Heading upto Cambridge. Gosh, it's always odd to visit old haunts where I both studied and worked (used to have four jobs) - barman, punter, builder, window cleaner - different time, summed up neatly by this one song -
though I must admit, I don't think I've been in a laundromat that was either that shiny new or fun.
However, the theme of "pay day, go out and go balling" is one I can understand. Along with the inevitable "Oh, damn ... how much?" afterwards.
In Glasgow, a bit of a different story. Along with laundromat, we had a coin operated electricity meter i.e. feed the meter and "pay day" was the unemployment cheque. So, once you set money aside for food, electricity etc ... well, we used to meet up with friends and drink Bucky.
X : What is Bucky?
Me : Buckfast Tonic Wine. It used to be cheap, very cheap which meant it was affordable. Try living on £35 per week (bills, food, transport, clothing etc) and you soon get used to making economical choices and still finding a way to let your hair down.
Me : Buckfast Tonic Wine. It used to be cheap, very cheap which meant it was affordable. Try living on £35 per week (bills, food, transport, clothing etc) and you soon get used to making economical choices and still finding a way to let your hair down.
Dug up some old records. It wasn't £35 per week, it was £46 ... but every two weeks. £23 per week. Ok, it was twenty years ago and things were cheaper. It was only a year but had some upsides. I was a much leaner 10.5 st by the end.
However, I had an out. It wasn't a permanent state, I had a Masters to complete and a path forward. Without this ... well, I do appreciate how poverty can be a vicious and demoralising trap. Inequality is a killer, a disease of society.
... I cannot emphasise enough the importance of hope. Not for those tossers at the top but for the poor bastards looking up. It's why both democrats and remain failed. Overpivileged arseholes not realising there is a wider society that can't just be ignored in a democracy.
Of course, the wallies behind the campaigns blew it by flogging fear not hope. Since then has been compounded by people labelling e.g. leavers were stupid (didn't know what they were doing), gullible (lied to), xenophobes etc etc rather than creating an alternative on hope ...
... it's so important if you want to overturn article 50 that the narrative has to include hope i.e. a huge wealth fund to tackle inequality etc.
Gosh, just realised ... it was thirty not twenty years ago. How old do I know feel ... well, it's better than the alternative.
