tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187043.post3867821178804657171..comments2024-03-29T05:13:18.992+00:00Comments on UK Commentators: Death ValleysLabanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12031578024191117985noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187043.post-21080115653977657172007-08-31T20:17:00.000+00:002007-08-31T20:17:00.000+00:00I recall a Dutch specialist saying "heroin was the...I recall a Dutch specialist saying "heroin was the drug of despair"....I wonder if that is true.<BR/><BR/>The destruction of the industrial base was okay so long as North Sea Oil cushioned it...but now the erconomy runs on financial services and property speculation through asset-backed lending.<BR/><BR/>It is a Ponzi Scheme and only works so long as Asia has surpluses to recycle - if China ever revalued countries like Britain would get rampant inflation in consumer goods sectors and not merely raw materialsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187043.post-29485721058057295452007-08-31T20:06:00.000+00:002007-08-31T20:06:00.000+00:00Could this substance abuse be linked to the increa...Could this substance abuse be linked to the increasingly feminised service industry world of work and the fact that men can't be men anymore through physical work, but have to sit in warehouses manning phones and answering queries on broadband connections?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5187043.post-72062559642930839062007-08-31T16:42:00.000+00:002007-08-31T16:42:00.000+00:00"the economic scaffolding had also been removed": ..."the economic scaffolding had also been removed": trouble was, 'economic' isn't the right word. The mines had been given ludicrously high subsidies for decades so the whole thing was bound to end in tears as soon as Scargill revealed that the use that the subsidy was to be put to was the nearest thing to a fascist revolution in my lifetime. It's nice to think that some alternative, more intelligent, policy over those decades might have lessened the harsh blow of exposure to reality, but which government would have had a motive even to attempt it? Anyway, having once seen an Orange parade swagger through an East Lothian mining village, I don't much incline to take a sentimental view of the miners. Kin of mine did more dangerous jobs without basking in the miners' public self-regard.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com