Wigan flag at Gladtonbury

Back in 2006, a colleague of mine sank his redundancy payout into buying a pub in a supposedly “socially deprived” area. I thought he was mad and told him so. His response was “Poor people always find enough money for booze and fags”.

11 year later, his pub is still going strong and he is minted.

Back in 2006, a colleague of mine sank his redundancy payout into buying a pub in a supposedly “socially deprived” area. I thought he was mad and told him so. His response was “Poor people always find enough money for booze and fags”.

11 year later, his pub is still going strong and he is minted.[/quote]

Well thats something to boast about isn’t it?

Fucking parasite![/quote]

Getting carried away a bit lad ain’t we. A few need to chill out a bit and screw politics. It is a topic that will always divide. No point in letting it get to you marrer, its Friday so party.

Back in 2006, a colleague of mine sank his redundancy payout into buying a pub in a supposedly “socially deprived” area. I thought he was mad and told him so. His response was “Poor people always find enough money for booze and fags”.

11 year later, his pub is still going strong and he is minted.[/quote]

Are you on a wind-up?

Poor people finding enough money for booze and fags don’t go spending it in pubs. And the rate at which pubs are closing down suggests there aren’t enough of those that do to keep them viable let alone make pub owners “minted”.

And even if your ex-colleague has made a success of his pub in a socially deprived area that is the exception rather than the rule and therefore does not validate your sweeping generalisation.

That was an interesting post, Steve, and in a way it does come back around to Glastonbury. Just like your supposedly poor neighbours being able to afford booze and fags, there were a number of pundits this year sneering at Glastonbbury for being a knees-up for the confortabky off.

This misses the point slightly. No matter how poor you are, you will find a way to get to the pub, or see your team in Europe, or get to have a massive blowout at Glastonbury every now and then – and why not?

Your point about Jezza being able to help the working poor, crippled by rents is more thorny. New Labour’s working family tax credits helped people materially but effectively subsidised low wages. A return to proper union recognition, an end to zero-hour contracts and widespread building of social housing would help more. Unfortunately, successive governments have believed that the only way for us to thrive is for the UK to become a low-wage economy, eventually competing with the economies of the developing world on the same terms. But productivity in this country is abysmal. Would people maybe work better if we were a high-wage, high-skill economy, where workers had a stake in their companies’ fortunes (the John Lewis/Co-op model)?

What has the de-regulation of the rail and energy industry done for us, really. They were supposed to bring cheaper prices and innovation through increased competition. Instead we got a rigged market where most of the profits go offshore. Furthermore the nationalised British Rail used to have brilliant research and development, just as local authorities used to have direct works forces; all good jobs with skills-learning and a recognised career path Now sadly cut to the bone by this senseless obsession with competition.

At least these issues – what sort of economy will work best for all of us – are finally being aired. My belief is that further privatisation and pay-as-you-go in education and health is un-British and totally unsustainable with earnings and rents being what they are. Imagine all those victims of the Manchester bombing coming round to find they’d been billed thousands of pounds for their hospital treatment. Many on the right of the Tory party (coincidentally lobbied and funded by private health firms) would be perfectly comfortable with that scenario.

Looking further into our future, PapaLazarouOnTour thought that I was on the wacky baccy for suggesting that AI and robotics will kill off entire sectors and usher in a new post-capitalist, increased leisure and community-focused economy. I suggest he watches Thursday night’s Horizon documentary about the implications of autonomous vehicles. The future is closer than you think and at least Labour are thinking about it.

They never come “up North” cos they can’t get on the train or through the turnstiles :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

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