Enough is Enough: its not just a cost of living crisis. E P Thompson 1818; George Monbiot 2022
We are approaching the 203rd anniversary of Peterloo. It was a protest about the right to vote but rather more than that. People were living in a system where they had no representation and no say. In addition but also centrally they struggled in many cases to afford enough to eat.
In the Making of the English Working Class E P Thompson argued that the cost of living crisis was about wider issues than just that. He quoted a cotton spinner from 1818
The rise of a master class without traditional authority or obligations; the growing distance between master and man.. the loss of status and above all independence of the worker.. the partiality of the law, the discipline, monotony, hours and conditions of work, loss of leisure and amenities
George Monbiot 9th August 2022
It’s not a cost of living crisis so much as a rip-off crisis.
People are being ripped off by energy companies, ripped off by landlords, ripped off by a government that channels benefits to the rich while watching the poor slide into destitution.
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