In 1968 it was only those of us who kept an eye on the United States who had a glimmering of the world that lay ahead. Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock may not have been published until 1970 and Daniels Bell’s The Coming of Post-industrial Society until 1973 – but Warren Bennis had written his “Coming Death of Post-Bureaucracy” in 1966
I’ve just
looked at the latest
employment statistics for this Scottish District which tell me that by far and away the
largest source of employment in the area I was raised in - and represented
politically for 22 years - is that of ……health!!!
(and social work) - with a figure of….. 7,000 (no less than 23% of the total).
Next, perhaps surprisingly, is the retail trade (at 4,500) – with education coming in at what I find is a surprisingly low figure of 2,500. I made that 1968 prediction in a room of what was then the town’s new Further Education College – clearly having a sense of what was to be the phenomenal (and global) rise of the further and higher education industry…
Next, perhaps surprisingly, is the retail trade (at 4,500) – with education coming in at what I find is a surprisingly low figure of 2,500. I made that 1968 prediction in a room of what was then the town’s new Further Education College – clearly having a sense of what was to be the phenomenal (and global) rise of the further and higher education industry…
Only 1750
people are still working in manufacturing industry……That’s 5.8% compared with
about 70% in the 1950s. The town was selected by IBM as the location for an
industrial plant which opened in 1954 to great ceremony; grew in its heyday to
about 3000 employees – but now employs precisely zero!!! There is a fascinating
video here which starts
with that opening before suddenly cutting to the desolation on the site when it
completely closed a few years ago
“Public
administration” has its own separate category (basically the town hall and
social security office) and also has a surprisingly low statistic of 1500
people – although there are 3500 jobs in another curious category of “administrative
and support services. Significantly only two thirds of the 30,000 jobs are full-time......
I know that
these days talk of “real jobs” and “dependency” is old hat – if not politically
incorrect. But there is not a single job in the agricultural sector (the area
used to have some farms) – and electricity, gas, water and sewage have only 90
workers.
This is
simply not sustainable! The talk about “resilient towns” needs
to get louder – particularly with the frightening picture which is emerging of
the effects of automation…..
Tales of journeys around Britain have
attracted readers since at least Boswell’s Journal of a
Tour to the Hebrides (1785). The 1980s and 1990s saw that interest grow –
think Bill Brysen and Jonathan Raban (by boat) to which the most recent
addition was JD Taylor’s superb tale of a bike tour – Island
Story - whose political commentary takes us back to the writings of Cobbett’s Rural Rides. George
Borrow and George Orwell…
Writers such as Owen Hatherley have
added a new dimension which builds on the architectural writings of Ian Nairn. I
am just waiting for his New
Kind of Bleak – journeys through Urban Britain (2012) which does not,
however, include Greenock
Those interested in tracing the rise
and fall of a typical Scottish town should have a look at -
- this collection of photos
of the town in the 1960s (by a Frenchman)
- the collections here
of the municipal museum (art and photographic)
- a rather grainy black and white of the town
in 1959
- a collection of old photos here; and here
- a short video montage of the town
in the 1960s
- a drone view of the
contemporary town
