The Red Knob

Hey Kids – The Dick here. Long time no speak. How’s it going out there? Feelin’ a bit different since last time we were on the case? Well, here we are post election, if ya could call it that. Hangin’ chads ? Chicken feed. As usual, all promises will be revoked. The modern human race? Hey, you  gotta  love them for being so gullible and complacent. So does it matter that so many promises are withdrawn? Not unless it leaves deposits of semen in places where it costs. But I am Private Dick – sleuth, revalator, and exponent of the truth.

My teeth are long – as in this Dick is 1920s old enough to remember the last depression. Dontchamean  recession I hear ya say?  Huh, ‘fraid not, this Dick comes from a differnt  world. Yep, I do mean DEPRESSION folks, cause that’s what we’re in despite the hype from the men in Number 10 and Whitehall, the cat fat bankers ( bailed out by  you – the public, you schmucks)  and fat cat Councillors bossin’ the workers, Councillors who’ve been lickin’ up da cream. Hell schmucks, a few of these users earn more than the PM – and you get the rap.

In the last Great Depression folk milled about sure  – but they helped each other. Condom sales soared  ‘cause in those days people had a sense of moral duty and knew that there was no fall back… if you had kids, then you had to feed ‘em, protect ‘em and clothe ‘em. If you had too many mouths to feed, then you would starve yerself, before the kids. It figures – or it did – once upon a time.

And in the here and now in merry olde Englandshire?  The Dick’s view is that over time governments -  Liberal, Conservative, Labour -  promised  each generation a failsafe, a fallback. “Peoples”, they said, “we will look after you whatever the situation”. Your Labour Party for example and their New Jerusalem huh. So where is it? They ain’t built it yet. Stuck in plannin’ after 60 years? Promises, let down, betrayed. Government huh.  Yer Post-War Britain was encouraged to go forth and multiply. Like after the Ark and the Flood. Biblical huh? After about 30 years it became what you and everyone else did – the norm. If you wanted a house, then being in the family way would accelerate your chances; being single, no father maybe  better still. Or so it would be spelt out in yer tabloid newssheets. But the failsafe was there. So successive families multiplied, reinforcing the belief without being conscious that if one day if it wasn’t there, then someone else would pick up the pieces. But times change. We’re on a different block, one we no longer recognise, we don’t know what goes here, what works  – where the rules are different. A case of ‘not anymore’ with yer new leadership – “ yer humble, yer poor, yer needy, yer weak – tuff – fend fer yerself.” Coalition? What does it mean? Huh? The word on the street is” Cut Costs” anywhere , at any level. Undo the fail-safes and let those who cannot afford it pay for it. We’re all paying for it with stealth taxes way on up past our eyeballs peeps. Sleepin’ on the line? Remember that – a revival from the Great Depression comin’ your way again sooner than later.

So, thinkin’ about a Limey fella from my timeline, one Mr George Orwell and his predictions, let’s predict the future from the past. Given that this coalition wants to reduce costs, reduce support and agree to a minimum wage of £2.50 whatever, then a greater divide will occur.  It’s inevitable guv. The rich will become richer and the poorer – well they’ll just become -  poorer. Two inevitable consequences follow; this generation don’t have the same moral resolve as our grandparents -  stern stuff? With all the consequences entailed ; and those who can’t afford their families will resort to crime. You don’t believe me? Read into that what you will. But hey, that’s society and only the business-minded will make profit from the New World Order (and that’s a partly familiar phrase) . You decide whether prevention is more cost effective than cure.

Private Dick signing off ( or on – if this Detective Agency doesn’t come up with da goods…)

Filed under: Blog, Op Ed