Sinister: We're trash, me and you...

[Martin Horsfield]

After the success of my 'what is/was a causal?' post, I've now decided
to turn my attentions to Jessica's question of whether trailer trash
exists in the UK...

Well, indeed there are a great deal of mobile-home parks dotted around
Britain, though the people within seem like OK sorts (ie, not gum
chewing, cop murdering, bail-bond dodgin' Juliette Lewis types).

The true breeding ground for Brit white (and indeed black) trash is in
the old council estates. These were built up after the war as cheap,
municipal housing, often with very lofty, 60s design ideals which made
them horrible to actually live in. 

These days, the local councils appear to have washed their hands of
estates like this, and left them to be run by housing associations -
non-profit making bodies who get the rent back in subsidies from the
government, and hence don't give a monkey's whether the people living in
their properties can actually pay rent or not.

With unemployment still rife, some of the punters on these estates live
a very hand-to-mouth exisistence with a lot of honest thievery, dealing
and prostitution among the older generation, and crime just for kicks
among the youngsters. With local councils concentrating more on
developing retail parks, the churches being driven out and the police
understandably at a distance, these areas (and every town in the UK,
north and south, has one) have fallen into appalling neglect.

Anyone who wants an indication of how grim underclass life in the UK
really is might want to read Nick Davies' excellent book,'Dark Heart'.

US trailer trash has always made for good cinema for us voyeuristic
Brits but it's depressing that their British counterparts are now being
similarly exploited for so-called 'feelgood' movies like 'Brassed Off'
and 'The Full Monty'. Though there is warmth and humanity among the
people of Britain's estates and many good stories to be told,
glamorising and fetishising such adversity (and Suede are culpable here,
'The Beautiful Ones', indeed) is pretty distasteful. The relentless
neglect of these areas of the UK is nothing short of shameful.

And they don't take kindly to shoegazers either, in case you were
wondering.

love, Martin Horsfield, northern scum
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