Jeff Robinson
Marxist-Lentilist: Jackboots and Jackfruit
[edited] this is an excellent documentary:
People of Merthyr give Ian Duncan Smith a reality check
- Thread starter Jeff Robinson
- Start date
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Cracking documentary.
Average life expectancy in Merthyr is 57 btw.
Average life expectancy in Merthyr is 57 btw.
Dillinger4
Es gibt Zeit
That makes me so fucking angry. Just thinking about it makes me boil up.
frogwoman
No amount of cajolery...
Yep. That has to be why we fight.
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Fuck IDS
The 1,897 losing candidates just needed to show more enterprise. And work harder.
Weird how the BBC faciliated this documentary, their record on reporting/documenting the welfare reforms has been disgraceful: they were of course responsible for the BBC Panorama programme about abolishing Incapacity Benefit which focussed on M/T as an example where 'thousands had been parked' (note the cold language) on benefits after de-industrialisation, Purnell used this programme and the 'evidence' used in the programme from Sheffield Hallam/Professor Steve Fothergill to launch his attacks on welfare.
btw, i don't think that an academic has ever seen his ostensibly benign research been used in such a malignant way, was he naive to expect otherwise?
btw, i don't think that an academic has ever seen his ostensibly benign research been used in such a malignant way, was he naive to expect otherwise?
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Officially the worst holiday destination in Europe apparently.
e2a: Good film that, exactly the sort of content you might reasonably expect from Newsnight. So many of the government's soundbites on this issue can so easily be shown to be utter crap, particularly the ones about there being 'jobs out there if you want them'. But all that goes unchallenged by the BBC and everyone else, it's simply been allowed to go on the record that the unemployed and the seriously ill have only themselves to blame and are not worthy of our help. Disgraceful.
That is a good documentary, many thanks for posting it up Jeff.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Excellent. We need more people making stuff like this.
I lost my front teeth in Merthyr. Happy days.
I lost my front teeth in Merthyr. Happy days.
Steel Icarus
we move
So less than Sudan, Togo, and Eritrea then. Fucking ridiculous.
editor
hiraethified
Where are you getting that stat from?
Proper Tidy
Arsed
It was an SPW meeting last Saturday in Cardiff. I'd trust it completely though.
Oswaldtwistle
Banned
Excellent video. There are some parallels with Detroit, where you have an economy built on a single product and people migrate there and then the demand for it goes.
Good to see acknowlment of the transport issue. It's a real problem for unemployed people, especially as employers seem to be able to call the shots these days about working times and location. Those who call for ever higher fuel taxes would do well to watch this, although of course it's no good anyway if you can't drive.
Did things improve in Merthyr during the 00s 'boom'? Things are bad everywhere at the moment, although Merthyr seems particularly bad.
There are some echos round here in the coal fields of South Derbyshire, but they are nearer to other population centres and the road network and other employment has moved in.
What are the answers? I really don't know. Is there a case for slowly de-populating these areas? That's not an easy thing to do, when people have roots and ties and communities and there was a really good post by Streatham Mao http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/threads/344052-Tebbit-relives-quot-on-your-bike-quot-moment./page2 about this.
There might be a case for giving younger people some help to move to Cardiff, still within striking distance of their familes- I'm sure many have anyway. I'd get pilloried if I walked down Merthyr High street calling for the community to be wound down, but it's hard to see where salvation is going to come from, it really is.
How much coal is left? Is there any hope there, as oil prices rise?
Good to see acknowlment of the transport issue. It's a real problem for unemployed people, especially as employers seem to be able to call the shots these days about working times and location. Those who call for ever higher fuel taxes would do well to watch this, although of course it's no good anyway if you can't drive.
Did things improve in Merthyr during the 00s 'boom'? Things are bad everywhere at the moment, although Merthyr seems particularly bad.
There are some echos round here in the coal fields of South Derbyshire, but they are nearer to other population centres and the road network and other employment has moved in.
What are the answers? I really don't know. Is there a case for slowly de-populating these areas? That's not an easy thing to do, when people have roots and ties and communities and there was a really good post by Streatham Mao http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/threads/344052-Tebbit-relives-quot-on-your-bike-quot-moment./page2 about this.
There might be a case for giving younger people some help to move to Cardiff, still within striking distance of their familes- I'm sure many have anyway. I'd get pilloried if I walked down Merthyr High street calling for the community to be wound down, but it's hard to see where salvation is going to come from, it really is.
How much coal is left? Is there any hope there, as oil prices rise?
editor
hiraethified
Proper Tidy
Arsed
Found it - was 58 not 57 in a specific ward:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health...-expectancy-lower-than-haiti-115875-22916749/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/health...-expectancy-lower-than-haiti-115875-22916749/
SpookyFrank
A cheap source of teeth for aquarium gravel
Coal mining is making a big comeback in Wales, but sadly only in the form of open cast mines. An open cast mine is just a fucking great hole in the ground, devastating to the landscape and to the local environment, particularly air and water quality. It doesn't employ many people, and the work is usually short-lived and sourced elsewhere from the actual site of the mine.
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