Veronica Goddard

……….I have been holding off with an opinion about the thinktank that has advised northerners to move south, because they in their ‘infinite wisdom’ have arrived at the conclusion that there is little or no chance of things getting any better for anyone living north of Watford.

I have taken a few deep breaths and still can’t get beyond the thought that the people who are members of these so-called thinktanks appear to know little about life beyond their own back yards. If they want to get a true grasp of life ‘up north’ they should live the life and walk the walk. There is, apparently, a great negativity about these people, that could be changed by their mixing with the wholesome people of the north. OK, so I am in the Midlands, but am neither so blinkered, nor so inexperienced in life’s hardships as to be unaware of the difficulties  that exist for people in the terraces and back streets. I have lived the life and walked the walk. I have gone from a well to do family, to living in a 1 bedroom flat, to owning a two up, two down semi and I have run the gauntlet of life through good and bad times.

To say that there is no hope is tantamount to throwing in the towel and that is NOT what we British are about. We are a proud race and those up north are perhaps the proudest, even though they may be considered by southerners to be of least importance in the scheme of things.

Success is all  relative; not everything in life hinges upon material success and prosperity. I know full well, from experience, that money helps to grease the wheels of life and to live a life in poverty is not a happy existence. 

However, by this Thinktank publishing such tosh, they are insulting some of the strongest people in this country. To survive whilst sucking on a silver spoon is a simple task; to survive without a spoon at all is a monumental task and those who do so should be admired.