top of page

Whatever it takes , it must be done!



In many of the blogs or poems I’ve written or when I’ve been interviewed, I’ve tried to get across how little we had when I was a little boy. It wasn’t anyone’s fault; it was just our circumstances. In many ways it has formed me into the person and the parent that I am today. I recall that phrase being used a lot by Dad back then, “the cost of living”

It’s a fact that although Dad was to all intents and purposes skint, and reliant on social security, supplementary benefit, and family allowance, that I don’t ever remember going to bed hungry. Cold sometimes yes, but that was mainly down to single glazing, coal fired central heating and an ever important requirement of Dads to “ let some fresh air in “ even if the afore mentioned fresh air was at minus five degrees.

And remember please, this was a time when there were no food banks doing the great work they do.

It wasn’t a beak time as I recall, we still ate, we still played, we still had fun. I had good friends from the side of the street with the nicer houses, whose parents worked at Rank Xerox or Reeds and who went on things called holidays. I could share things with my mates from those homes, we watched the same tv shows, played the same sport, went to the same school. I don’t think they looked at me any differently for being essentially poor. The odd piss take about my jeans or hand me down coat perhaps or some jibes about my sister delivered haircut but nothing.

I was living my life, we were living our lives, I was growing as a person, I was learning but I was living.

And today many parents like Dad will be talking about “the cost of living”.

Except now it’s very different.

Now we have people choosing between heating their home or eating

We have people choosing between buying a second-hand pair of trainers from a charity shop or putting a fiver on their electric.

If my 1970s family were transported to today. What could I share with my mates? TV? nope they would have Netflix, Sky, Disney, Amazon and if we were lucky wed have Freeview.

They would all have a mobile phone, we wouldn’t even have a house phone.

Last week I had to pay (willingly) £3 for my lad to go to cricket practice with his mates, it’s a couple of quid for him to play football on the weekend, a fiver for his sports fun and that’s before you even hunted round every charity shop or eBay to look for the kit he might need so perhaps Dad would have had to have stopped me playing sport. No loss to the sporting world but huge loss to me as a growing lad. I’m not sure if Dad (although he would have tried desperately) could guarantee that money every week.

At school and my Dad would have to find the best part of what 150quid for a school uniform? I had to order my boy a Five Acres tie the other day and was shocked at the cost for a clip on tie at nearly seven quid, Get the blazer at nearly £40 and the sports kit needed and even if you add the shirt and trousers etc from somewhere like Asda or Aldi, there’s still a sizable chunk of cash for Dad to part with. And as we know kids have a habit of not staying the same size. Maybe he’s lucky and can locate a hand me down or a second hand one but how are you going to do that. Most people now might sell that online or on eBay or something, Could Dad afford to pay for internet access, a smart phone or a laptop?

I bought a bag of chips last night ( I only had a few honest) and they were 3 quid . Everything in the shops is going up because of the energy crisis and inflation so we may now see Dad having to travel to a food bank just for his staple requirements. He almost certainly wouldn’t be having his one treat of two £2 bottles of bitter from the paper shop and even his weekly entry for his dream out of this desperation ( a go on the pools) would have to be justified.

Oh and if Dad had a car to get to the food banks ( as there’s no buses these days) the petrol and diesel costs are horrendous ( Im convinced at least one local station hasn’t passed on any reduction in duty) and now hes told the cost of his energy and heating is going to pretty much double.

This isn’t the Cost of Living crisis we are being told.

This is a COST OF SURVIVAL crisis.

Back in the 70s although times were tough, and we had nothing really we could live.

People now in the same situation or facing the same issues as Dad would be trying to simply survive.

We are dividing our communities into people who live and people who survive and will end up with a tiered society just as divisive and dangerous as any we have seen in any other countries.

And those leading us tell us we must be pragmatic, pay our debts back, accept the issues .

At the Council we have tried so hard to protect those most in need. I cant tell you how many conversations we had and have come up with a number of support plans aimed that those who need help the most with innovative council tax help but we can only touch the surface.


Westminster and every Lord, Lady or MP needs to address this Cost of Survival crisis now, not by tinkering with living wage and national insurance wiggles which help those in low paid work but not those who don’t work at all.

Do something about energy costs, do something about inflation, do something about UC levels.

Do something big and do it now.

Do whatever it takes

Before its too late

History will not forgive you otherwise

Recent Posts

See All

Комментарии


bottom of page