The Nothing
Article by Barbara Jones
How many of you have seen "The Never Ending Story"? Those of you who have will know all about the "nothing". This article is dedicated to the "nothing".
Most of you on income support know all about it too. The nothing is a very big problem on Bentilee (not to mention Stoke-on-Trent, Great Britain, in fact every area of the world the "nothing" is rife). There is nothing to eat, nothing to do (because there are no jobs) and nothing to spend (because in order to spend you must be in a position to earn it first). There is nothing to live in because nothing is being built in the way of housing, and nothing to wear or buy (unless it's bought from a charity shop or from a car boot sale). Then again, it may be completely unobtainable.
When you visit the D.S.S. to procure a loan, the "nothing" is there again, mocking you. Students understand the "nothing" well while they go without to buy books to learn from, for the nothing job they cannot get when they are qualified.
There is "nothing" for the teenagers on the streets, because they can get nothing until they are eighteen, by which time some of them have become the victims of the "nothing" through drugs or despair.
I myself spend one week out of two with nothing because my giro is gone as soon as it comes. How do you get anything from "nothing"?
CAPTION: Pensioners know The Nothing well
Pensioners know the nothing well. They sit afraid to put the heating on for fear of huge bills, and spend most of their time as prisoners in their homes -- loneliness takes over all in the "nothing". There is nothing to look forward to each day, and nowhere to go either.
Shopkeepers are also victims of the nothing because we customers have nothing to spend except on bare essentials, which when spent leaves out cupboards and fridges full of nothing.
At the end of the day the only people who are not suffering from the "nothing" are politicians and royalty. The same politicians who use our votes to give them the power, and then use that power to repay us with a Big Fat "NOTHING" -- WAKE UP JOHN MAJOR!!! You are a modern day Sheriff of Nottingham -- the only problem is we have no Robin Hood to even the score so alas we will all be victims fo the "NOTHING" unless -- as in the movies in our opening paragraph -- Falcour the White Dragon comes flying by to save us once again from our losing battle with the "nothing".
Copyright The Bentilean 1999
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