After Rotterdam, Amsterdam also plans a ban on low-income inhabitants: London and other cities are moving towards a similar strategy. The London ESF is a showplace for creative social entrepreneurs - the kind of people who should replace the poor, according to this philosophy.
So far there has been limited publicity for the urban strategy of the GLA - “Sustaining Success” - which is the context of their support for the ESF. A reminder of the approach in this official strategy for London...
“It is recognised that a variety of approaches will be required to address the different target audiences that London ’s partners are trying to address....London can be seen in the same way as a company promoting a portfolio of products across a range of markets – using specific techniques to attract different market segments. What London ’s marketing strategy needs to do, therefore, is deliver a range of targeted messages that reinforce one another and build a positive and coherent image, promoting London as a place, promoting London to people and promoting London as a place for people to do business. London also hosts a wide variety of other cultural events – including London Film Week, London Fashion Week and London Design Week – that can be used to raise the profile of London ’s cultural industries.”
The idea that cities are a business is part of a growing neoliberal urban philosophy, which is being adopted by many cities in the EU. It is a trend which has largely escaped the attention of the media.
One of the core ideas is that cities be inhabited by successful people. At first that meant attracting upper-income households, and international businessmen. But limited inward migration of this kind is not enough to transform the city: in itself, it does not remove urban problems. So some cities are turning to a more aggressive approach: deport the poor.
Rotterdam was the first European city to propose a legal ban on low-income households. People earning minimum wage (or up to 20% more) would not be allowed to move into the city. Here the motive was simple racism: most of those affected were immigrants. The proposal was shelved after criticism.
However, it was not an incident. Now Amsterdam has proposed similar strategies. A report from the Chamber of Commerce, and a leaked internal memo from the city council, propose removal of low-income population to new towns, and their replacement by upper-income households. The council memo is the closest in style to the London strategy: it wants to reserve Amsterdam for the ‘creative class’.
This term - which you will hear often in the next few years - was invented by Richard Florida: see this article for what he himself understands by it
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0205.florida.html
This fits in well with Tony Blair’s ideas about society, about private enterprise as the sole form of ‘innovation’, about entrepreneurs as the driving force of society. All that got pushed to the background, when Blair went crusading in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But the New Labour vision of society is still alive, among the GLA planners and the New Labour think-tanks.
At the root of their strategy is a fundamental contempt for the poor - they have been written off as useless ballast, in the new dynamic society. So it’s logical to suggest, as Amsterdam is now doing, that they be moved out of the global cities.
The ESF isn’t a gathering of opponents to this view of society: it is a gathering of the creative class itself. As Richard Florida points out, they may look alternative, their lifestyle may be alternative. But they are the winners, the dynamic social entrepreneurs - and the ‘uncreative’ poor are the losers. So it’s easy to see how the GLA can fit this into a strategy of promotion of the ‘dynamic global creative city’. The Amsterdam proposal shows where that strategy is taking London: an exclusive city for the rich, the talented and the powerful, a city which mercilessly dumps its ‘failed people’ elsewhere.
“It is recognised that a variety of approaches will be required to address the different target audiences that London ’s partners are trying to address....London can be seen in the same way as a company promoting a portfolio of products across a range of markets – using specific techniques to attract different market segments. What London ’s marketing strategy needs to do, therefore, is deliver a range of targeted messages that reinforce one another and build a positive and coherent image, promoting London as a place, promoting London to people and promoting London as a place for people to do business. London also hosts a wide variety of other cultural events – including London Film Week, London Fashion Week and London Design Week – that can be used to raise the profile of London ’s cultural industries.”
The idea that cities are a business is part of a growing neoliberal urban philosophy, which is being adopted by many cities in the EU. It is a trend which has largely escaped the attention of the media.
One of the core ideas is that cities be inhabited by successful people. At first that meant attracting upper-income households, and international businessmen. But limited inward migration of this kind is not enough to transform the city: in itself, it does not remove urban problems. So some cities are turning to a more aggressive approach: deport the poor.
Rotterdam was the first European city to propose a legal ban on low-income households. People earning minimum wage (or up to 20% more) would not be allowed to move into the city. Here the motive was simple racism: most of those affected were immigrants. The proposal was shelved after criticism.
However, it was not an incident. Now Amsterdam has proposed similar strategies. A report from the Chamber of Commerce, and a leaked internal memo from the city council, propose removal of low-income population to new towns, and their replacement by upper-income households. The council memo is the closest in style to the London strategy: it wants to reserve Amsterdam for the ‘creative class’.
