Mervyn King has announced that the economic turmoil and it’s effects are comparable if not worse than the actually Great Depression. Funny enoughy it can be argued that a key factor for the original Great Depression in the 30’s, was when the Tory Chancellor, Winston Churchill, linked the pound to the Gold standard – the economy’s growth immediately slowed. A decision that was taken, no doubt, to create wealth for those already wealthy. Same old fuckin Tory scum.
Unemployment increased, especially in the North, Wales and especially Glasgow; hunger marches became prevalent as poverty became widespread. Is this similar to the rise of Food Banks (see previous post).
In these areas, millions of unemployed and their families were left destitute, and queueing at soup kitchens became a way of life. A government report in the mid-1930s estimated that around 25% of the UK’s population existed on a subsistence diet, often with signs of child malnutrition such as scurvy, rickets and tuberculosis. In his book The Road to Wigan Pier, George Orwell described life for the unemployed in northern England during the depression: “Several hundred men risk their lives and several hundred women scrabble in the mud for hours… searching eagerly for tiny chips of coal in slagheaps so they could heat their own homes. For them, this arduously-gained ‘free’ coal was more important almost than food.
History’s importance is the ability to learn from errors in the past, so after the Second World War the Welfare State was born to ensure that nobody had to suffer the poverty, hunger and desditution that many experianced during the depression.
Now back to current day, we have a government, predominately educated at Eton or Oxbridge, who have taken upon itself to dismantle the Welfare state whilst we are in the start of a potential fucking massive depression. To me that is just cruel and depraved.
Cameron & Osborne’s children won’t starve, why should ours?
Jason E Cooper 