I am glad that I live in this country and have no particular wish to live elsewhere. However, I'm not sure I would be so glad if my husband's and my work and housing situation in the early years of our marriage were to be transported from the 70's to the present day.
In the 70's my husband was a student nurse, working long hours on very low wages, and I had two years off work to care for our first child. Despite having a very low income, we were able to rent reasonably priced hospital accommodation (albeit not that glamorous since we lived in a crescent of prefabricated homes that were originally used to house prisoners of war). We were able to eat reasonably well and pay for basics. For a few years, until I started part time work, there was no money for a phone or a holiday but we could afford to heat our home properly and to run an "old banger".
Nowadays it would be unthinkable for a family to survive on a student nurse's pay - the rent alone would eat up a substantial proportion of it.
So we, like many others, had our families when the basic essentials for living - housing, food, clothing, energy, etc, etc. - were within even the most poorly paid people's grasp.
In my view, many of the people of our generation have had it lucky. Even those who could never afford to buy their home had a good chance of obtaining a council house at a reasonable rent.
Nowadays, even professional people often have short term, insecure contracts and are not paid particularly well. Many young people cannot envisage being in a situation where they can buy their own property because, with rents so high, it is very difficult to save for a deposit, and the multiple of income needed to obtain a mortgage is much higher now.
Many families are living from hand to mouth, from one month to the next, often accruing debts to pay for expensive but essential household repairs. Has nobody read about the many, and increasing numbers of children who are living in poverty, crammed into poky, often sub-standard, expensive and sometimes dangerous accommodation? Has nobody read about children who have to move schools on a regular basis because, at the end of a yearly tenancy, a landlord can put up the rent to any amount he or she feels is obtainable - and tenants often have no option but to look for more affordable accomodation? Has nobody read about children coming to school with inadequate clothing and shoes, hungry and dispirited? Has nobody read about large numbers of people being unable to access affordable dental treatment or being denied - or waiting inordinate amounts of time for - medical procedures that were formerly available on the NHS, such as for varicose veins, cataracts, etc, etc.?
If pointing out these issues is construed by some as "moany gloom mongers" then so be it. To talk about the beauties of nature, how lovely our gardens are, how attractive British coast and countryside is, etc, etc, etc., is completely missing the point. There are some children in inner cities have not even seen the countryside or the seaside.
