UN investigates deprivation in Essex.
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manicatel
pfm Member
Jaywick is apparently the most deprived place in the whole of the UK. ( maybe even the whole of Europe?)
Having been there, it really is a poor place. Crime in the area is very bad, unemployment very high, lots of kids in care etc etc.
I’m sure there are some genuine nice people there, however it is the very definition of a sink estate.
Having been there, it really is a poor place. Crime in the area is very bad, unemployment very high, lots of kids in care etc etc.
I’m sure there are some genuine nice people there, however it is the very definition of a sink estate.
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
It all the EU’s fault. Once we regain full sovereignty, we can spend the money that goes to Brussels on the needy. A hand up, not a hand out, mind ( sorry, no single mothers).
Derek Wright
pfm Member
I lived in Harlow for three years at the end of the 60s, I moved from Harlow in 1969 and returned to see where I lived last summer. I was one of the first tenants in the bedsit block which was demolished in the late 90s and replaced with a regular apartment block. Harlow has lots of trees now. The road across Nazeing Common was unrecognisable to me, Edinburh Way was totally different, but then just about all the buiildings I have ever worked in have got new tenants or have been demolished.
My understanding is that somewhere in the deep past, the local authority at Jaywick allowed for small holiday chalets to be built for servicemen . These chalets were never intended or approved for permanent occupation, but they have become so since. I've been there (about 2 years ago) and it's a curious mix of some very well-maintained and smart little places and some at the opposite end of the spectrum. It did make me wonder why some people can keep neat and tidy and some can't. But it's very clear that far from every place is in poverty. I havent sought to verify the bit abput how they came to be, as above, so if anyone knows differently, very happy to get a better understanding.
darrenyeats
pfm Member
The state of Jaywick isn't a new thing. It was really run down when I briefly visited many years ago.
The surrounding areas were okay really, Jaywick was a phenomenon, sounds like it still is.
The surrounding areas were okay really, Jaywick was a phenomenon, sounds like it still is.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
People are very quick to criticise Harlow, but after living near Stansted for nine years in the noughties, I thought Bishops Stortford was uglier and nastier, and getting worse each year.
My paternal grandparents went on holidays to Jaywick until the early 60s. It was a hole then, but my mum liked it the one time she went with her new boyfriend (my dad). That was until she didn’t replace the cap on the ketchup bottle properly and my grandad gave it a good shaking..... she was 16, the poor thing.
My paternal grandparents went on holidays to Jaywick until the early 60s. It was a hole then, but my mum liked it the one time she went with her new boyfriend (my dad). That was until she didn’t replace the cap on the ketchup bottle properly and my grandad gave it a good shaking..... she was 16, the poor thing.
Really? I thought BS was OK. I have a cousin living there, and another distant relative. Both of them have the means to live elsewhere, one is a GP, the other works in the City earning telephone number bonuses, so they can pay the bills. They seem to think that Braintree is ropey, the GP has her practice there and sees the worst of it. Colchester gets a bad rep. Having had some work around there in 2016 I found the whole area reasonably pleasant, albeit overpriced and in places soul-destroyingly dull. Chelmsford, take a bow. The villages are pretty.
I saw a docu, the point they were making was that it was out on a limb with poor transport links and no local work, so it was very difficult for prople to get jobs. This was the reason for most of the poverty. Compare and contrast say Grimsby, a town I know and probably equally poor. It has the benefit of being reasonably compact with a good amount of work in the town, albeit min wage and a lot of agency/ZHC. You're not going to be rich but as housing is dirt cheap you will get a roof over your head, walk or cycle to work if you can't afford a car, and make a living.
jackbarron
Chelsea, London
Channel 4 News did a story on Jaywick last night. They followed Prof Alston, the UN special rapporteur for extreme poverty, during his visit. He looked into the impact of the Universal Credit benefit system and other causes of deprivation in Jaywick.