This term - which you will hear often in the next few years - was invented by Richard Florida: see this article for what he himself understands by it
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0205.florida.html This fits in well with Tony Blair’s ideas about society, about private enterprise as the sole form of ‘innovation’, about entrepreneurs as the driving force of society. All that got pushed to the background, when Blair went crusading in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. But the New Labour vision of society is still alive, among the GLA planners and the New Labour think-tanks.
At the root of their strategy is a fundamental contempt for the poor - they have been written off as useless ballast, in the new dynamic society. So it’s logical to suggest, as Amsterdam is now doing, that they be moved out of the global cities.
The ESF isn’t a gathering of opponents to this view of society: it is a gathering of the creative class itself. As Richard Florida points out, they may look alternative, their lifestyle may be alternative. But they are the winners, the dynamic social entrepreneurs - and the ‘uncreative’ poor are the losers. So it’s easy to see how the GLA can fit this into a strategy of promotion of the ‘dynamic global creative city’. The Amsterdam proposal shows where that strategy is taking London: an exclusive city for the rich, the talented and the powerful, a city which mercilessly dumps its ‘failed people’ elsewhere.
Comments
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Debate about economic disparities in Liverpool, and the West in general.....
23.03.2004 12:17
It is up to those who can to challenge middle class indifference in Britain to poverty on their very doorsteps, even the very poverty that their greed and selfishness, and scant regard to social justice at this very time is creating. Winners and losers, sinkers and swimmers, good guys and bad guys; all clichéd and trite, but all part of the big theme in Britain and the West. And what do we have in Liverpool? A city that has engorged itself on European Union billions, and yet still has an average annual wage of £9000 for many of its low-paid, overworked and undervalued workers. Where has all this money gone, and more importantly when will ordinary Liverpool people see any genuine and lasting benefit from the billions of pounds that have been flowing into this troubled city?
Within these injustices, local and global, where some are pushed out of the way, be it in Africa to build huge tourist complexes for overpaid Americans and Europeans, or in Liverpool itself, where shopkeepers and locals both are being kicked out to make way for the wealthy and the well-to-do, and the polite and genteel brigade, there are great moral issues, that will grow and grow, and fester if they are not challenged. And I will ask the same question, the same questions I have reiterated on this board for what seems like ages; where are all the banner wavers and placard wavers, the concerned, the do-gooders et al, while Liverpool is being cast to the wolves? Is it TOO MUCH like reality for those internationally-aware middle classes, who seem so obsessed with challenging class, racism and unjust economic realities everywhere else in the world, to challenge the same class, racism and unjust economic realities in Britain, in the North West, in Merseyside, in Liverpool? Could it be that it’s nice and safe to challenge injustice somewhere else, and get that warm, smug glow of self-satisfaction that ‘we are saving the world’, but convenient to ignore the same unjust social conditions that allow those middle classes with money to prosper unjustly at the expense of poorer people in Britain? Well, you don’t need to be Einstein to understand that the middle class left has no real interest in a) the plight of the poor working classes in Britain or b) challenging their own greed and self-centredness, whilst it benefits them enormously and at the price of a divided Britain.
If all we have is words, then use those words to tell the world about the economic injustices plied by the same people who sing so harmoniously about justice elsewhere, but have collective amnesia when it comes to the economic apartheid in Britain.
I would like one middle class person to prove me wrong, or one middle class leftie to answer this post with intelligence and genuine honesty, and to prove me wrong; I WILL NOT hold my breath…..
Timbo O'the 'Pool
Liverpool
23.03.2004 23:50
As someone originally from the North West (but now moved elsewhere), I found your article interesting. I think people from middle class backgrounds (like me) would find it hard to relate to some of the issues you bring up. I think you should continue to expose these divisions in society because it's quite eye-opening. Maybe the government could do more to encourage industry/businesses to attract more jobs to these poorer areas?
There might be some truth in your comment about middle class concern for divisions. A lot of people (including me) just aren't very political so it's probably not just an issue of only having an interest in certain issues. However I think there are some who probably have a genuine feeling that the divisions in society are widening.
I don't know Granby but I found the photos here interesting:-
Brian B
Brian B
Good to hear some honest feedback...
