Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london
…and so concludes this week’s photographs from the Serpentine Pavillion Summer Party. In many ways it really feels like the ultimate representation of New London as it is most definitely only available to an exclusive few . It has dawned on me that to live in this city now you have to be a REFL – Rich Enough For London. The problem is that most people aren’t. (yes I am trying to make REFL as well as New London happen- fly my pretties,fly!)
Just to give you an idea of the impossibility of home ownership in London, the average flat is worth £500,000. The average salary is £26,000 and you can get a mortgage 4 x your salary. As the saying goes, do the math, most aren’t even getting close. The top 1/% and the bottom 1% are present but everyone else has been forced out by prices that have gone into infinity and beyond and don’t look like they are coming down either.
I was reading an article this week about how the population of London has changed. In the ’80s two thirds were classed as middle income, now its little more than a third. The numbers of rich & poor have risen by 80%. The Spirit level (u can watch my 3min redux version here) showed comprehensively that inequality is the source of most of society’s ills but this shift is being allowed to occur unabated. The only barrier of defence we have that could stop this are the councils and the mayor. The councils who should be protecting us from the property developers are in fact in league with them and are using their money to fill the massive gap in their budgets that has come from Tory cuts. Deliberate actions from a government who are systematically waging war on the poor? Seems pretty convenient. And what of our illustrious Mayor, the loveable Boris Johnson. What did he have to say on the matter? “London is to the billionaire as the jungles of Sumatra are to the Orangutans. It is their natural habitat” What an absolute cunt.
Ok, its official, I have become a gentrification bore. I can’t stop talking about it and I can’t stop getting angry about it. I want my London back!! I liked the inclusive London, the melting pot, where anyone who was willing to have a go could survive and live within the city and not have to commute from fucking Margate to be able to afford the rent. If you have to travel in to work or to socialise you are not a Londoner, you are just passing through. This is not about having issue with rich people. This is about having issue with the fact that they are the only ones who can enjoy New London. The glory of this city was that is was available to all and now it is just a playground for the wealthy and that sucks. The mix worked. That’s what made it great.
I’m gonna shut up now and go and sulk in the corner. There’s no more to be said. It’s done. There is no way to turn back the clock. Time to move on. I will try not to bring this up again but I can’t promise. If it gets boring just look at the pictures. I will let them do the talking from now on.
P.s I didn’t mention the pavilion this year because it was basically shite and I don’t like to speak ill of things…(smiley face)
Not that this will make you feel any better, but this phenomenon is happening everywhere. Real Estate prices have gone crazy everywhere and young families cannot afford to buy homes the way we did, and our parents before us. The mega-rich are buying up the best properties, or even modest properties, tearing down the existing structure, no matter how nice it is, and building obscenely pretentious mausoleums. They could house a small village. I read somewhere that if every person in the world lived by North American standards, it would take 7 Planet Earth’s to sustain it. I am disgusted by the rampant and rabid consumerism and ostentatiousness I see around me.
I could go on…..haaa. But you get the picture.
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