The Guardian has posted an article
From eastern Europe to Bognor Regis: 'I didn't even know I could get benefits'
GUARDIAN STORY HERE
This in response to David Cameron's demand to the EU that the UK, unlike any other EU member, should have the right to curb migrant benefits.
I felt it right to contribute to this debate, so I have written this response.
I live here in Bognor, sit on the Town Council, run an online local paper and ... I welcome this article, given some of the moaning, all-too-often UKIP-spouting crap we get on facebook pages here.
There's an unspoken, unwritten and unfaced truth about this lovely Town, and that is characterised, oddly enough, in a recent national report which says that those who are disadvantaged in city settings are better off than similarly-disadvantaged (er, poor) people in coastal resorts (e.g.).
I spotted this years back - if you're poor in an area surrounded by affluence, you are invisible. You are not recognised, your need for affordable housing is neglected, you get low wages, your kids education lacks.
Affordable homes. In 2003 as a District Councillor I attended a seminar on a Council-commissioned report from a reputable consultant who concluded that, based on a forecast of 'forming households up to 2011, we would need just under 6000 affordable homes. Tory Councillors were dumbfounded, and the man who now holds the cabinet position on this issue at Arun said the consultant worked for Labour Councils so was suspect, and "there are empty homes in Wigan" but declined my polite suggestion he might vacate his 5 bedroom house and move there. Did they build the 6000, or anywhere near that? Did they heckers.
Education. Labour brought in the Special Education Measures under Blair, Bognor's main secondary school went into such. Years of neglect from Tory LEA at West Sussex. I chaired the Bognor Fun Bus project for 28 years (now alas gone though needed) and saw face-to-face the issues in local estates and villages - low self-esteem, even lower expectation. Labour invested £35 million in new school, but Nick Gibb MP, now (again) Education Minister, won't be drawn on whether this was Labour overspending.
Both local secondary schools lag badly in the GCSE 5 A-C passes at 42% and 46% respectively (the latter is the new school, and it's a few points better than the old school, no doubt it'll take some years, damage like that is not quickly undone). They are at the very bottom end of West Sussex results, which on average are worse than national - and there are schools in Tower Hamlets etc that do far better ....
As a Ward Councillor in one area, I came across data, not widely shared, that compared to the affluent ward separated by West Meads Drive from mine, there was a 15 year gap in life expectancy. At a Labour Party Conference I termed this "third world Bognor", and got awful stick for it from some quarters, so who cares.
I suppose I was sort of first alerted to the whole concept of 'invisible poverty' when I noticed my eldest son fielding at 13 for his school rugby team (one of the 2 above), and he and his mates seemed puny compared to kids from visiting teams up-county. I asked the games master were they the same age? "Oh you've noticed too. No, it's a fact, our kids are small-for-age and underweight by comparison. I've tried to find data at County Hall but there's nothing." Poverty. Any other explanation. And that was 30 years ago. Perhaps now masked by fast-food obesity - more prevalent amongst the poor.
The Poles here are respected for working hard, and you also get the usual flow of drivel - council houses taken (when I last asked, 2 asylum Russian families in whole district), jobs taken (at what wage rates, brother) and benefits (see your article above). They start businesses! Shock horror probe. The real issue is that this community has so many people whose lives and hopes have been pushed face-down in a mire of invisibility and inequality.
The worthies try to dismiss George V's "bugger Bognor". I have an explanation. It was a Royal Command and, boy oh boy, have those who hold privilege, land and power, taken him seriously since!
BTW, this is the area where Colin Wallace was accused of a) murder b) manslaughter and c) said he had worked for Military Intel and about Kincora and Clockwork Orange and plots to overthrow the Wilson Government. Maybe Bognor and its environs in Beautiful Sunny Sussex is a paradigm for arrogant power and social indifference, the old Dispensation. It's not so long that the Tory Chair and Vice-Chair used to visit Arundel castle to hear what the then Duke of Norfolk expected of the County Council which would be duly reported and observed. Source: former Tory Council Leader Graham Foreshore.
Joves Garcon
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