24.03.2004 12:42
It's nice to just have an honest opinion; in this country it seems, one of the hardest things to find is merely someone who is honest. I accept your point that some middle class people wouldn't be able to identify with these things, but these things are happening; I have actually interviewed people with tape who are being turfed out so landlords can get in higher paying tenants.
Class is less of an issue, if we were really honest; it is there, but we know in this day and age it is harder to define. It seems to be boiling down to money, as ever. And one group of people overiding other people, who have little if any recourse to take preventative action.
If there was a genuine answer to all this, I don't know what it is. But I think if all those concerned, genuinely concerned, err on the side of justice, and what is good for all people, we might all make some headway. It would be nice if the average citizen in Liverpool benefitted from all the things that are going on; that would be a start in the right direction.
Timbo
Where I stand! Where do you stand?
24.03.2004 16:10
Timbo wrote:
"So, the beginning of the enforced migration of the poor from the cities, so that the comfy and wealthy elite can live peacefully and prosper, surrounded by over-priced coffee bars, wine bars, restaurants and expensive furniture stores and the like. This seems to me what is happening in Liverpool at this very time."
Indeedy I agree, in fact all the evidence suggests it has been happening for longer than we realise, the Bull Ring isn’t it called near Pembroke Street, that was cleared of most of the working class in the late 1980’s weren’t it with only 1 or 2 families remaining there, the rest of the circular block of flats were done up and student put into it, surely no better example exists of the working class being cleared out of the city.
Close to where the Anglican cathedral is now, near China Town close to the Blackie, there are numerous blocks of low rise flats being emptied out, for certain they’ll end up demolished quite soon with new build housing for sale to house the yuppie invasion expected for Capital of Culture year.
“It is up to those who can to challenge middle class indifference in Britain to poverty on their very doorsteps, even the very poverty that their greed and selfishness, and scant regard to social justice at this very time is creating.”
To be honest, while we working class people here in Liverpool remain either apathetic to our collective conditions or even ignorant of our collective conditions we’ll not be able to do anything about it. Primarily encouraging working class people to take an interest in the political part of our lives has to be an aim of anyone who wants to redress the imbalance in both political representation and economic distribution.
“Winners and losers, sinkers and swimmers, good guys and bad guys; all clichéd and trite, but all part of the big theme in Britain and the West.”
Indeedy and the poor can just F-off and die, the industrial working class of the west have largely been made redundant by the export of capital and factories to the third world, which is why year on year products are falling in price, because every year capitalists move production to the next poorer country to force down wages and boost their profits, but it’ll hit the bottom sooner or later. Fact is as one socialist from a third world country at a meeting in London said to a largely middle class gathering you’re living off the backs of the poor of the third world and a very middle class SWPer said no we’re not, I spoke up and said “oh yes we are, how else could I afford to buy this new shirt I’m wearing for just £3 and it was made in the third world, and I’m working class”. So we in the West even the poorest of us are living off the super exploitation of the poor of the third world, neo-colonial enslavement even!
“And what do we have in Liverpool? A city that has engorged itself on European Union billions, and yet still has an average annual wage of £9000 for many of its low-paid, overworked and undervalued workers. Where has all this money gone, and more importantly when will ordinary Liverpool people see any genuine and lasting benefit from the billions of pounds that have been flowing into this troubled city?”
Well Mike Lane researched this magical mystery tour of European Funding in 1998 and it seems to me it just became a tangled web of lies and deceit that in the end it just became a mega-monster out of total control call it capitalist 'chaos' without any real democratic control or accountability. From day one it was outside local democratic control as it was set up, controlled and directed by the then Government Office on Merseyside. Imagine what could have been done with just a fraction of the hundreds of millions of pounds of EU and public funds being channelled into socially beneficial projects in Liverpool and Merseyside. Unfortunately those in the deepest poverty have been 'literally' swept aside, moved on, which is no surprise in a capitalist society like this and in an extremely oppressive capitalist based city as this. The only way we ever had of ensuring our interests were catered for was via the city council, which frankly was already in the pocket of big business long before the Lib-Dems took control in 1998 and even before Objective One status was granted Liverpool and Merseyside in early 1993. The only way of getting to the truth of where this money has disappeared is to call for a ‘social audit’ that is an audit trail of the social value of the spending of this money, that’s the only way to evaluate the benefit of the influx of this money, mostly public money. It won’t happen, too many have a vested interested in keeping it quiet and we the working class at this time don’t have any organised power to demand such an audit.
