I wouldn't describe myself as a political animal really, although in my younger years I did organise events and attend rallies and marches about important stuff.
Nowadays I think it's too easy in this modern world to think of 'politics' as something separate from the way we live. As something that only concerns the powers that be, those who are in charge of running the country. But I find myself becoming increasingly interested again about the folk who hold the power in Great Britain and how they weild it.
Post lockdown it has become clear to me that there has been a dramatic shift in our lives, it feels to me as though our great wheel has slipped out of its cog and nothing is running as it should be.
I've been following Neil Oliver (you know the coastal guy) and he seems to be talking a lot of sense about the goings ons and why we should all pay attention. As it is we who hold the power to change things or indeed to resist things.
On a recent visit to a National Trust property Quarry Bank in Cheshire, the Mr and I were taken back in time to the 18th century where workers in the cotton mill there were processed and used most abominably. Two thirds of the workers were children, orphans, escapees from the workhouse and some were even sent to work at the mill by their parents who thought they were doing right by them. I have often visited similar buildings before but this one made a big impression on me. I felt upset on their behalf, these poor folk who are long gone.
Some of the looms are still in working order and a volunteer had just a few on whilst we stood and gawped. The noise level made us both feel tight headed after only ten minutes or so and we felt the effects all day. How people survived in a mill like this when all machines were working simultaneously for twelve or thirteen hours a day is beyond belief.
We visited the mill just before Christmas and it had the same effect on us. The lives of the poor were used to bolster the rich and powerful and no-one cared or thought it was wrong in the 'rich world'. It strikes me that nothing has changed - the rich are getting richer and the poor are struggling. OK there will always be those people who don't want to work and prefer to live off benefits but I think it is a minority and most people would want to have a good standard of living and work for it yet our benefit system, rather than help people towards a better life and a better income almost penalises people and keeps them trapped and reliant on benefits. The benefits system, like the NHS, is just broken and outdated - they are reactive rather than proactive. The 15 hours free nursery care is a joke - all children should have access to free good nursery care in my mind and not just 15 hours - they need a good start in life as they will potentially become the Prime Ministers, scientists etc of the future. How can we have any PM's that have been so priviledged growing up and are so wealthy they do not know what it is like for ordinary people who have to get by every day of every year, they really have no idea.
ReplyDeleteWell said, and words to be well heeded. I do think, though, that more and more people - here and "there" and elsewhere - are beginning to realize that it the people who have - and should have - the power. I've read quite a bit about the conditions in factories like that (in the UK and elsewhere). Horrendous not only for the noise/sensory issues captured in your video but also using the children to run in between/under the working parts of the machine to clear things, etc. I wonder how many souls still walk the floors of that factory. ~Robin~ (TheCrankyCrow)
ReplyDeleteHi Robin, I definitely felt a sense of unhappy souls bemoaning their arduous and joyless lives.
Delete👍for sure!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I'm glad my thoughts are chiming with like minded folk.
DeleteI totally agree, so many people just believe what they are told and go along with it because they think if it comes from the government then it must be right and true, (think of the last few years and all the things they didn't tell us). I watch Russel Brand on youtube sometimes and although a lot of people wouldn't rate him he does speak a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteHi Maggie, you are so right. It's a great concern that a lot of younger people 'research' questions with Mr. Google and don't look anywhere else, just accept the 'facts'. I have a friend who teaches nurses and it's a worry that students don't read around a subject at all nowadays.
DeleteI fully agree with you about the dramatic shift in our lives, and it's not just happening in the UK either.
ReplyDeleteAs for the 18th century (and beyond) working conditions, it doesn't bear thinking about how the poor were exploited. It's a good thing that NT properties like Quarry Bank exist to remind us. xxx
I did wonder whether folk in other countries were also feeling the strangeness of the times. It is a concern for the future. xx
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