Letter: Food-banks, fireworks and council houses

Doubtless, some of your readers will dismiss my views as those of a miserable old killjoy - or worse!
Too many fireworks?Too many fireworks?
Too many fireworks?

But I cannot help but wonder in this age of so-called austerity when food-banks feature prominently in Horsham that even the smallest road is crammed bumper to bumper with symbols of wealth - some houses sporting no less than three vehicles.

Or are they merely signs of extensive personal debt?

Also fireworks - which in days gone by were reserved for very special occasions, such as Guy Fawkes night and New Year, are now commonplace. And they don’t come cheap.

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And I sometimes wonder how cash-strapped parents manage to fund their off-springs’ ‘Proms’ - yet another American import - along with the dross of Halloween.

Also, take a look at any Horsham supermarket - jam-packed with expensive cars with the latest number plates. Inside customer fill their trolleys with enough food to feed a regiment.

And one is prompted to reflect upon what the term austerity means in our neck of the wood. If this is austerity, what will prosperity feel like?

I am of a generation that experienced the War - also the years of rationing and austerity that followed.

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My gap years were spent in military service - much of it in wartorn Berlin so I cannot accept that we are currently living in a period of real austerity save that food-banks in our town are a lifeline for some. It would appear that the poor and needy are always with us.

I can also recall Harold MacMillan’s clarion-call of prosperity - ‘You’ve never had it so good’.

How right he was - but then his government did oversee the construction of over 400,000 much-needed houses. Compare that with the record of our present administration and local authority.

By selling off council houses at bargain-basement prices, the Tory government of the day depleted our national housing stock. And now we are paying the price in terms of affordable housing for the young.

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Add to this the pace of technological change - the former news vendor at Horsham railway station no longer stocks newspapers as commuters prefer to stay glued to their smartphones.

All this is supposed to be progress - so I must concede and keep using the tablets!

Robert B. Worley

Bourns Court, Ayshe Court Drive, Horsham

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