And I watched a video yesterday that perfectly encapsulated everything that is wrong with Britain. The whole thing. A lifetime of systemic failure, of grotesque inequality, of ruling-class contempt disguised as concern, all of it distilled into a single glittering, nauseating image.
There he was. King Charles III. Dressed in his finest robes, the Imperial State Crown on his head (this is a solid gold construction studded with 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls, and four rubies). The Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross contains the largest clear-cut diamond in the world, weighing in at 530 carats…was present but not in the shot. The crown jewels are estimated to be worth up to $8 billion in total. And this man, wearing a hat that could solve homelessness in London, who holds a stick that could fund the NHS for a year, draped in robes worth more than most people will earn in a thousand lifetimes, was telling the British people to ‘weather the storm’ of the cost of living crisis.
Crosspost from https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11612563
The housing crisis doesn’t exist for lack of money. It exists for lack of political will to invest in vast scale council house building like we did post war.
Governments always find money for the things that are important to them.
Supplying more money won’t fix this. Electing someone who cares about council housing will.
It takes both.
You’d get so much more money by taxing amazon and the other tech giants properly. One expensive object isn’t going to save the country, and no amount of money makes anything better unless there’s the political will.
Of course. And the crown wealth is a symbol that signifies varying specific things to various people. Removing the ambiguity by returning the wealth in these symbols to those from whom they were strong -arm robbed is necessary for healing, both the robbed and the robbers.
Pointless to make me feel warm and fuzzy about how much three government cares before actually solving the fixing problem and mass building the council houses. You’re so focussed on what doesn’t matter and won’t make a difference. Symbolism without real change is worse than nothing. It just leads to disillusionment.