The Dream was always delicately balanced. We don’t have much money and the only savings we have have been accrued over the past year. The house is worth more than a house in Lewis but, given the way prices have gone in the past five years, not considerably more. We still have a mortgage to pay and over half of our monthly income goes to paying that. I worked it all out though and, assuming nothing changed, August 2010 would be when we could leave a life no longer enjoyed and begin again.
Today my wife, Sandy, found out that she will be made redundant next week as part of the sacrifice of this country’s heritage - the desecration of the famous name of Wedgwood in order that rich Americans can get richer and rich Administrators can get bigger cars and bigger houses. Nobody, certainly not the government, cares any longer about the heritage of this country. The Wedgwood family wanted to buy the company and would have kept it trading but that was not good enough, keeping part of the country’s history counted for nothing at the altar of the money-grabbers. No lessons have been learned from the banking fiasco and money rules now as much as it has done for the past several years. There are many more Fred Goodwins nobody yet knows about and the Prime Minister nobody elected has neither the balls nor the ability to do anything about it.
One day, when Sandy has the money that is due to her, I might tell a bit about the obscene amounts of money that have gone into various pockets as Waterford Wedgwood was cut up and its heritage turned to money for those who have no real understanding of ordinary people’s lives. Where have the days gone when there were honest men as well as thieves?
So what of the future now? We don’t really know yet but the Dream depended on our having enough savings to tide us through the first year and on reducing the mortgage sufficiently to retain enough from the sale of the house for us to buy another house in the Outer Hebrides. Maybe it will still be okay but if our son, aged 24 and with a University degree, has been unable to find a job in over six months what chance is there for someone of retirement age?
March 20th, 2009 at 11:15 am
Wedgewood has gone …? Just another in a long list, it seems …
Sadly though, this is what happens when a concern moves from ‘family-run’ to public flotation …
But in real terms, didn’t the Wedgewood themselves sell their heritage when they took the shareholders dosh …?
Goodwin did nothing less than was allowed to him in his employment contract … There’s nothing that anyone can ‘enforce’ to make him do differently … The people who wrote the contract are to blame … They should’ve put in an incompetency clause, or at least one linked with performance - this is sheer lack of common-sense …
Jobs are always to be found Les … :- ) Easier where you are than here, but they can be found in both places … Graduates have the hardest time getting first jobs because they are ‘unproven’ …
Myself, I think you’ll still make your deadline … If you want to enough …
Have you seen those programs on telly where money experts help people pay off their mortgages and save, at any cost …?
Sell their houses … Move to much smaller ones … Sell ’stuff’ … scrimp and save …
And you never know what is around the corner … sorry if I sound trite … :- )
But in the end, if you want to be somewhere, you just have to jump … into the unknown …
March 20th, 2009 at 11:58 am
Les, that really would be dead shame if your dream would remain just that. You have been working towards this for a considerable period of time. I can totally understand your feelings (summarised concisely in tags), and hope something can be sorted out.
May I be so bold as to suggest to also write about this on your Island Blogging page (View from the Helm)? Entirely up to you, of course.
Very sorry,
Guido
March 20th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Soaplady - I appreciate that you are trying to be supportive, and I thank you deeply for that. Nothing that follows is personal (so don’t take it so!) it’s just an observation of how those who now control our society no longer care about ‘us’ whilst many of those being controlled just cannot see it.
Today’s world was created by Margaret Thatcher’s ‘Me’ doctrine where the only thing that counts is making money as an individual. If that means taking down others less able or less fortunate then so be it. The only criteria for ’success’ nowadays is having more money than someone else. It doesn’t matter what, or who, you destroy in the process, it’s what ends up in your bank account that is the be all and end all.
You must stop believing anything you see on the news or read in the papers! The Wedgwood story is more complicated that is generally known and a perfectly feasible offer backed by Wedgwood family members to take back control of the company, to continue manufacture just up the road from us and to keep all staff, was thrown out in favour of a deal which sees an American investment company buy the name, close it down and sell off the assets. The government could have (and should have) stepped in - this time at no cost to the taxpayer - and ensured that the company survived. But they won’t, just as they haven’t in the past year and will not in the future, do anything to help British companies survive to maintain British jobs. Wedgwood is one British company big enough to make the news but there are hundreds more that you will never know about.
As to blaming those who write the contracts, yes, I agree but who do you think writes those contracts? The Goodwins of this world (including the thousands like him who escape the radar) write their own contracts. They have no interest other than their own greed. You didn’t think the old boys network had gone did you?
