8 Beveridge: Three Guiding Principles of Recommendations
‘From the Cradle to the Grave’ was Winston Churchill 1943.
Is Deprivation sur Mer really that different from the picture in many inland locations?
Is Deprivation sur Mer really that different from the picture in many inland locations?
As I read these sorts of articles I am amazed that they continually ignore the basics of economic theory in the search for exotic answers to very simple problems. Examine the truth of the law of supply an demand and the answer becomes obvious. Naturally, the human face of the results of governments having no clue as to how to manage the business of government is emotive and distressing. Draw back the veil and ask government to do better would be my prescription.
As I read these sorts of articles I am amazed that they continually ignore the basics of economic theory in the search for exotic answers to very simple problems. Examine the truth of the law of supply an demand and the answer becomes obvious. Naturally, the human face of the results of governments having no clue as to how to manage the business of government is emotive and distressing. Draw back the veil and ask government to do better would be my prescription.
It is a good article.
I think so many problems these days come from the disintegration of family life and the extra support families give.
This isn’t a generational blame game point, for a start it has been coming from decades, so you can’t blame this or that generation.
A fundamental paradox seems to be that our society (and by ‘our’ I mean across the West, we rightly focus on here in the UK, but other countries have massive problems as well) creates atomised, very geographically separated families, and this makes ‘family support’ very difficult, if not impossible.
But converting that ‘looking after mum’ informal care into the paid for, I know my rights and want them now, structure of care, whether childcare, low level care and support or very full on looking after people at the end of the life, it is just so difficult to do in an acceptable way at a price anyone seems able to afford.
It’s a massive problem these days, and with 25% of schoolkids saying they have a mental health problem *or ‘struggle with mental health’, I cannot see how we wean ourselves off this ever growing dependency culture as we become ever more dependent on it.
Bit off piste from ‘run down towns’ but really this is all in the same pot.
It is a good article.
I think so many problems these days come from the disintegration of family life and the extra support families give.
This isn’t a generational blame game point, for a start it has been coming from decades, so you can’t blame this or that generation.
A fundamental paradox seems to be that our society (and by ‘our’ I mean across the West, we rightly focus on here in the UK, but other countries have massive problems as well) creates atomised, very geographically separated families, and this makes ‘family support’ very difficult, if not impossible.
But converting that ‘looking after mum’ informal care into the paid for, I know my rights and want them now, structure of care, whether childcare, low level care and support or very full on looking after people at the end of the life, it is just so difficult to do in an acceptable way at a price anyone seems able to afford.
It’s a massive problem these days, and with 25% of schoolkids saying they have a mental health problem *or ‘struggle with mental health’, I cannot see how we wean ourselves off this ever growing dependency culture as we become ever more dependent on it.
Bit off piste from ‘run down towns’ but really this is all in the same pot.
London councils also deport people to seaside towns.
It’s awful to hear that so many people are living on the edge in some of Britain’s once glorious seaside towns.
But please, the word is ‘precariousness’. There is no such word as ‘precarity’.
They’re all tasteless and tacky – decades past their use by date!
What sort of people does that attract?
Seriously.
They’re all tasteless and tacky – decades past their use by date!
What sort of people does that attract?
Seriously.
Geography is not the problem. Low wages can be corrected by introducing an adequate national minimum wage level. Housing shortage can be reduced by providing for social housing (in the explusive urban regions), rent control, and limitations to unearned income from rising real estate prices. This is not socialism but common (economic) sense.
Geography is not the problem. Low wages can be corrected by introducing an adequate national minimum wage level. Housing shortage can be reduced by providing for social housing (in the explusive urban regions), rent control, and limitations to unearned income from rising real estate prices. This is not socialism but common (economic) sense.
100% correct. The UK does need another Beveridge. Tragically, in 2017 and 2019 we had that option, a Corbyn led Labour Party pledged to reinvest in the public sector in a modern way, sabotaged by Labour Right Wingers in 2017, and by Remainiacs in 2019, with the enthusiastic supportive of a bent, corrupt, servile, Right Wing media.
Jeremy Corbyn represented the same threat to the Globalists here as Donald Trump did in the USA, and that’s why he had to be taken out at any cost.
Reinvest in the public sector. Was hat a joke.
The public sector is largely a care in the community scheme.
Right wing media? What planet are you on? Even the Telegraph is now soft left.
The hostility towards Corbyn’s Labour Party was largely because of its anti-Semitism. Thai is one group you cannot mess with
Spot on, well said Sir!
Spot on, well said Sir!
Jeremy Corbyn represented the same threat to the Globalists here as Donald Trump did in the USA, and that’s why he had to be taken out at any cost.
Reinvest in the public sector. Was hat a joke.
The public sector is largely a care in the community scheme.
Right wing media? What planet are you on? Even the Telegraph is now soft left.
The hostility towards Corbyn’s Labour Party was largely because of its anti-Semitism. Thai is one group you cannot mess with
100% correct. The UK does need another Beveridge. Tragically, in 2017 and 2019 we had that option, a Corbyn led Labour Party pledged to reinvest in the public sector in a modern way, sabotaged by Labour Right Wingers in 2017, and by Remainiacs in 2019, with the enthusiastic supportive of a bent, corrupt, servile, Right Wing media.