“And I will ask the same question, the same questions I have reiterated on this board for what seems like ages; where are all the banner wavers and placard wavers, the concerned, the do-gooders et al, while Liverpool is being cast to the wolves? Is it TOO MUCH like reality for those internationally-aware middle classes, who seem so obsessed with challenging class, racism and unjust economic realities everywhere else in the world, to challenge the same class, racism and unjust economic realities in Britain, in the North West, in Merseyside, in Liverpool? Could it be that it’s nice and safe to
challenge injustice somewhere else, and get that warm, smug glow of self-satisfaction that ‘we are saving the world’, but convenient to ignore the same unjust social conditions that allow those middle classes with money to prosper unjustly at the expense of poorer people in Britain? Well, you don’t need to be Einstein to understand that the middle class left has no real interest in a) the plight of the poor working classes in Britain or b) challenging their own greed and self-centredness, whilst it benefits
them enormously and at the price of a divided Britain.
YES, I agree!!! However you have to ask yourself this; is there a class struggle happening here in Liverpool now? I don’t believe there is, we the working class of Liverpool are entirely defeated, the trade unions aren’t even leading the organised working class here in Liverpool, the fight to defend workers rights hit the buffers some years ago. So is it any wonder the politically naïve out there on the estates are being thrown to the sharks of the free-market, that councillors from the Labour Party have so
detached themselves from the working class of Liverpool because often they’ve got
mortgages on private estates and when they sat back and voted for Stock Transfer in April 1998 they knew only too well the repercussions of their support and vote won’t directly effect them, never mind the fact that working class people don’t even go and visit their councillors very often, the majority have slipped into political indifference and to be honest at times I feel like joining them full time and many other good working class activists must think that too.
THE CONCERN WITH INTERNATIONAL ISSUES...
It’s quite clear that the working class of Liverpool remain unorganised and rather uninterested in fighting for our collective rights, those of us concerned with justice in the world might feel at least we’re with like minded people when we attend a monthly Palestinian support meeting or a Cuba solidarity meeting, why I keep throwing myself into local issues is beyond me, because frankly as Mike Lane will agree often we’re just
banging our head against a brick wall of indifference. You try and find two community activists working together and it’s a rarity here in Liverpool. There are numerous campaigns that need to be organised and bad things defeated, but you try and find some support out there and it’s damn near close to impossible even some working class people who call themselves socialists sneer when people like me try and have a go, try to ignite the spark to light the flame of fightback.
“If all we have is words, then use those words to tell the world about the economic injustices plied by the same people who sing so harmoniously about justice elsewhere, but have collective amnesia when it comes to the economic apartheid in Britain.”
“I would like one middle class person to prove me wrong, or one middle class leftie to answer this post with intelligence and genuine honesty, and to prove me wrong; I WILL NOT hold my breath…..”
There are many working class people with a political understanding who are saying the same things, however rather than seek the support of the middle class left I’d urge the working class ‘left’ in the absence of us not being represented to speak for ourselves and stand up for ourselves, most important to come together and organise primarily for our own collective class interests and not end up being misled, misdirected and betrayed by middle class impositions ever again. RESPECT? Heck look at who's jumped in to lead it on Merseyside and openly attacked the most RESPECTed working class leader of the post war era.
Timbo you already know the answers to the questions you are asking, so it would appear to me that you actually want confirmation of what you already believe. So it would led me to say this, if the middle class left are as you believe, and there is ample evidence to show this, more interested in international issues than issues on their own doorstep, in their own towns and cities then what about it??
Sure there was a lot of banner waving and marching going on in London over the Iraq war on March 20th. Did I go? No... Because my duty is to fight my corner to defend my rights, which are part of the collective rights of most working class people, my fate is tied up with the fate of the majority here in Liverpool. Imagine for one moment if we had a fraction of those people organising a protest against the post office closures, at any of the 11 post offices facing closure it would make local headlines, it would draw
in the local people.
