Polly Toynbee and David Walker: an extract from their new book on the widening gap between rich and poor |

Polly Toynbee and David Walker: an extract from their new book on the widening gap between rich and poor |
Money |
The Guardian: "'We now live in a separate economy, we live on a separate level to the vast majority of people in the country. We don't send our kids to the same schools, we have more choice over schools, we have more choice over health, we have more choice over where we live, we have more choice over where we go on holiday and what we do for our jobs. And we live in a completely different world to the people we live next door to.'"

Youth crime: Greedy, rude adults 'fuelling teen violence'

"Sometimes as adults we don't model the behaviour we would want youngsters to follow. We live in a greedy culture, we are rude to each other in the street. Children follow that."

As we become more separated from others, as we become more dependent of material things to bring short-term gratification, we grow ever-more angry when we do not get the things we think we deserve.

Marketing sells us the idea that we deserve things, creating need from want. When that is not satisfied we become angry. Is it any wonder our children, who can only learn from example, begin to exhibit behaviour that we already possess.

Black Rain on the Thames

Umbrellas, hoods, designer jackets and shoddy rain macs. A steady
stream of amble past the Film cafe on the south bank. An woman stares
at me until I meet eye contact, the turns away. Blue, red, yellow,
white wheel held aloft to repel the rain that falls in steady circles
on the grey cobbles.

Summer in London. Crowds dispersed by elemental water. Peaceful as the
puddle on an abadonned table.

George Monbiot: Trawlermen cling on as oceans empty - and the ecosystem is gasping | Comment is free | The Guardian

George Monbiot: Trawlermen cling on as oceans empty - and the ecosystem is gasping | Comment is free | The Guardian: "ust as the oil price now seems to be all that stands between us and runaway climate change, it is also the only factor which offers a glimmer of hope to the world's marine ecosystems. No east Asian government was prepared to conserve the stocks of tuna; now one-third of the tuna boats in Japan, China, Taiwan and South Korea will stay in dock for the next few months because they can't afford to sail. The unsustainable quotas set on the US Pacific seaboard won't be met this year, because the price of oil is rising faster than the price of fish. The indefinite strike called by Spanish fishermen is the best news European fisheries have had for years. Beam trawlermen - who trash the seafloor and scoop up a massive bycatch of unwanted species - warn that their industry could collapse within a year. Hurray to that too."

This is indeed excellent news. I come from an old fishing family and my father told me how the British fish stocks in the North Sea and English channel were on the verge of collapse in 1939. When WWII broke out, these sea areas were heavily mined and un-fish-able for nearly 8 years. This gave the stock time to recover and my mother tells me the size of fish caught in the late 1940s to the 1960s was amazing -- one filet of Plaice was like an entire fish now.

The best thing for the ecosystem would be a total ban on fishing. As that will never happen -- its not politically expedient -- the high price of oil is the next best thing.

The no's have it

Today's Britain is angry. We know that everyting is wrong. We
participate in the democratic process in negative: we vote against
everyting the government stands for, but what are we for? We don't
know, because to work that out requires original thought on our part.

We look to others to tell us what to think, under the guise of seeking
consensus with our point of view. Anything that challenges our
comfortable assumptions and received prejudices is other; alien and
threatening.

While in America, a movement grows around an idea of positive change,
something people with open minds can vote for, we have - what?

When there is a real chance of an African American becoming president,
it makes me wonder when we will have our first non-white prime
minister? 5 years? 10 years? 20?

Until Britain becomes comfortable with its own self-identity we will
not see a visible minority leader. This is the truth that remains
unspoken, tacit in every Daily Mail headline.

Until then we will remain against everything and for nothing except
personal gain.