Does it negate your views about the London-centric nature of our society, culture and economy? Views that have been expressed on this forum quite a few times. http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/nov/16/local-authority-cuts-north-south http://www.shu.ac.uk/research/cresr/sites/shu.ac.uk/files/hitting-poorest-places-hardest_0.pdf
'Hardest hit'? Maybe places with bigger subsidies/funding cut back makes it seem they are being hit the hardest? Not that I am defending this or any other govt's economic policies...... The best infrastructure/industrial news for a generation (or three) in the last few months. Shame it was not on Labour's watch.
Of course, they’re hardest hit. They received that funding due to many reasons, usually all spanning from the social deprivation in that area (check out most of the biggest cuts on there – to places that contain areas of the top 10% most deprived). You should actually see what’s happening to families/individuals now in Hull. Some, seriously, can barely feed themselves. Not an exaggeration but I’m sure many of you reading this will no doubt just presume and write these people off as feckless, workshy individuals. If you look at the funding cut figures on that link of ‘cumulatively change per person’ virtually all of the local authorities where it’s over a £100 per person deficit change, they’re (or contain) Labour strongholds. To cut them disproportionately (as they have), to such an extent, is a massive **** you to real people (not the few and far between ‘benefits culture’ caricatures that get rammed down our throats day in/day out) which is and will hurt families, the innocent and the vulnerable. Back to the topic in hand, to criticise HCC is fine and healthy – I’d encourage people to do so and as stated, I've never voted for Labour in local or national elections. But, if you are to criticise HCC, do it fairly. If someone can see absolutely no merit in HCC’s role in what’s happened over the last year of so, then I’d suggest their critique is clearly imbalanced, bias and unreliable.
How can that happen in a country such as our with our wealth and history? Maybe the causes are not (just) economic but social/political?
Agreed. It’s ****ing appalling. I don’t think there’s a simple answer so I won’t try. Suffice to say though, that for real change, everything would need an overhaul, an overhaul of human nature itself - so an overhaul that to all likelihood will sadly never happen. At the end of day, human beings are, by and large, ****s. But failing all that. If we could just have a society where people who want to work, can work, and earn enough to feed, clothe, house and have a little bit for leisure. Dream world I suppose.
And those who don't want to work can scuttle about with their cardboard boxes picking scraps out of dustbins and not living in plush brand new 2 or 3 bedroom houses with everything paid for jetting off on holidays twice a year. Then I'd agree that would be a dream world.
It's a shame news like this so often means waiting for a firm from Germany, India, etc, to invest here. The UK is going down the economic toilet. And that's not a party political point. The country has been going that way for decades.
