Polly holds up a family of unfortunates to
berate us all with:
Theirs is an everyday story of modern family life.
The Percy family, you see, are the 'precariat'. Renters, in other words, on the private housing market.
The Percys’ £750 a month rent takes half of Rob’s earnings as a site manager at a local school. Emma knows someone in a rare council home in the area, paying just £450 a month. “That would make a very big difference to us,” she says, “but the council told us not to bother trying, as we’d never get one.”
Boo! Hiss! Eeeeeeevil Tory cuts!
When their first child was born, 14 years ago, Rob and Emma, who are now both 34, lived above a pub where Rob worked, but children weren’t allowed in staff quarters.
Wait, what..? Why'd they have one, then?
Their next home lasted just one six-month let, after which the owner took back the flat to sell it. They lived with Emma’s parents for two years, until their next child was born.
Hang on. Why do they
keep having children?
Folkestone council offered emergency accommodation in a former Salvation Army hostel but, Emma recalls, “the toilet in the flat above leaked down on to us and even so it cost £800 a month”. Their next landlord raised the rent by £50 every six months, so they moved on: rents rise but pay doesn’t. In one home they had no working boiler for five months. They have been in their present home for 18 months and hope they can hold on here.
Hasn't stopped them having a
third child, though. You might wonder why...
8 comments:
You know you could point 57 Hubble telescopes at the sky and still be unable to see the planet that Polly Toynbee lives on.
What you are suggesting is that people who cannot -
* find accommodation should not have a child.
* people who cannot afford accommodation &/or descent & appropriate accommodation should not have children.
* poor people should not have children.
I agree .. you have not got the right to bring a child into being if you are poor.
Though MASS UNEMPLOYMENT is the fault of / as a result of the total mismanagement on the part of .. the government, financial, banking sectors.
The Common man is not to blame for unemployment.
Housing shortages are also the fault of the inept government, financial, banking sectors.
Wages inequality is due to greed on the part of those who have money .. not wanting to pay for the goods & services they rely on to live their in their comfort zone.
But it is the common man who is poor through no fault of their own.
What should they do ?
What to do,
What to do
Umm ?
Just to say .. the biggest problem that we have today is infertility.
God is good.
Today .. Germany, Japan, Italy, UK, Russia .. in all these nations the fertility rate is below replacement levels.
Don't worry the Muslim nations & the African nations will populate the world instead.
Oh no they won't .. they are well on their way to .. below replacement rates also.
Mankind is becoming extinct.
Phew !
Though .. some of the most talented, hard working, giving & interesting people who have graced this world have come from dirt poor ..
"emergency accommodation in a former Salvation Army hostel ....... cost £800 a month”
Yet now the Percys’ rent a £250,000 1950s three-bed house in their quiet Folkestone suburb for £750 a month
"Mankind is becoming extinct."
That must be sending the Greens into raptures.
I had a suspicion that we would die out someday but I thought that would be by self annihilation. Probably will be but if we do not we are ingenious enough to solve that particular problem eventually. How I suspect will have profound ethical implications.
The scenario I envisage that will do away with us. Is either a WWIII with weapons of incredible powers of mass destruction or we will give in to progressive and socialist thinking and impoverish ourselves back to the stone age or we will develop AI and robot technology to the point that we are seen as being a hindrance by them and they will get rid of us. If I was an intelligent robot and observing the human race as it currently is I would.
The west will die of political correctness and general stupidity.
the Chinese will take over. the end
"...and still be unable to see the planet that Polly Toynbee lives on."
Heh!
"The Common man is not to blame for unemployment."
You seem to think it's some sort of vast conspiracy, then? Hmmm. I'm interested in your views and would like to subscribe to your newsletter...
"...the Chinese will take over. the end"
Well, at least I like rice!
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