I am struggling at the moment to concentrate on my work when there is so much to be thought about politically.
It’s the same when I come to write about art – lots of things feel a bit trivial next to the state of the country. Bad times are ahead (or here?) and daily there are news stories and facts to be read, which make me feel angry, sad and utterly helpless. I am also stunned by the reaction of a couple of my peers to the protests and the cuts in general, but this is likely because they are recently monied and have lost touch with their previously skint selves.
Whatever happened to empathy?
This blog in the guardian today
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/patrick-butler-c…
has really upset me. Given the state of Liverpool in the 80s – complicated, but lots to do with Hatton and his defiance to the Tory government by going over budget – it feels like complete deja-vu. Again there is a mixed Labour/Lib Dem council, although there are no militants like Hatton I don’t think? But anyway, can we not learn from the past? All the cuts just seem incredibly reactionary, rather than strategic, and I feel like a big bad-decision tsunami is sweeping over us with no warning and with nothing that can be done to stop it. Except protest that is.
I realise that statistics can be presented in very creative ways, but there is no getting round the facts gathered here:
Impact of CSR cuts on selected councils
In brackets = 2007 Indices of Multiple Deprivation Rank, where 1= most deprived and 354= least deprived.
25-37% increase:
South Cambridgeshire DC (350); West Oxfordshire DC (349); Tunbridge Wells DC (273); Uttlesford DC (347); Reigate & Banstead DC (322); Dartford DC (186);Harborough DC (344)
25-29% reduction:
Burnley BC (21); Bolsover DC (55); South Tyneside MBC (38); Hartlepool BC (23); Blackburn with Darwen BC (17); Copeland BC (78); Liverpool City Council (1); Sefton MBC (83); Doncaster MBC (41); North East Lincolnshire Council (49); Sunderland City Council (35); Hull City Council (11);Blackpool BC (12); Wolverhampton City Council (28)
30-38% reduction:
Barrow-in-Furness BC (29); Lancaster City Council (117); Hastings BC (31); Great Yarmouth BC (58); Pendle BC (44); Hyndburn BC (40)
Source: DCLG figures seen by LGC
