By
They bought up land, made marriages, dispossessed
tenants and built their fortune on rents.
These commissions mark their zenith. Since then,
the estate has been sold off acre by
acre, piece by piece – one Turner remains,
the other hangs in another museum.
Some things are unchanged: in the distance,
the house’s palladian exterior
in local sandstone, the round turreted
folly on the small island in the lake – an ancient
Cheshire mere. Gone are the fishing boats
tacking on the choppy water or anchored
in the pink stillness just after dawn.
Whatever fishes thrive are largely
unmolested and aircraft rise from Ringway
five miles or so to the north. But England
continues – consuming, class ridden.
John Chapman
November 29, 2010Trouble is, the poor want to be less poor but the rich richer. When the poor go on strike for more the rich simply disposess them and buy paintings and such like. Why do we not have much manufacturing any more? Essentially because the poor workers, egged on by their Union leaders (who never lost a penny in any dispute), wanted more than the rich businessmen were prepared to pay who then got fed up with the struggle and refused to re-invest profit. Result, manufacturing all but disappeared, unemployment rose above 4m and the rich invested their profits in dubious mortgages and made another fortune selling these on. The banks who bought them went to the wall and were bailed out by what was left of the national workforce but no bankers lost their jobs only the poor bank workers. So, the rich still get richer etc. Their large houses are bought up by The National Trust and English Heritage, who take on the running debts and allow the rich, previous owners to remain living in them. The poor then visit the houses and help keep the rich living in them. Know what they are at, these rich people!
David Selzer
November 30, 2010So, property is theft!
John Chapman
December 19, 2010It is more that homes are currency for speculation than ‘property is theft’.