You're going to reap just what you sow !

I was in Blackpool for the new year with friends celebrating the new year. One of the things I learned from having a job which involves spending a lot of time on the road was to view long car journeys as a great opportunity to listen to your favourite music. If you treat traffic hold ups as an opportunity to listen to more great tunes, it takes all the stress out of the journey. Sadly for us, there were no hold ups on the way back so the 130 CD's in the car were largely untouched. As ever I used the trip to Blackpool as an excuse to visit HMV and buy a few more. We picked up the new Steve Miller CD, a James Taylor compilation and an Echo and the Bunnymen compilation. On the journey back, the first leg of trip was played out to the soundtrack of Transformer by Lou Reed. This album contains possibly one of my favourite songs ever, Perfect Day. It is possibly the most beautiful song ever written and although there have been a few covers, Lou Reed's original easily tops them all. It has a powerful message, hidden in it. One which is relevant to all of us today.

Lou Reed
Transformer (1972)
Perfect Day

Just a perfect day,
Drink Sangria in the park,
And then later, when it gets dark,
We go home.
Just a perfect day,
Feed animals in the zoo
Then later, a movie, too,
And then home.

Oh it's such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.

Just a perfect day,
Problems all left alone,
Weekenders on our own.
It's such fun.
Just a perfect day,
You made me forget myself.
I thought I was someone else,
Someone good.

Oh it's such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.

You're going to reap just what you sow,
You're going to reap just what you sow,
You're going to reap just what you sow,
  You're going to reap just what you sow...

 As we hurtled through the post industrial North West, I contemplated the coda (the bit at the end for you non musico's) - "You're going to reap just what you sow". When Lou wrote those lyrics, towns like Bolton, Wigan, Burnley, etc were the industrial heartland of the UK, driving  the economy. A trip to the football stadium would cost about 20p or half a crown for kids. Pubs were mainly male dominated enclaves where a man asking for a pint of lager might draw a few comments.  It was also the centre of the Northern Soul scene. Young people who weren't into the pub scene would congregate at places such as Wigan Casino and dance the night away to the sounds of Motown and songs such as Tainted Love by Gloria Jones epitomising the sound. As to the drugs scene. In the North West, young people would fuel their dance frenzy with amphetamines and other uppers. Working class communities were staunchly Labour and staunchly trades unionist. A couple of years after Lou Reed wrote the song, the NUM brought down Ted Heaths Tory government, when he called an election to ask "who runs the country".


The NUM did for Ted Heath and his Tory government. Heath was replaced by an altogether different type of leader. Heath, for all his faults was an internationalist and a consensualist. He listed his greatest achievement as securing entry for the UK into the EU (or the common market as it was then known). Thatcher was the antithesis to Heaths form of Toryism. She coined the phrase "Wets" for the Heathites. She viewed the working class and the trades unions as enemies, to be crushed. Whatever you think of Thatcher, the truth is she succeeded in her aim of crushing Trades Union power in the UK. The pivotal moment was the miners strike. Other less obvious attacks on Trades Union power ensured that no union could ever again bring down a Tory government. An example is the privatisation of the Railways. Under BR, a single strike could virtually paralyse the country. The railway was broken into hundreds of seperate companies (none of which seem to talk to each other). A national rail strike is virtually impossible to arrange. At the time of the break up of BR, I happened to find myself sitting opposite Michael Portillo on a train to Scotland. I'd followed the plans carefully and took the opportunity to ask him whether he thought it could possibly work, as I thought it would be a night mare. He laughed. He explained that it wasn't about the railways, it was about making sure the unions couldn't disrupt the economy. He explained that ultimately this would be good for the railways and the workers, because they would stop losing contracts when the unions went on strike. He explained that Rupert Murdoch had stopped using rail to distribute newspapers during the last strike, and this was an example of the corrosive power of rail unions. I told him that far more days would be lost due to the private companies being unable to run a coherent service. He said "I doubt it, everyone knows private enterprise is far more efficient and well organised". I have three words for Mr Portillo "First Capital Connect".


So how did Margaret Thatchers rule change the North West? Well it's certainly fair to say pubs are no longer male bastions, full of bitter bitter drinkers. The industrial complexes are either rusting wrecks, shopping centres or new homes. Football matches are £20 to get into and for your money you can watch a bunch of foreign players, wearing snoods, rolling around on the floor pretending to be injured when they get a pat on the head. Northern Soul is long dead. Is there any music scene of note in the North West? In the '80's & '90's you had the Madchester scene with the happy Mondays and the Stone Roses, based around the Hacianda, but that also has long since gone.


The drug of choice in the North west is no longer uppers such as Amphetamine Sulphate, but Heroin. Sadly this has taken root in the male working class communities, to replace work and pub culture. Whole pit towns have descended into a smack induced torpor of hopelessness, where any ambition means moving out and moving on. Where young men would go down the pits, earn good money and drink the nights away, many have consoled themselves to life getting stoned on benefits and watching TV. Prior to Thatchers de-industrialisation, heroin usage was primarily an urban problem. Perhaps the saddest legacy of her rule is that now the evil shit is everywhere.


As to the trades unions. Where are they now? Let me tell you where. They are on the verge of a precipice. The current government has launched a program of cuts, which will decimate many sectors of society. Unlike Thatcher, these aren't policies targeted specifically to destroy unions, but I suspect that unless the Trades unions get their act together, they will be despatched to oblivion. Which unions are successful and are seeing rising membership? Those such as the RMT who are not afraid to fight the corner for their members. 


In Barnet, we have a highly right wing council, bent on using the spending cuts as an excuse to destroy public services. This isn't just me saying this, the Future Shape/Easycouncil/One Barnet cuts were planned long before the coalition was thought of. In fact Gordon Brown was riding high in the polls, when the scheme was first mooted. All sorts of essential services are facing cuts. Libraries, Childrens Centres, Support for people with brain injuries. Not only that but effective and well run departments, such as parking control are being outsourced to private companies, with target based quotas of fines. 


If you took a working man from Bolton, Burnley or Wigan on the day Lou Reed wrote his song and transported him to 2010, drove him around and told him what had happened, what would he say? what would he think? I doubt he'd believe it unless he saw it with his own eyes. If you look at Barnet Councils plans for future shape, for Brent Cross redevelopment you have a glimpse of what we are facing. If you look at how they are refusing to enforce planning laws, especially in conservation areas and green belt, you can get a glimpse of where we are going. 


In the words of Lou Reed, as he sung the final lines of one of the greatest songs ever "You're going to reap just what you sow". If you do nothing and let it happen, then you are part of it and you are responsible for it.