Dawn Fyfe - Voice of Dissent

Published 17 Nov 2011 09:30

"It's not going to be easy, but nothing worth it ever is."

This is a line in a community play I saw recently about a working class lone parent.

It struck me I have heard this often in my life.

It is amazing how many ways working class people are encouraged to shut up and put up.

A common one when I was young was, "worse things have happened in China".

Well maybe, but that didn't reduce the impact of bad housing and domestic violence.

Working class people tend to go through life with these statements that ignore their reality.

Such as council leader Ronnie McColl praising the new system for distributing the Pensioners' Christmas Bonus.

His reality is it's great, but for pensioners I know the new early application means they have missed out.

Those with home helps may have been better informed, but for others communication was lapsed.

Not that home helps are guaranteed for people now that new charges have been brought in.

Pensioners being charged to allow them to eat and go to the toilet - the Government should hang their heads in shame!

Pensioners are not the only affected section of our community.

Youth unemployment stands at one in four, welfare benefits are being cut, social housing is shocking and let's face it, life is hard for most working class people.

Another saying thrown at us is, "money doesn't make you happy".

Really? Having enough money to have holidays, decent homes, a good education for your child, good health care etc wouldn't make you happy?

It's not that I believe in privatising everything from your knickers to your heart, but only someone with money could have coined that phrase.

The final saying I and many others grew up with in Clydebank was in relation to Faslane.

Childhood fears of nuclear war were settled with the sentiment that we were, "so close we won't feel a thing".

The point is we would, and we do.

Other people's suffering does not alleviate our own, and why should it?

We are right to be angry, hurt and frustrated.

It's what we are going to do with it that's the question?

The most ironic article I have seen in the last week was on the front page of the Metro.

In the top corner was the story about the "outrage" surrounding FIFA banning the England team from wearing poppies.

The main front page article was about an ex-serviceman and his wife who committed suicide due to the poverty they were living in. If David Cameron is serious about suitably commemorating people killed in wars, he should be ensuring they receive the support they need on their return.

Whether or not you choose to wear a red or white poppy or none at all was irrelevant to this couple.

The ridiculing of people for their choice is a distraction from the real issues.

As someone recently said, "Nothing besmirches the memory of the fallen more than those who use it to restrict the freedoms of others".

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This article appeared in Clydebank Post 17 Nov 11

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