Nangle Natters: Poor show

A good while ago a Canadian friend of mine was explaining why many of her family members had voted against free healthcare and for tax cuts for the rich. “They think they’re rich,” she told me.
“Are they rich?” I asked.

“No.” Was the answer. But the self-identity of being ‘rich’ was so important to them that they endorsed the tax breaks happily. They were told that this was something that the ‘rich’ benefited from so it must be good for them. Because they couldn’t possibly be ‘comfortably off’ or even ‘poor’ themselves. Anything other than ‘rich’. Ringing any bells Mr Chancellor Of The Exchequer?

Britain does not rule the waves. Britain is in a massive state of flux, of change which is likely to be remembered historically. It is that captain of the waves that keeps insisting that everything is okay and if we just don’t look at the storm too hard it’ll most probably go away and sort itself out of its own accord. The impression is, we may be feeling the squeeze a bit financially but there’s bound to be a few pound coins down the back of the sofa that’ll sort us out – after all, we’re rich.

We’re not.

I mean we’re still a first world country, we’ve got running water that you can drink from the tap and electricity and transport infrastructure – but we also have food banks growing at an alarming rate, ruthless cuts to much-needed benefits for the disabled (and everyone else), charities taking the strain when the government used to be present, and now school girls in Leeds taking days off from school every month because they can’t afford to buy sanitary products when Auntie Flo comes to visit. This will not be fixed by loose change in furniture.

We’re still a first world country, we’ve got running water that you can drink

Britain is not poor, but if it keeps living it up ignoring the big tax dodgers and saying that school libraries aren’t really very important, the infrastructure will crumble. Alright, I feel like I should be holding a placard bemoaning; “The end is nigh”, but we’re already being told of how squeezed the NHS is and felt the strain for longer than the last year of industrial action with the trains. How many weekends have not had ‘delays due to works’? There’s got to be an indie band album with that title due out soon simply for the familiarity value.

Somewhere along the way priorities seemed to shift for the government and basic human needs were overlooked. That needs to change. Because a change is a-coming, and we need it to be for the good.