Every decade or so, the British decide to blow off a little steam.
The last time they went on the rampage was at the height (or DEPTH) of Thatcher’s rule. Now, Cameron rules. It is of course no coincidence that both times, a Conservative government was in power (albeit this time with a few tamed Lib-Dems).
And right now, people are asking – WHY?
Well, first comes the obvious: the fact that since 1973, life in Britain has steadily become INTOLERABLE – repression, regulation, rules and more rules.
But the MAIN reason can be summed up in one word: UNEMPLOYMENT.
To examine the history, we need to go back to the end of Britain’s argument with Adolf Hitler [shimmer and fade].
When WW2 ended, Britain was SHATTERED. It needed rebuilding – but a considerable number of those who had secured its victory were unable to return, on account of them being a bit dead.
Thus Britain actually had a SURPLUS of jobs.
And so it was that the British government arranged for members of its Commonwealth (the thing that had replaced the Empire) to come and help out.
London Transport nailed recruitment notices to trees in Africa and the West Indies, while the medical profession advertised for qualified personnel in South Asia.
This resulted in a huge influx of people from what had previously been the Pink Bits On The Map.
And for the next twenty years or so, prosperity (eventually) and peace and harmony ruled. Okay, the Fifties were a bit grey – but in the Sixties, Britain BOOMED.
But every party has to come to an end – and in 1973 it ended with a BUMP. For the first time since The Armistice, Britain had more PEOPLE than JOBS.
And the first victims were the YOUNG. The thing was, between War’s End and the late Fifties – there had been a “baby boom”. Both for the British – and the new immigrant workers. And in the late Sixties, both of their progeny began leaving SCHOOL.
Initially, this caused FRICTION between the two groups. Extreme right-wing groups emerged, who hated black people. Then as a reaction, left-wing groups emerged, who hated right-wing groups.
Thus the Seventies was a rocky time. Right-wing groups offered immigrants money to go back home. They readily agreed, since they only lived in the next street.
However, two additional problems emerged. One: thanks to a relaxation in import restrictions, which for decades had prevented cheap imports from decimating British industries, factories began to close – or “outsource” their labour to the Third World.
And two: thanks to transistors, a Fifties invention, giving way to ICs – “chips” – it became possible to AUTOMATE a lot of jobs.
These two factors meant that by the Eighties, tension between black and white folk had mellowed – because there was no work for EITHER.
At this point, the British government SHOULD have stepped in. A radical rethink of the whole BUSINESS of labour was urgently needed.
But as usual, they took the short view – preferring to botch, patch and make do. And order increased control of rioters. Put simply – attack the symptom rather than the disease.
Which brings us to the current situation.
Empty promises of “job creation” fool no-one – the British people know their country is BUSTED. Its unemployment rate now languishes at around twenty-five percent.
Oh, I’m sorry – did you really think it was TEN percent? You must have been listening to Government Figures again - you know, like the ones that claim that in the future, people will live to NINETY – so they won’t need their government pension until they hit seventy.
If you read the SMALL print, you will see that they only cover those SIGNING ON for “Job-Seeker’s Allowance”.
They do NOT cover those – mostly over fifty, who have NO chance of ever working again – who have managed to get onto long-term SICK benefit.
They do not cover “fringe” people who, for one reason or another, CANNOT sign on.
And they do not cover the MILLIONS of women who would give their RIGHT ARMS to work – so they can pay the BILLS – but who are MOTHERS.
Factor in all THOSE people and – twenty-five percent.
And so it is that every year, another wave of kids leave school (their stay having possibly been extended by “further education” – which, if they EVER GET a job, they will spend YEARS PAYING for) and discover the job market is a DESERT.
They are told they lack “experience” – although they soon discover that even those WITH experience are hard-pressed to find work.
Of course, the immediate answer is simple: REDUCE the age of retirement to sixty and LIMIT EVERYONE’S working hours to forty a week. Then rinse and repeat, every five years or so.
However, the system that has evolved – and which is the thing that needs RADICALLY CHANGING – will not permit it.
All British companies keep their workforce as SMALL AS POSSIBLE. Why? Because company cars, health plans, dental (all of which help “tie” employees to them) and most of all – EMPLOYEE INSURANCE – are all charged PER EMPLOYEE. Not per employee-hour-worked.
Thus a company which has fifty employees working eighty hours a week pays CONSIDERABLY LESS for these “benefits” than one which has a hundred employees working forty hours a week.
And therein lies the rub.
Furthermore, the problem is compounded by the figures: stop overtime, and yet MORE people would be dumped below the poverty line (although with housewives now being able to find work, that problem would be lessened, for couples).
But then there is the bugbear of earlier retirement – someone has to PAY for it. Thus those in work would be faced with the DUAL load of higher taxes – and smaller wages.
It’s not easy.
However, unless England wants to face this kind of rioting and disorder on a REGULAR basis – particularly among its young – its politicians are going to have to pull their heads out of their arses and ADDRESS THE FREAKIN’ ISSUE.
In a sunny clime, folk apparently sit outdoors, in the shade, under a sombrero. But here in England, up near the North pole, we feel silly outdoors unless we are working. So we need low-cost make-work jobs for the surplus workers. The National Work Force is the answer. No pay (the country cannot afford it) just food (cheap) and communal shelter (plenty of surplus churches and factories to convert). Finish wrecking evil-soaked abbeys and castles, restore Roman roads as rambling routes, and pick litter up off beaches. Previous schemes were too expensive. We were given dole to find our own food and shelter. When all the work is done, we NWF guys can go round doing street art. Others can go round cleaning off grafitti. Yet a third group can video what happens…
I am qualified to comment only on my own case, as an old age pensioner, lording it over younger people who struggle on half my pension. I ought to get NO pension, NO free bus rides, and NO Housing Benefit. I was a waster all my life. I own no dwelling. My accommodation ought to be one bed, and one locker, in a converted shed, church, or factory, in company with lots of other single old men, with three rationed meals a day. The best I should wish for should be a daily fiver pocket money.
In wartime, we are forced to ration our supplies. Having left the bush and set up civilisation, and then bred like bunnies, and having gotten to the end of the line in terms of capitalist economic expansion, we are forced to be satisfied with less. George Wills was on CNBC with Charles Rose earlier (if I recall the names correctly) and I wonder what he would say in response to my proposal. He might cut me down to a quid a day. Fair enough. He is my age (also shared by John Lennon, and a whole bunch of talented dudes).