I'd suggest that 'unconsciously' the middle class left don't want the working class masses with them, they fear us, in the end they don't want to encourage the working class to organise by themselves, for themselves,(a primarily aim of the police to stop the working class from organising since the 1850's) because when that happens inequality is challenged and the middle class who are in the middle because they benefit from the rule of this capitalist state and the oppression of the working class. They have an internalised conflict, at many times and in many places they are oppressors of the working class on behalf of the establishment who give them a greater share of the collective wealth of this society for their service. I'm talking about teachers in deprived working class schools, the doctors who decide who will get the appropriate treatment and medicine or not, the housing officers who use that divine right of the middle class 'discretion' to decide if you get to move to a nice neighbourhood or you
remain living next door to a drug deal. Discretion which is neither democratic or accountable, it is the same unspoken/unwritten right granted to the police who choose who to harass, arrest or caution according to their internalised interpretation of the law. However the middle class have an educational upbringing that doesn't attempt to stop freedom of thought which is the experience of most working class children at post
11 schooling, thus often in their minds a conflict arises about their position in a class based society and their role in the oppression of working class people and often it leads them to jump over the class lines and throw their political lot in with us and I welcome them alongside us.
So where does this outpouring of thought take me, well it takes me to why I'm in a working class socialist party, to be with other working class people trying to organise ourselves against our collective oppression and to encourage working class people to become more politically empowered and to come together to defend our collective rights, there can be no peace in a class based society and a capitalist society is whether we like it or not class based, formed from those that steal the most of the collective product of society while ensuring the majority who often create that collective produce have the least.
Now you tell me how you propose to change things? Form pressure groups...? Write letters to our useless MPs, lobby our councillors, talk incessantly about what needs to be done (and we're all guilty of that) without ever actually doing anything about it. This issue probably needs wider and deeper debate, there is the example of individualism in society and even in leftist activist politics, the one off campaigner doing it alone and having got habitually used to working on their own can not conceive of working with others for something beyond their narrow view for the greater good.
The real challenge has to be about nurturing the waking conscience of people, particularly working class people for it only we at the bottom of society who are in the majority and who gain the least from capitalism but have the most to gain from abolishing it.
In the end if I'm pushing you, it's because I'm asking you what is you want? a)Capitalism with a lighter whip that beats the workers? Or b) abolition of capitalism and establishment of a socialist society which means putting people first and abolishing exploitation of one group of people by another?
Kai Andersen
e-mail:
aokai@tiscali.co.uk
Homepage:
http://groups.msn.com/SocialistLabourPartyLiverpool
Better late than never....!
05.04.2004 10:52
Phew!! If ever there was a definitive answer to a post, this was it. Where do I begin with answers to what you have asked. Well here goes….
“Indeedy and the poor can just F-off and die, the industrial working class of the west have largely been made redundant by the export of capital and factories to the third world, which is why year on year products are falling in price, because every year capitalists move production to the next poorer country to force down wages and boost their profits, but it’ll hit the bottom sooner or later. Fact is as one socialist from a third world country at a meeting in London said to a largely middle class gathering you’re living off the backs of the poor of the third world and a very middle class SWPer said no we’re not, I spoke up and said “oh yes we are, how else could I afford to buy this new shirt I’m wearing for just £3 and it was made in the third world, and I’m working class”. So we in the West even the poorest of us are living off the super exploitation of the poor of the third world, neo-colonial enslavement even!”
You are so right. And, like most people on a budget, the lower prices for any type of goods, be that food, drink, cameras, PC’s, clothes etc etc, are always most welcome. However, we know, as you have so eloquently said, that the price we pay for low prices (no pun intended) is the end of the industrial working classes in Britain and Europe, the US and the like, and the removal of capital from the West to the East, to create another wave of even more lower-paid and even more exploited workers. This has resulted in an explosion of fairly good quality, and often very low priced goods, which, for many people in low paid jobs in the West means they can afford to live in some ways better lives; at the expense of other poor sods! Isn’t this always the way? What can we do about it? On an international level, probably not a great deal; but on a local level, well this is something else entirely. This culture, this everything-at-a-price culture, only continues, only reinvents itself, because most people passively buy into it, and ‘buy’ being the operative word. When working class people, no when all people choose to live within their means, and buy what they need, as opposed to what they think they want, society changes, and will change. If we en masse boycott certain stores, certain brands, certain yuppified areas of cities and so on, those places have to get real, they have to drop their prices. The problem of course is that as profit-margins go down, businesses inevitably lower wages and seek cheaper labour. Charity begins at home I believe, and concern must start where we live, where we breathe, eat, work and so on. If there was as much concern on issues of poverty in the West as there is around the world, I would be more of a leftie myself; all I see is for the most part middle class (for want of a better term) obfuscation, dilution and a wilfulness in refusing to accept that poverty, deep injustice and savage unfairness is as much a part of the West’s political and social makeup as it is in the East and elsewhere. I don’t have the answers, I merely have more questions.