A single parent waited for 10 weeks for money to come through. The only way she and her family survived was by a food bank giving her a month's worth of supplies at a time.
The local Tory MP was brought on. He reiterated the usual spiel of yes there are exceptions, but Universal Credit is a fantastic system and gets people into work.
It's shameful that the UN have had to deploy an extreme poverty inspector into the 6th richest nation in the world. The Tory government however doesn't care about people on the breadline. That much is blindingly obvious after 8 years of massive welfare and housing cuts.
Below is an Al Jazeera report on Jaywick.
Jack
A single parent waited for 10 weeks for money to come through. The only way she and her family survived was by a food bank giving her a month's worth of supplies at a time.
The local Tory MP was brought on. He reiterated the usual spiel of yes there are exceptions, but Universal Credit is a fantastic system and gets people into work.
It's shameful that the UN have had to deploy an extreme poverty inspector into the 6th richest nation in the world. The Tory government however doesn't care about people on the breadline. That much is blindingly obvious after 8 years of massive welfare and housing cuts.
Below is an Al Jazeera report on Jaywick.
Jack
Mullardman
Moderately extreme...
Yep. UC 'encourages people into work'... and it encourages those already in work, on shit pay.. to get even more work.. on shit pay.. All the while allowing the general population the choice of whether to contribute to the avoidance of starvation, via Food Banks, rather than by the compulsion of the tax system.
Choice, reduced taxation, low pay for the plebs. It's an orgasmic combination for Tories.
It all has a perfect internal logic and beauty.. If you are an uncaring bastard.
Choice, reduced taxation, low pay for the plebs. It's an orgasmic combination for Tories.
It all has a perfect internal logic and beauty.. If you are an uncaring bastard.
Mullardman
Moderately extreme...
Jaywick will remain as it is. It allows Govt. to claim that poverty doesn't only exist in 'The North'
jtrade
pfm Member
As I watched the Al Jazeera report, I thought "If you watched this video from the third world - especially a strife-torn area - WTF would you think ?"
Something very wrong on so many different levels.
Jaywick to my knowledge has always been deprived, Tory supporters generally have a different sense of morality to me but even to admit,never mind the existence of food banks is a disgrace. Our place in the world with such facilities says so much about the politicians that run this country with our third world fringe. Ok I exaggerate to make a point.
So few politicians have experience of life, beyond usually paid for education, privilege and often zero awareness of normal life.
What we have stood by and watched unfold before our eyes is shameful to all of us.
Lord snooty and his mates have royally f*cked up and imposed the crappy bankers debt upon those least able to cope . However Cameron Osborne and the rest of the grade A ****ers will be very unlikely to issue any regret.
So few politicians have experience of life, beyond usually paid for education, privilege and often zero awareness of normal life.
What we have stood by and watched unfold before our eyes is shameful to all of us.
Lord snooty and his mates have royally f*cked up and imposed the crappy bankers debt upon those least able to cope . However Cameron Osborne and the rest of the grade A ****ers will be very unlikely to issue any regret.
Tony Lockhart
Avoiding Stress, at Every Opportunity
Just in case anyone doesn’t know, the part of Jaywick that most people are referring to is circled below.
It’s about a mile across at the widest.
It’s about a mile across at the widest.
Mr Cat
Owner
indeed - where it is deemed the norm by the looks of it, well, judging by the lack of comments on the fact the UN inspector was in newcastle last week.. there's a interesting documentary on vice's youtube channel about foodbanks in the toon...few years old I think, but still relevant...
edit - can't access youtube from work, but search for - shy bairns get nowt: food poverty in the uk
There was a similar review of Benwell 35 years ago; one of my flatmates received a letter from his mother the next week appalled that he lived some where so insalubrious.
6 of us in an upstairs supposedly two bed flat paid £425 per year, £1800 the year before.
Worst part was getting my piano up the stairs.
6 of us in an upstairs supposedly two bed flat paid £425 per year, £1800 the year before.
Worst part was getting my piano up the stairs.