I’m wriggling with happy anticipation at the prospect of the political week ahead. Well, you do have to find what joy you can, where you can in times like these, don’t you?
It’s our fabulous baby-faced Leader of the Opposition–David Cameron MP–what’s done it for me and got me chuckling over my mug of cheap-o coffee [can't afford my favourite brand any more]. He’s a rich git, born of wealthy parents, privileged childhood and automatic entry into a top university. Never known a day of hardship in his life. And here he is today, telling us that we’re about to enter into a new ‘age of austerity’ and that we need to change our ways.
Oh, boy! [Pause to dash tears of merriment from jaundiced eyes with generic tissue.] Talk about shades of Marie Antoinette: ”Well, let them eat cake!”
I await the humour from the political commentators, especially the stand-up kind, with great pleasure.
Cameron is, of course, too young to remember the last ‘age of austerity’ but I do. I remember food and clothing rationing. I remember shortages of essentials. I remember power cuts and rolling gas pressure reductions. Cameron has been insulated from all that.
Hey ho. Have to be grateful, though, for the upper-class twit has given me a good old-fashioned giggle today.
Austerity wasn’t all gloom and misery, though. People took a pride in making a little go a long way, in supporting one another when times got tough, and laughing at upper-class twits. Everyone learned to make a joint of meat last best part of a week for a family of four, and to produce three decent meals a day on pennies. Everyone learned to dance, and went out dancing at least once a week. Remember music you could dance to, and the songs you could sing along to?
You made what fun you could out of precious little. Me, I remember that the sex was fabulous, dahling.
Oh, John! Yes, ‘austerity’ was a challenge and there surely were moments of fun that were savoured and appreciated all the more because they livened up the struggle to survive. I recollect my grandfather bringing a box of groceries to my mother on her birthday. That was really exciting, as there were things in there that we hadn’t seen for ages. I do hope that simple joys make a come-back.
Oh, it was wasn’t it. You make me laugh.
D.E. Stevenson has written a hundred some light novels of Scotland, the best capture those austerity years with humor and grace.
Glad you like our weather.
As long as we continue to have the basics–food, clothing, shelter and utilities, transportation, medical care, and LIBRARIES–I won’t notice much difference. I would much rather curl up with a good book than go partying.
I remember picking out the feed sack for mum to make a dress out of. But I still had it better than my mum did as a child I bet.
OH!
Tres fabulous alright..
I don’t remember back quite as far as you do, but yes, it certainly was.
you gave me a giggle too
Snort…. yes, well, everyone’s reality is different and no doubt he’ll think he’s very hard done by in this new time as well ;-p
I wasn’t around in the post-war years but I do remember being a young child in the north of england in the late 70s/early 80s and that was tough. I have a feeling these days of overdrafts most people aren’t proud of ‘making do’ and will not cope… personally I like a bit of frugality (as long as it leaves me with money to have the few luxuries I really enjoy).
I must admit to be a bit confused sometimes though John. In one post you’ll talk about not being able to afford your favorite brand of coffee, and in another you’re buying new furniture, or doing another trip to ikea (and turfing the old stuff you got last time). I suspect our frames of reference are different too.
re: Not My Mother
When undertaking renovations in our prior home, we budgeted other areas. I suspect John and Graham are doing the same.
Unless John is like my wife and absolutely refuses to pay out of budget for certain items (like my Coffeemate Hazlenut creamer) and will only buy them if they are on sale.
The way I do it is to sit down now and then and work out what I can afford to spend under the various headings each month for the next few months, add a little for headroom, and do the best I can to stick to it. That’s what I call budgeting. Taking cash from one budget to pay another is what I call borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. If there’s any cash left over, it goes into savings.
Food prices here have gone up recently. Way up, taking the total over my budget limit. I have to decide whether to top the budget up from savings… NOOOOOO!!!… or buy cheaper brands.
That’s all.
Oh, and like I’ve said in the past, looking to me for consistency is like asking a pond not to make ripples in the wind…
Cameron has been insulated from all that.
To be fair, almost everyone under 50 in all but the most destitute demographic groups has.
There’s definitely a lot of unnecessary romanticism about austerity wandering its way back into politics lately, though. My fear is not the austerity itself, but that we don’t have the social or community structure and mindset to cope with it very well anymore.
Perhaps being forced by circumstances to know, help, and share with our neighbours and families will work out – but those of us under 40 or so have been brought up in an era where community sharing and caring is considered exceptional, and not the norm.
Yep, I think the same could be levelled at the front benches of either party. As many “New Labour” front benchers went to top class universities and haven’t really struggled. And they are all certainly immune to austerity right now with their noses firmly in the trough! If they can’t even pay for their own bath plug…