“I'd suggest that 'unconsciously' the middle class left don't want the working class masses with them, they fear us, in the end they don't want to encourage the working class to organise by themselves, for themselves,(a primarily aim of the police to stop the working class from organising since the 1850's) because when that happens inequality is challenged and the middle class who are in the middle because they benefit from the rule of this capitalist state and the oppression of the working class. They have an internalised conflict, at many times and in many places they are oppressors of the working class on behalf of the establishment who give them a greater share of the collective wealth of this society for their service. I'm talking about teachers in deprived working class schools, the doctors who decide who will get the appropriate treatment and medicine or not, the housing officers who use that divine right of the middle class 'discretion' to decide if you get to move to a nice neighbourhood or you
remain living next door to a drug deal. Discretion which is neither democratic or accountable, it is the same unspoken/unwritten right granted to the police who choose who to harass, arrest or caution according to their internalised interpretation of the law. However the middle class have an educational upbringing that doesn't attempt to stop freedom of thought which is the experience of most working class children at post
11 schooling, thus often in their minds a conflict arises about their position in a class based society and their role in the oppression of working class people and often it leads them to jump over the class lines and throw their political lot in with us and I welcome them alongside us.”
As you know, most middle class directly and indirectly benefit from the class divides and wealth divides, otherwise class itself would not be such an emotive issue. One of the main problems isn’t just that wealth, in the form of wages, grants and the like, is so unfairly and unjustly distributed, it is also that tax seems to fall hardest on those who have the least; look at alcohol and tobacco for instance: on the Continent, tax on beer and cigarettes, those mainstays of the workers and working class, are far lower. This is just for starters. Britain in general seems to get screwed for tax. So tax is an issue; then we have the fact that many of the very top jobs, those jobs that wield power and influence, and pay very large wages, seem to go to people who already have everything anyway. Money is concentrated to a very great degree here. Then we have a generally wealthy South, at the expense of a generally poorer North. Then we have most of our political machinery, institutions, all that which actually ‘matters’ in power terms, down South, further enhancing the already widening divide. Added to this, is the unfortunate attitude of many middle class people, and perhaps working class people to a degree, to see things through rose-tinted lens; where everything is just as it is, the Queen sits on her throne, the sun shines and all is well with the world. Then we have the greatest fact of all that capitalism, venture capitalism, basically pirates paid to some extent by the state to rob, steal, trade people etc etc, started in Britain. All of these things entrench people, on both, and perhaps more sides.
“Now you tell me how you propose to change things? Form pressure groups...? Write letters to our useless MPs, lobby our councillors, talk incessantly about what needs to be done (and we're all guilty of that) without ever actually doing anything about it. This issue probably needs wider and deeper debate, there is the example of individualism in society and even in leftist activist politics, the one off campaigner doing it alone and having got habitually used to working on their own can not conceive of working with others for something beyond their narrow view for the greater good.”
How would I change things? I really do not know. I have some way with words, so I use this skill to get behind the veneer of false respectability and the phoney reality that so many people comfortably swallow and accept. I have many ideas, but like so many people, I am stretched for time. There are many things I might say, some you might heartily agree with, and others you might disagree with, but at least they would be honest and genuinely heartfelt, thought over, and from the heart. For Liverpool at least, it would be nice if for once more ordinary, average, working class people, call them what you will, shared in the abundance that seems to be flowing in from all around. Much of the injustice of the world hinges on very real self-centred decisions made by individuals, who, in having plenty anyway, want even more; it isn’t that there isn’t more than enough to go around, it is that selfish and greedy people, of all walks of life and backgrounds, are greedy and selfish for even more. The economic injustices plied around the world are really at the heart of most of the trouble and violence in the world. There are many other issues, but the economic issue is at the heart of most other issues anyway. What should we do? Start our own political party; write a wonderful best-selling book decrying the absolute injustice of capitalism in the West? I don’t know. Perhaps write a constitution of what is fair and just, in the way of taxes, fair minimum wages, what governments should and shouldn’t be involved in, the many questions that we should ask of why a very wealthy country like England ‘can’t’ afford to pay fair wages for all, a fair and adequate state pension, and better provision for free education and free health; these are for starters. And all tied in with a sense of honesty. We are all individuals after all.
Timbo