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Slum Britain 50 years on |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 3,469
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Slum Britain 50 years on
http://www.channel5.com/show/slum-britain-50-years-on
Did anybody watch this documentary? The photographer who took the pictures 50 years ago kept using the word "hopeless" about the feelings of the people he visited. Looking around today I think this word has taken on even more relevance. Homeless and hopeless. Just about sums it up. |
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#2 |
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Join Date: Oct 2013
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It was real poverty in those days, today's homeless and slum dwellers don't know they've even been born.
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#3 |
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Join Date: Jun 2007
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Still looked pretty grim to me - and, as a couple of the participants pointed out, so many people are just a couple of steps away from being homeless due to the fact that very few people can afford to have "something put away for a rainy day". "Rainy day" meaning being made redundant or simply not having enough income to cover the basic outgoings.
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#4 |
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Lost
Posts: 43,317
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Quote:
It was real poverty in those days, today's homeless and slum dwellers don't know they've even been born.
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#5 |
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Join Date: Dec 2000
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The house I was brought up in my today's standard would have been slum. No electricity, windows and doors that did not fit, damp and mould on the walls, no bathroom, outside toilet, no running hot water. My parents brought me up in a house like that just after the war, the waiting list for a council house was huge.
I remember dad going down the coal yard to get coal dust to mix with cement and make briquettes, I cannot remember if it was because no coal was available of we could not afford to buy it, but that was all we had. No holidays, and basic food and no soup kitchens But we were not alone in the area we lived in of terrace houses, most lived in very similar conditions. Nobody moaned about there lot they just got on and lived their lives the best they could. My trousers were patched, my socks darned and my dad repaired my shoes when I wore the soles off them. But compared to today, most people were very happy, we were happy with what we had. |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 10,776
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Quote:
It was real poverty in those days, today's homeless and slum dwellers don't know they've even been born.
One thing I know for sure, it was wrong then and it's wrong now. |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 20,483
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Quote:
The house I was brought up in my today's standard would have been slum. No electricity, windows and doors that did not fit, damp and mould on the walls, no bathroom, outside toilet, no running hot water. My parents brought me up in a house like that just after the war, the waiting list for a council house was huge.
I remember dad going down the coal yard to get coal dust to mix with cement and make briquettes, I cannot remember if it was because no coal was available of we could not afford to buy it, but that was all we had. No holidays, and basic food and no soup kitchens But we were not alone in the area we lived in of terrace houses, most lived in very similar conditions. Nobody moaned about there lot they just got on and lived their lives the best they could. My trousers were patched, my socks darned and my dad repaired my shoes when I wore the soles off them. But compared to today, most people were very happy, we were happy with what we had. As kids we were happy because everyone else living in the direct vicinity were in the same boat. The thing is - we were happy with what we were given for Christmas/Birthdays etc. We knew there were others who got far more but weren't envious or avaricious - it was just as it was. I know there is such a thing as 'relative poverty' but - people's expectations of having all the latest and most up to date stuff are so high. If people haven't got it all (or able to give all to their kids) it makes them unhappy and discontented. I've worked in very rough/poor schools and seen parents put themselves into terrible debt in order to buy what they simply cannot afford. It's a sad world - full of greed and envy fuelled by mass advertising and expensive readily available credit. I do sometimes yearn for the 'simpler' days. People really were much happier (and nicer too). |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 15,119
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Quote:
The house I was brought up in my today's standard would have been slum. No electricity, windows and doors that did not fit, damp and mould on the walls, no bathroom, outside toilet, no running hot water. My parents brought me up in a house like that just after the war, the waiting list for a council house was huge.
I remember dad going down the coal yard to get coal dust to mix with cement and make briquettes, I cannot remember if it was because no coal was available of we could not afford to buy it, but that was all we had. No holidays, and basic food and no soup kitchens But we were not alone in the area we lived in of terrace houses, most lived in very similar conditions. Nobody moaned about there lot they just got on and lived their lives the best they could. My trousers were patched, my socks darned and my dad repaired my shoes when I wore the soles off them. But compared to today, most people were very happy, we were happy with what we had. Compared to the victorian era post war housing was a vast improvement. Essentially that is the point though that a country with a £2 Trillion economy really ought to have its housing in order and decades of neglect on this front coupled with stagnant wages and in some regions stagnant economies has seen the gradual but widespread return of slum housing. |
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