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Below the breadline on Liverpool’s workless estates
Very timely and thoughtful article looking at the reality of life as an unemployed person in Liverpool published in today’s Guardian.
Thomas Bebb cranes his head out of his living room window to assess how many of his neighbours are unemployed. He counts the number of flats in this three-storey, brown-and-grey pebbledash block (12) and pauses to calculate how many contain people in work. There are two: a scaffolder and a nurse. Looking across the courtyard at two other blocks opposite and to the left, he can’t think of anyone with a job there either.
The high numbers of workless households on this estate help explain startling figures produced by the GMB last week revealing that nearly one in three households in Liverpool have no one in work. It is the legacy of historic industrial decline in this area, suddenly worsened by the recent round of public sector redundancies and a new, downturn-related disappearance of retail and manufacturing jobs.
But, with seven unemployed people in Liverpool for every job vacancy, looking for work is a dispiriting process. Local government cuts have led to widespread job losses throughout the city, where almost 30% of all work is public-sector funded. Inconveniently, the cuts have also led to the shrinking of resources available to fund many of the community centres and training courses that might previously have helped him and his neighbours back into work.
That article saddens and angers me in equal measure. I know the area. It is just down the road in two different directions from where I live and work. It is a scandal that over thirty years from the onset of slash and burn Thatcherism that we are still looking at statistics and lifestyles like these.
It is true that Liver pool was in decline long before 1979. One of the main reasons was that there never was a strong manufacturing base here, casual and itinerant labour, mainly on the docks and satellite sectors, being historically dominant. A garden festival and an influx of shops and fancy restaurants is no soddin’ substitute.
And Liverpool is not unique. There is similar damage across swathes of Manchester and Glasgow and other British cities. Former mining towns in the north of England, The Midlands and Wales turned into unemployment wastelands. Pockets of inner London alienated from their more affluent neighbourhoods where many young kids wonder whether crime is the only way out of poverty after all.
I’m not talking about individual attitudes here. We’ve had that debate on here before and no doubt we’ll have it again. It’s the wasted opportunities to rebuild the economic and social infrastructure of society which is the tragedy. Fourteen years New Labour had to repair what the Tories had torn down. And they wasted it. Oh yes, they gave us sure start programmes, cut taxes for the lower paid and gave us the minimum wage. But they were not radical enough for fear of upsetting big business and the financial institutions. Instead what did they do? Locked us into ridiculous long term private finance initiatives, abandoned social housing building, undermined local authority control of education, bombarded us with draconian security and public order legislation which chipped away at long held liberties and spent billions bombing the crap out of Iraq and Afghanistan thus undermining the security they kidded us all they cared so much about.
So here we are again with the slash and burn Tories. As in 1979 they blamed Labour for the state of the country’s finances and promised tight fiscal policy. It was a cover then and it is a cover now. In the late 70’s Healey had managed to bring the inflation rate down and was beginning to repay the IMF loans. Labour failed to nail the Tory lie then and it is failing to do so now. Yes, Brown was irresponsible with the regulation of the financial sector, too casual with the public debt and far too generous to the banks but there is a far easier way to deal with the deficit. That is to crack down on tax avoidance. The public sector cuts are for political reasons not economic ones.
And what about Labour? It is a party slowly tearing itself apart. It now has a massive identity crisis. Blair may be gone but his shadow remains. The party knows it can’t go back to those days but it can’t be too radical either. Hence ridiculous notions like good and bad capitalism. Capital is neutral. There is no morality in the market. Capital seeks the best return on its investment, wherever that may take it. Radicals on the left are united with radicals on the right in knowing this. If that’s the best Miiliband can do then he needs to go back to school. He obviously wasn’t listening when sitting at his Marxist father’s knee. He might be making quasi-radical noises off stage but no-one is really convinced.
The Tories for now have a clear field. The Lib Dems are clinging onto the roller coaster for dear life wondering what’s round the next bend. Only the Lords look like trouble. But, they’ll make loud noises, the whips will run around like headless chickens and discussions will go on in smoky back rooms long into the night until the deals are done. The rich will carry on getting richer and the rest of us will carry on looking over our shoulders.
I absolutely agree. Wish I could have put it so succinctly.
It just keeps coming. And The Tories want to spend £60 million on an effin’ royal yacht.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jan/16/welfare-reform-terrified-families-worst
Well we think the yachts an absolutely splendid idea !
Chaz and Anne ...
Hmmmm ... does make for very depressing reading and even more very depressing times lie ahead i fear.
Don’t mean to be political but any person who voted Tory or Lib - Dem should hang there heads in shame and leave their 30 silver pieces by their feet.
On the yacht issue, it would obviously make sense to have it built in, say, Japan or Korea - purely in the interests of cost effectiveness, naturally. Better still, Germany. No irony there then….
On the vote issue, does anyone seriously think it would ultimately be any different whomever was in government? I certainly don’t (I didn’t vote for any of the “big/glib 3”).
I fully support the idea of the Yacht, as long as the entire coalition and royal family are to sail on the maiden voyage, with the vessel being captained by Francesco Schettino from the Costa Concordia! Bad taste? Yes - but they bloomin well started it!
Very timely and thoughtful article looking at the reality of life as an unemployed person in Liverpool published in today’s Guardian.
Thomas Bebb cranes his head out of his living room window to assess how many of his neighbours are unemployed. He counts the number of flats in this three-storey, brown-and-grey pebbledash block (12) and pauses to calculate how many contain people in work. There are two: a scaffolder and a nurse. Looking across the courtyard at two other blocks opposite and to the left, he can’t think of anyone with a job there either.
The high numbers of workless households on this estate help explain startling figures produced by the GMB last week revealing that nearly one in three households in Liverpool have no one in work. It is the legacy of historic industrial decline in this area, suddenly worsened by the recent round of public sector redundancies and a new, downturn-related disappearance of retail and manufacturing jobs.
But, with seven unemployed people in Liverpool for every job vacancy, looking for work is a dispiriting process. Local government cuts have led to widespread job losses throughout the city, where almost 30% of all work is public-sector funded. Inconveniently, the cuts have also led to the shrinking of resources available to fund many of the community centres and training courses that might previously have helped him and his neighbours back into work.
I have to commend the guy on actually managing on £67.50 while paying maintenance and debts-this is the man for Chancellor!
Well its only gonna get worse before it gets better and this chap and the rest of us facing redundancy (me included) have to think outside the box when it comes to looking for work or creating work. I dont think we would be any better under a Labour government as they started the Welfare Reforms relay and the Con/Lib Dem’s have just picked up the baton. Good luck Mr Bebb.
I liked the Guardian’s report on Gove’s Royal Yacht proposal immediately under the picture of the capsized cruise ship. For a minute I thought the two were really connected - it just needs a bit of welding…
Maybe it’s just those naughty people at the Grauniad
I liked the Guardian’s report on Gove’s Royal Yacht proposal immediately under the picture of the capsized cruise ship. For a minute I thought the two were really connected - it just needs a bit of welding…
Maybe it’s just those naughty people at the Grauniad
Heh! We had a laugh about that.
Those clever sub-editors :-)