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| Jon Snow lifts the lid on the return of the Dickensian landlord |
To add to the bleakness of the picture, it was also revealed that many more people are living in crowded conditions, with multiple occupancy of small rooms becoming more common and many people renting garden sheds as their sole living space. The government minister for housing, Grant Shapps, gave a 'ya-di-ya-di-ya' defence of the government's efforts, promising tough action and renewed enforcement - but clearly without any conviction or hope that anything will actually change.
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| Going backwards |
And this week, it was revealed that the government's own figures reveal that 40,000 families face being made homeless by the changes to housing benefit being enacted by this government. It is pretty clear where this is all heading. We are seeing the re-emergence of slum-like housing conditions, heartless and scheming landlords and an indifferent government. This is the return to Dickensian living conditions for many of the most poor and vulnerable in this country. What else can we expect when no government of any persuasion since 1979 has seriously tackled the increasing divide between rich and poor? What is even sadder is that this situation is only going to get worse and no politician seems to give a monkeys.
A government has a social contract with its citizens; that it will provide a physical and economic infrastructure, social controls and safety/hygeine regulation, law & order, etc, in return for those citizens abiding by those laws.
ReplyDeleteWhen the contract has been broken, and many of the citizens are disenfrachised, denied basic human rights and the chance to participate in that economy, then what incentive do they have to submit to the restrictions of law & order?
When things get bad enough, I fully support the right of those disenfranchised people to attack the system that is not serving them or even oppressing them. I would go further and suggest that it is a citizen's duty on behalf of themselves and their fellow man.
So what if this is a Trotskyist philosophy? In the words of the Daily Mail (but this time directed at the capitalists) It is the only language they understand.
I have always been fairly 'left of centre' in my politics. However, as I witness the rich taking more at the expense of the poor, I am moving further and further to the left.
ReplyDeleteIn the last thirty years, there has been a shift of money from the middle class to the rich. As the rich do not pay as much tax, the slack in the tax receipts has required the lower and middle classes to fill it. As they don't have the money, our deficits have increased, until now we are broke. And, of course, the poor suffer as the cuts are needed, whilst the rich just keep on raking it in.
We now have a lower class and an emerging underclass - disenfranchised due to their living conditions, and living on the periphery of society. There is no longer anyone fighting for these people in the political sphere. Once upon a time, that is what Labour would have done. Now Labour are busy chasing middle england and middle class votes with a blend of populism and basic acceptance of the centre right brand. They are hopeless. I will start checking out socialist alternatives to vote for - even join.