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I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

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Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#131

Post by graemep »

mckn1ght wrote: post #53
labrador wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I concluded Noah's Arc was bollocks when I was 8 so I don't know why he goes on about it at his age

Because people in power of a similar age still go on about how they think it’s true?

Who?

I know there is the odd biblical literalist in power in the US, but have never come across one in the UK. The biggest group of Christians in the UK are Anglicans (who are not usually biblical literalists, although there are evangelical groups within it that might be) and Catholics (church firmly against Biblical literalism, although there might be odd individuals).

I think the reason atheists argue with Bibilical literalists is that its easy. It is somehting of a straw man: you pick a sub-group that is easy to debunk/discredit and then discredit the whole group by association. This has always been a problem: St Augustine talked about the damage done by people who interpreted the scriptures as contradicting what is known to be true in the 4th century.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#132

Post by tomaytotomato »

jdietrich wrote: post #46

Twenty years ago, I think there was still a sense that we were collectively laughing with each other about the dullness of small towns. We all had the same shops - Woolworths, Dixons, Our Price, BHS. We all had a leisure centre that looked like everyone else's leisure centre. Some towns were better off than others, some towns had parts that you were better off avoiding after dark, but the majority of towns belonged t…

> in some places they have been replaced by artisan bakeries and pop-up boutiques, while in others they have been replaced by charity shops or nothing at all.

Charity shops, vape shops (used for money laundering), Turkish Barbers (used for money laundering), Automated Laundrettes (used for money laundering), Car Washes (used for money laundering), Phone shops (used for money laundering), Kebab shops (used for money laundering)

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#133

Post by graemep »

rikroots wrote: post #109

> "I mean: incredibly, governments and local councils didn’t read my work and decide to mend their ways. The UK did not get better. Instead we got more than a decade of Tory austerity, Brexit, and all the accompanying neglect and bad feeling." This bit made me laugh. I read the original book when it came out and it was funny and - in some ways - true. I was born and bought up in the town ranked #4 in the original lis…

That sounds to me as a product of something I see a lot of in society in general. Governments think hoi polloi are stupid, and they are clever, and therefore solutions imposed from above are superior to local solutions.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#134

Post by cjrp »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #8

I remember a Web site, in the early oughts, called “sheppeyscum.com”. That URL now redirects to one that makes Sheppey look good. The original one did not. It was all about insulting the Isle of Sheppey (Western UK). I think an ex-Shep wrote it. Looks like all traces are gone. I understand that death threats were involved.

If it’s the Sheppey I’m thinking of, it’s in Kent (SE England)

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#135

Post by graemep »

quantumgarbage wrote: post #117
jolux wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but that’s a bit silly. Switzerland’s GDP is something like 50x that of Afghanistan. UK GDP in 2025 is much higher than in 2003, too. Of course not 5000%

Again, gini coefficients or GDP growth measures are, at best, proxies to understand the conditions the bottom decile of your country lives in. Looking at housing costs, life expectancy, food insecurity or poverty rates do a much better job at capturing this.

Yes, and and increases in the price of essentials (food, housing, utilities) have a greater effect on livings standards of the worse off and are not captured in the numbers.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#136

Post by graemep »

jl6 wrote: post #87
JimDabell wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what I was going to say. Back then, a book like this would have been perceived as the UK making fun of itself. Now it’s perceived as being cruel to those less fortunate. I think it’s worth putting into context that the economy was doing great in the era this book was first published and huge progress was being made with things like homelessness, inequality, and poverty. It felt like the country had turned a c…

The Gini coefficient of the UK is about the same now as it was then: https://equalitytrust.org.uk/how-has-inequality-changed/ What has actually changed? A whole bunch of other economic malaise, but also perceptions, amplified to your personal taste by social media.

The share of the middle 40% has fallen sharply according to the bottom chart on that page.

The bottom 50% is unchanged in aggregate , but there will be groups within in that have done a lot worse.

I would also guess (I cannot find numbers) that the proportion of income that is spent on essentials has risen.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#137

Post by JuniperMesos »

harvey9 wrote: post #112
PlunderBunny wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I re-watch comedy like ‘The Young Ones’ or many other funny series from the 80s or 90s, I don’t find it funny any more. It’s not that the jokes weren’t good and that I didn’t find it funny at the time, it’s just that humour changes. In that case, it’s nothing to do with the jokes becoming ‘unacceptable’.

I find Yes Minister funny now, and I'm too young to have watched when it first aired.

I watched the entirety of Yes (Prime) Minister relatively recently despite being younger than the show and not British; and found it delightfully entertaining and often surprisingly relevant to contemporary political issues.

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#138

Post by chgs »

teamonkey wrote: post #121
jl6 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Gini coefficient of the UK is about the same now as it was then: https://equalitytrust.org.uk/how-has-inequality-changed/ What has actually changed? A whole bunch of other economic malaise, but also perceptions, amplified to your personal taste by social media.

Gini coefficient usually only measures income inequality. Wealth inequality is hard to measure for various reasons but… https://equalitytrust.org.uk/scale-economic-inequality-uk/ “for the UK as a whole, the WID found that the top 0.1% had share of total wealth double between 1984 and 2013, reaching 9%.” “If the wealth of the super rich continues to grow at the rate it has been, by 2035, the wealth of the richest 200…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_...

Very little change in U.K. over 20 years

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#139

Post by teamonkey »

harvey9 wrote: post #112
PlunderBunny wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I re-watch comedy like ‘The Young Ones’ or many other funny series from the 80s or 90s, I don’t find it funny any more. It’s not that the jokes weren’t good and that I didn’t find it funny at the time, it’s just that humour changes. In that case, it’s nothing to do with the jokes becoming ‘unacceptable’.

I find Yes Minister funny now, and I'm too young to have watched when it first aired.

I used to find The Thick of It hilarious but now I find it a depressing reminder of how ludicrous modern politics has become

Re: I wrote a book called “Crap Towns”. It seemed funny at the time

#140

Post by chgs »

rhubarbtree wrote: post #78
arrowsmith wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What compounding inequality? The UK's Gini coefficient has been trending downwards since the global financial crisis. 14 years of Conservative government made this country more equal, not less, because they flattened the income distribution by making everybody poorer. The big pattern among rich people in the UK nowadays is not that they're getting richer, it's that they're leaving.

You’re looking at the wrong numbers. Wealth, not income. Wealth inequality is through the roof. Poverty is through the roof. More people using food banks than ever. More people on zero hours and low paid contracts. If you think the problem with the UK is that rich people are leaving, then you have no idea about the reality of living in the UK. Visiting some of the towns in this book would be a starting point.

The problem in the U.K. is the availability of housing.
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