Blair’s other legacy

Many would have you believe that post-Blair Britain is a fabulous place. Many people have more money than they know what to do with and everything is hunky dory. Only, this is not necessarily true for 100% of the population, at least not according to the story which one of my students told me after a recent visit to London.

I was a little surprised to learn from him that there is an apparently sizeable group of people who are really struggling to make ends meet, or at least that was what he was told by a Londoner he met. Soaring property prices and low salary levels seem are probably the culprit, I suspect.

I decided to check this out, so I hunted around a UK job search website and looked at a couple of estate agents sites.

With regard to jobs, I discovered from taking a look at the some admin jobs advertised in Bristol, a moderately wealthy southern UK city, that salaries of around £13,000 and £14,000 are still quite commonplace. This means that a couple earning around £28,000 would just about be able to afford a mortgage on a one bed property costing £98,000 - which is just about the lowest price you will find on the market in that area.

Such low salary levels mean that what my Italian friend told me is quite possibly true - there are plenty of people who are struggling to make ends meet. How many, I don’t know, but probably more than I would expect.

Did Blair benefit everyone in the UK? Good question. Answers on a postcard, or comment please.

A small update: This article in on the Guardian website seems to indicate that even graduates are finding living in the UK something of a struggle.

Some stats

The number of views since I switched to Wordpress last year is now over 20,000. Total spam blocked now over 11,000 and growing.  My most popular post concerns traffic fines in Italy, with over 1,700 views.

I know I write about a range of subjects, but really I just waffle on about things that catch my eye.  Blogging is quite a good way of getting things off your chest too, I reckon.   I think my writing is getting slightly better as a result of all my scribblings, which pleases me.

And to all of you out there that read the posts here: Thanks.

This blog will shortly be going into a summer recess, but normalish service will be resumed in September.

In you need to use Italian, you might find this site useful.

My written Italian is not that wonderful, (it is getting better, but it is not yet perfect…) and I tend to have problems remembering certain Italian verb conjugations. This means that I find this site is very handy indeed: http://italianverbs.googlepages.com/index.htm

It has become one of my permanent bookmarks.  You know, one of those that live in the Firefox bar which sits directly above the web pages you are looking at.   So, if you find yourself needing to write in Italian, check it out.  The site is totally in Italian, but if you are writing in the language you presumably already know more than a few basics.  Alternatively, if you are learning the language of the Living Museum, you may find it to be a very useful reference.  Enjoy.

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