The rapper Plan B’s debut film, ‘ill Manors’, paints a worryingly convincing picture of under-privileged London. From childhood neglect to drug culture, the story’s protagonist is described as a “posterboy for David Cameron’s broken Britain.”
“There's no such thing as broken Britain we're just bloody broke in Britain
What needs fixing is the system, not shop windows down in Brixton.”
Anti-capitalist sentiment is gaining momentum as our financial institutions, corporations, and politicians are perceived to be failing to meet a minimum social standard. But the protestors, and the media largely backing them, are barking up the wrong tree.
Matthew’s simple contention that the rich are bad and the poor are good, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”, has lost its relevance in today’s society. A genuine desire to improve social welfare crosses class lines and requires growing levels of capital investment. Generalisations focus on the worst that society has to offer, rich and poor, and inevitably result in growing despair.
But, as David Brindle, the Guardian’s public services editor, optimistically states, “the age of austerity may yet produce a change for the better.”
Indeed, a powerful new capitalism is emerging. Most visible in my area is the award-winning Clapham One project. A PPP deal which has guaranteed Lambeth a brand new library and leisure centre funded entirely from the sale of the private sector element of the development.
Driving social benefit while making a profit. Sustainable success to be proud of.
Sounds like a pretty good plan - how do I get involved?
Sounds like a pretty good plan - how do I get involved?
