‘If you wander round Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Manchester you can see the evidence of how powerful local government was in times past.’ Not at all about about powerful councils, but wealth. Where I’d the money come from for the councils to build the civic amenities? It was because the industrial North back then was very rich compared with the agrarian South. Contrary to popular myth, many working people in the North were comparatively well off; many owned their homes buying them on mortgages. My grandfather born 1886 and a coal miner who started at the pit in 1901 aged 15 pushing tubs around until he was old enough to work at the coal face (more money) bought his own house when he got married. Much of that civic infrastructure was financed by philanthropy, endowments and gifts from rich industrialists or even from voluntary public subscriptions. And those local councils were mostly controlled by the industrialists, businessmen and land owners. And most important... there was no welfare. 75 % of people had private health insurance and many unemployment insurance bought via Friendly Societies, mutuals, or community schemes like ‘The Panel’ in mining villages. The destitute relied on the Poor Law - an obligation placed on the parish to look after those in need - public dispensaries for health care, and private charity particularly from religious orders and the kindness of strangers. The problem everywhere is self-dependence and self-responsibility has been nationalised and socialised, transferred to the State. government’ Welfarism - the Welfare State - a huge, expensive selfishness, greed, envy and spite machine. I’m entitled! You must have your money taken from you to provide for me what I don’t provide for myself and even more so if you are rich because you don’t need it or deserve it. The cover story always is, helping ‘the poor’... the ubiquitous poor. If we want to improve things, get rid of the Welfare State, transfer responsibility and dependency back to the individual, and whilst at it get rid of Government, national and local.
‘If you wander round Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Manchester you can see the evidence of how powerful local government was in times past.’ Not at all about about powerful councils, but wealth. Where I’d the money come from for the councils to build the civic amenities? It was because the industrial North back then was very rich compared with the agrarian South. Contrary to popular myth, many working people in the North were comparatively well off; many owned their homes buying them on mortgages. My grandfather born 1886 and a coal miner who started at the pit in 1901 aged 15 pushing tubs around until he was old enough to work at the coal face (more money) bought his own house when he got married. Much of that civic infrastructure was financed by philanthropy, endowments and gifts from rich industrialists or even from voluntary public subscriptions. And those local councils were mostly controlled by the industrialists, businessmen and land owners. And most important... there was no welfare. 75 % of people had private health insurance and many unemployment insurance bought via Friendly Societies, mutuals, or community schemes like ‘The Panel’ in mining villages. The destitute relied on the Poor Law - an obligation placed on the parish to look after those in need - public dispensaries for health care, and private charity particularly from religious orders and the kindness of strangers. The problem everywhere is self-dependence and self-responsibility has been nationalised and socialised, transferred to the State. government’ Welfarism - the Welfare State - a huge, expensive selfishness, greed, envy and spite machine. I’m entitled! You must have your money taken from you to provide for me what I don’t provide for myself and even more so if you are rich because you don’t need it or deserve it. The cover story always is, helping ‘the poor’... the ubiquitous poor. If we want to improve things, get rid of the Welfare State, transfer responsibility and dependency back to the individual, and whilst at it get rid of Government, national and local.