I learned today that London Zoo was established by the Zoological Society of London in 1826. It was at first a private members club however after some public pressure it was opened to the public in 1847. Putting aside how some of you may feel about the concept of zoos, making the zoo public is surely progress. And progress surely is a good thing. It is a similar story with Regents Park where they gradually opened up areas where the public were allowed to wander. Progress. Good. Well apparently not everyone thinks that way and I am sure I am not alone in having heard some people talk of a need to regress society and, ironically, a wish to go back to a more Victorian arrangement, with no welfare state, a cosy and incestuous relationship between commerce and government with care and housing for the poor coming from well meaning philanthropists. It is of course a backward and romantic view. As it has been pointed out in recent times, whilst idealised in our minds now, for most people, their experience of life, albeit a short one, was not Downton Abbey. So it would be ludicrous to imagine a resurgence in the introduction of areas in the capital where public access would be restricted. Surely that would be going back to the first half of the 19th Century, with its smog and dust, its disease and death. But no, for we have amongst us a true Victorianophile, child of Thatcher, pawn of bankers and barons, our very own Boris Barlcay Johnsonski. The thing about legacy leaders is that they dont bother with the day to day, they just love to do things that will go down in the history books. With Boris, he does like things beginning with B. So we have Boris bikes and Boris buses and his parting gift as mayor of London, a Boris bridge. Im sure youve read about it, a garden bridge which may or may not take your fancy depending on how many bridge spotters there are. However, as you will have read this one will not be open to the public. There will be a toll apparently or maybe Free Fridays or something Marie-Antoinette generous like that. I suppose everyone will be able to look at it but building a bridge in London only for those with the money to cross it is surely a bridge too far. And so it is that, in this way and many many others, for example, the privatisation of healthcare, we are truly going back in time. And lets please all remember that if society regresses one tends to see a regression in attitudes. One might see, for example, less tolerance towards foriegners, those immigrants or a creeping reversal in the expectations with regards to gender roles, or a hardening of society, a greater worshiping of mammon (oh yes Boris we havent forgotten) and the demonisation of the poor. We might see, in addition, the emergence of socio-economic and culturally defined land areas as society becomes more divided, more tribal, more defensive, less integrated after what might be referred to as the failed experiment of multiculturalism. Now who would say that? Actually not Boris on this occasion. Of course Boris would never visit these places that his disciples call ghettos, as he would no doubt put it, its like going to the zoo....
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 17:48:14 +0000
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