TV programmes are just entertainment. Nothing is real. What they show you is manipulated and fake. Last night we went out for a carvery meal and spent £8.60! - the first time we have gone out for a meal in over a year. I have already sold almost everything I collected when I was young - things that were dear to me and which can never be replaced. Everything we have that does not have a practical use has been, or will be, sold. We’ve been doing all these things for several years now but it is still not enough without a full income for at least another year. The magic solutions don’t exist.
Anyway, enough. We haven’t given up hope - hope lingers on. We will come knocking on your door one day! Let’s just hope that it’s not just a farewell visit on our way to the Swiss clinic!
Thanks Guido as well by the way.
March 20th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
I was just trying to take a bit of strain off you by trying to stop you raging against things that you have no control over, that’s all …!
What I meant, about Wedgewoods, and *any* floated Company, is when they *first* allow shareholders in, they give up control …
Yes, I know about the old boys network … But as long as we keep kidding ourselves we live in a ‘democracy’, these things will always happen … and what’s the alternative to a ‘democracy’ …?
I almost raged myself into an early grave until about ten years ago … I’m not sure that my solution of ‘leaving everybody to it’ is laudable, or even something to aspire to …
But what is the alternative …? once you realise that ‘Changing it’ really isn’t much of one …
At least ‘leaving them to it’ lets me live my life, as well as I can …
Fare ye well :- )
March 20th, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Did you know that is our house in your picture? The lighthouse at Tiumpanhead is where we live and run a kennels and cattery on the Isle of Lewis.
March 20th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Definitely something to aspire to! You don’t even have to watch the destruction or even care. The alternative is to change ‘them’ but to do that you have to become one of them and if you do that you have already admitted defeat.
There is only one answer … and you have done it!
March 20th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
So you live at Callanish, Jenny? (You have to catch the picture just right as it changes each time!). Didn’t mean to come peeping, I thought it was still a lighthouse! The photo was taken in 2005, was it your home then?
March 21st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Hi Les
I agree with soaplady to the greater extent, but i think you are still too sore, i.e. the wound is too fresh and painful to go poking around in it too see how bad it is, when will it heal..etc - therefore i will not ask you ‘not to worry’ or ‘to calm down or else you just hurt yourself more’.
Only time will help this one, and ‘how long’ is different for everyone - i can tell from your writings that you will be one of the quicker ones. That wont change or lessen the things that have happened, of course , and there will always be those kind of people living in a money driven, materialistic, selfish lifestyle…but i think they are (very slowly) diminishing and that those of us who have ’seen the light’ are growing in numbers. You are now in (virtual)contact with a (real) community composed mostly of the latter.
Soaplady has already demonstrated that people are immediately ready to support you, instead of dismissing you as a casualty and just looking out for themselves. If it wasn’t soaplady, i have no doubt others would rally for you.
Good luck with plan B.
P.S. can i say to soaplady?..
From someone who fought by ‘raging against it..’ (which as you now know only makes it worse), you have clearly come a long way to become someone with empathy and good therapy skills. Thanks for supporting Les
March 23rd, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Thanks for brightening my day, Isles Pictures …! A few kind words always go a long way … :- )
I still have my moments, you know … you *really* wouldn’t like me when I’m angry, which I still do get, from time to time …
But not as much as I used to, and some credit for that must also go to the many buddhists I’ve met, my tutor on the island, as well as those who’ve influenced me outside it …
oh yes, and all the hours snatched greedily from other places and spent in silent meditation, too …
March 26th, 2009 at 10:17 am
Les, sorry to hear about your change in circumstances, and the potential impact on your plans. I too had a big hurdle places squarely in my way regarding my move to Lewis, but it was only just before the move, and only lasted a month…..it is hard to keep momentum and hope up when your wait for the outcome will be so much longer
I am a great believer in fate, it sounds very trite to say “this has happened for a reason” - but it probably has. I see from reading that you and Sandy have been planning hard and carefully. You are trying to make sure you cover all bases….maybe it’s time to start thinking a little more about taking a chance…..please feel free to tell me to mind my own business and stop being naive xx
March 26th, 2009 at 10:30 am
http://viewfromtheisland.wordpress.com/page/9/
Not sure if you read this blog….don’t think it’s an IB one, but going back to the beginning of this one inspired me
March 26th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Thanks for your comments Sarah. I have a feeling that, when the time comes, we will just go even if it is not financially sensible to do so! I do follow View From The Island and a few others to keep the inspiration going.