tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post5626228701072591470..comments2024-03-23T12:38:46.260+00:00Comments on The History Girls: A different kind of remembering? by H.M. CastorMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-73460518849996982402013-11-18T01:56:59.281+00:002013-11-18T01:56:59.281+00:00Very good post thanks for your time
b...Very good post thanks for your time<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/bubblegumcasting" rel="nofollow">bubblegum casting</a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-12792731914813809792013-11-12T22:20:01.341+00:002013-11-12T22:20:01.341+00:00Yes, the yawning gap - the gulf - in understanding...Yes, the yawning gap - the gulf - in understanding is staggering. If only there were a system whereby those in government had to experience life in the lowest paid jobs (for example) or on benefits, or as teachers/social workers/carers before being allowed to formulate policies. I am going to look up the Speenhamland magistrates right now...H.M. Castorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08716936870601385683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-3541049913262137192013-11-12T21:00:52.346+00:002013-11-12T21:00:52.346+00:00I was reading about the Speenhamland magistrates, ...I was reading about the Speenhamland magistrates, who I did learn about at school but had forgotten, who decided not to establish the minimum wage but use parish relief to underpin low wages. That is what happened in our own times, with benefits, and after Speenhamland came dissatisfaction with subsidies to the 'idle' poor, and the institution of punitive conditions in the workhouses. I wonder when workhouses will get re-instituted, or something like them. After what we have seen recently, nothing would surprise me.<br />Osborne's idea of a broad range of people reminds me of Edwina Currie saying years ago on Any Questions that poor people had a choice; a person could buy their food at Harrods or Marks and Spencer. Or like Cameron himself remarking that the fuel-poor could wear jumpers indoors in the winter. So we know that he is contributing to climate change by overheating his house, and that he has no idea of the old people sitting around in their overcoats, or blankets and duvets. <br />Leslie Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15105465949970430998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-39176750871751122332013-11-12T19:21:35.042+00:002013-11-12T19:21:35.042+00:00I feel exactly the same, Leslie. It must be releva...I feel exactly the same, Leslie. It must be relevant, surely, that "recent figures... suggest that two thirds of senior ministers [in our current government] are millionaires" (I'm quoting this article: http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/11/john-major-public-school-tory-elite). And I remember hearing George Osborne a few years ago, in a radio interview, saying that he hadn't been to an elitist school; on the contrary a broad range of people went there, from people whose parents were the CEOs of multi-national companies to people whose mothers were solicitors in Kingston upon Thames. That the UK's Chancellor thought this represented a broad social spectrum was shocking. And, of course, highly revealing. <br /><br />It was a great point you made, sensibilia, about the potential recruits who were too malnourished to make the grade. Thank you to everyone for your comments.H.M. Castorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08716936870601385683noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-82565082948944645112013-11-12T17:29:16.553+00:002013-11-12T17:29:16.553+00:00Yes, yes, yes, and yes! When my father's fathe...Yes, yes, yes, and yes! When my father's father died of a heart attack, when he was only seventeen, the family lost their home, he had to leave school and go to work in a grocer's shop, my youngest aunt was parked with her elder sister, and my grandmother went to Canada in search of work, because she couldn't find any here. My father always said that it was a reason to have life insurance, but it also demonstrates what happens when there is no safety net. That situation marked my aunt Stella for her whole life. Meanwhile, some members of society - including those who stick poppies in their sharp and ruinously-expensive suits and head off to look good at the Cenotaph - are obscenely wealthy. Like the bankers who think four million a year is unfairly little to be paid. The gulf between rich and poor yawns wider and wider. When the poor ARE in work, if they are not paid enough, this is not brought home to the employers, but is deemed to be their idleness, and they are told they should be seeking better-paid work or taking two jobs. When they are meant to sleep is another matter. <br />I was brought up to see the Welfare State as a tremendous achievement, to look forward to greater advances in justice. Instead, as I grow older, I have to see the advances that were made pulverised under the hammer-blows of corporate greed. To say nothing of the willed stupidity about climate change.. Well said, Harriet. I shall make myself shut up now, though I could froth at the mouth all night. Or weep....<br />Leslie Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15105465949970430998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-46848379595769359052013-11-12T15:21:19.966+00:002013-11-12T15:21:19.966+00:00Great post, thank you.
Great post, thank you.<br />Clare Mulleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11592100764046914574noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-12612510428265852392013-11-12T10:54:40.693+00:002013-11-12T10:54:40.693+00:00Excellent piece, Harriet, though depressing - I...Excellent piece, Harriet, though depressing - I'd not seen Polly Toynbee's article. This is exactly why phrases such as 'Victorian values' and 'hard-working families' fill me with horror. We need to act if our society is not going to be seriously fractured.Mark Burgesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17271587070391155947noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-17295621151128076382013-11-12T10:05:18.599+00:002013-11-12T10:05:18.599+00:00Great post and all too true. Great post and all too true. Imogenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08925800621947616280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-22989864749788036012013-11-12T09:22:02.487+00:002013-11-12T09:22:02.487+00:00Well put and yes, that picture moved me. There bu...Well put and yes, that picture moved me. There but for the grace of God, could have been some of my ancestors. (And might have been for all I know - I, of course, descend from the ones who survived).<br /><br />As our society struggles to regain the kind of wealth (as a whole, not in the hands of individuals) which it took for granted before the banking crisis of 2008, and as we see people in the US living in shanty-towns for the homeless, these questions become more pressing. I don't have any answers, other than compassion and a broader approach to welfare. Yes, there are some people who take advantage, but you only have to listen to the Archers to see how a person of limited resilience, confused and unable to distinguish priorities, can slip through every net.<br /><br />Remembrance Day also calls to mind the historic fact that in the early years of the First World War, large percentages of working class males failed entry to the armed forces as being too small and puny (from undernourishment).sensibiliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08715737628925538412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-81386650050356747732013-11-12T09:21:15.770+00:002013-11-12T09:21:15.770+00:00WELL SAID! In some ways, what could be called the ...WELL SAID! In some ways, what could be called the "History Industry", especially as seen through the Downton soap and National Trust Gift shops, keeps the harshness of life as it was out of the popular mind. And as it is. <br /><br />An excellent post of fitting to the day and month.Penny Dolanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16386668303428008498noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-71811866124839272232013-11-12T08:34:37.039+00:002013-11-12T08:34:37.039+00:00Timely post. It does seem like this government wan...Timely post. It does seem like this government wants to drag us back to a time of deserving and undeserving poor. And how fragile our own circumstances always are. xCatherine Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14610226884546830879noreply@blogger.com