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| DDH SUBMARINE CONSTRUCTION FACILITY |
MP John Woodcock's initiative in motivating local people to meet and look at poverty issues in Furness is commendable but it is only a start. Just how poverty is to be overcome remains to be seen because, so far, the report contains only suggestions and recommendations about what might be done rather than what must be done, when and how.
As far as his own stance is concerned Mr Woodcock gives the game away by including, in his Foreword piece for the report, the remark "There are no magic fixes." I am fully aware of the BritishTrades Union Congress (TUC) deliberations on the 'economic crisis'. (it's only a crisis for ordinary folk, not the millionaires who are raking it in to become mega-rich - Muddz)
At two national conferences the TUC has overwhelmingly backed the People's Charter and the path that should be followed to return Britain to a position of productivity: the People's Charter contains no 'magic fixes', no conjuring up of spells or reciting incantations.
I'd like to remind our MP that a Labour government in 1945 had no need of the supernatural, of black magic nor other such ludicrous devices. Neither did it adopt a dithering or defeatist appoach despite the country having just emerged from a catastrophic and economically devastating World War. It set out to eradicate deprivation, disadvantage and disease and Britain got its Welfare State, National Health Service, free education for all children, social housing at affordable rent and publicly owned industries.
But the people of Britain appear to have now got fed up with having these things and want the exciting personal challenges faced by people at the beginning of the last century..... paying for healthcare and education, paying large utility bills and extortionate travel costs, handing large sums of money over to private landlords and - if unemployed or disabled - meeting others for a handout at the charity food shop and learning the skill of successfully begging on the street.
So, you may now be asking, "What's this thing our MP has given away, and what's this elephant thing about?" Good question, and here's the answer - our young MP has just embarked on a career as a professional politician. He is MP for a district that is dominated by one major industry that builds nuclear submarines for the Ministry of Defence. Workers (and their unions) hope the next lot of submarines to be constructed here will be four new launch platforms for American Trident nuclear missiles. The local council, the churches, community groups and most of the population at large also hope BAE at Barrow will be awarded the new sub contract. As one wife of a BAE worker remarked when asked about the morality of building delivery systems for launching weapons of ultra mass devastion, "Morality never put bread and butter on the table." And this is the same stance adopted by our MP - morality never got anyone elected to parliament. The fact is this - if this young man wishes his political career to continue he has no alternative but to argue in defence of weapons of mass murder in the run-up to the next General Election.
What's this got to do with the poverty issue? Well, thanks to BAE, Barrow is a one horse town. Many years ago, when the yard employed 20,000 workers this was not much of a problem but, today, the situation is very different. In the late 1980s employment fell to 3,000 and remained around this number for several years. (So much for the Tory mantra "Trident means jobs." which locals fell for and elected a Tory MP for two terms! - Muddz) Today, BAE employs around 5,000 of which several hundred are designers. Work on the construction of the Astute class subs has been strung out in the hope of keeping things ticking over until the new Trident project kicks in. 'Single industry' towns are extremely vulnerable to political change to meet a new local or international situation. The mining communities were devasted to further Thatcher's ambition to put chains on the unions. The shipbuilding industries at Newcastle and on the Clyde collapsed. Tens of thousands lost their jobs and nobody in Barrow wants to see the job losses that would result from the closure of the yard.
Now, here's the problem....for as long as Barrow is dominated by BAE then poverty for many will remain a fact of life because funding goes to this employer rather than to the development of other industries in the area. The cause of poverty in Furness is staring John Woodcock in the face but he dare not acknowledge the elephant in the room - the elephant called BAE Submarine Solutions. And it would be political suicide for him to do so. This is why we have this game of looking at poverty, talking about poverty and writing about poverty but not seeing the link. The result is relatively good wages for some but very little, if anything, for the majority. And the name of the elephant is "I'm alright, Jack."
If members of the Poverty Commission can obtain a copy then they really need to read a booklet entitled 'Oceans of Work' written by Dr Steven Schofield and published in 2007 by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC). This document will help those people to see things more clearly, to understand that varying levels of poverty in this area is an historical fact and perhaps persuade some to take a different approach to offering 'remedies'. Some of them will remain unmoved through ignorance, some through naivety and some through willful rejection but this is of not much importance if just one, or maybe two, saw the true picture they would argue against vague statements such as: 'we must draw up a list of the various agencies' (to achieve what, exactly? - Muddz) To give Commissioners a taste......
'What is most striking, despite the presence of the shipyard, is how the district has consistently suffered from levels of deprivation that are some of the highest in the country. National comparison based on the government's Deprivation Indices that incorporate statistical information including unemployment, income, housing and education ranked Barrow as 29th most deprived local authority out of 354 in England. Of the 13 wards in Barrow borough, six, located mainly around the shipyard, are amongst the most deprived 10% in the country.*
*Barrow Borough Council, www.barrowbc.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=1572
And more...
'The decline in employment at the yard, therefore, serves to highlight fundamental and long-standing weaknesses in the local economy...Taken together, the overall total indicates a very high level of unemployment/inactivity at up to 14% of the 39,000 working population of the district.
And finally....
'If anything could symbolise the yawning chasm between alternative futures for the (Furness) district it is the windfarm as a signpost of the new civil economy and the submarine construction hall representing a dying military culture.'
'The Poor' don't want lectures from someone who is full of that stuff that a bull leaves on the farmyard floor. They need help. Practical help. And they need it now. They need regular and substantial donations of wholesome nutritious food, and vouchers to meet the high costs of heating, lighting and cooking. And not for just a few days, weeks or months but maybe years or even indefinitely. They need to know where they can get immediate practical assistance in terms of meaningful relief, not for three days as at the Food Bank, not by going without for eight weeks to save enough to qualify for membership of a Credit Union - they never have enough left over from one day to the next to be able to 'save' anything....that's one of the annoying but unavoidable outcomes of being poor!
Well, Commissioners, I look forward to reading your practical resolutions in the your next report. It should be interesting.
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