the condition of the working class in england (with disastrous consequences)

horsemouth is back in the great wen waiting on work. he goes to a practice with pete this afternoon then an opening with max in the evening.

preparations for the apocalypse;

• beer - 1 litre, 
• sweet potatoes - 1kg, 
• onions - 1.5 kgs, 
• rice - 2.5kgs, 
• pasta - 0.5kgs, 
• museli - 1.5 kgs, 
• coffee - 1.5 kgs, 
• red lentils (dry) - 0.5 kgs, 
• wraps - 8, 
• tvp/ quorn - 1.5 kgs. 

once upon a time (well in victorian england) fireworks used to be prepared in the home as piecework largely by children (with predictable amounts of death and disfigurement). while the poor froze to death in their hovels the rich went ice-skating in regents park despite the warning signs of the humane society (until the ice cracked and hundreds drowned). the shout of ‘fire’ in theatres regularly produced death tolls in the tens (so much so that the fire chief of london produced a book called fires in theatres). gunpowder and benzoate were transported together in large quantities by barge up the union canal (until an explosion demolished the macclesfield bridge), gunpowder was manufactured and stored in erith (until an explosion at the plant vapourised the place). and horsmouth has not yet mentioned the explosion in silvertown.

reading wendy neal's with disastrous consequences you begin to feel sorry for the fire chief (eyre shaw) and the coroner (carttar) - their names crop up rather frequently.

engels (writing in the introduction to the belated english translation of his the condition of the working class in england) was compelled to admit that conditions had improved for the workers of england - if only to facilitate a more consistent exploitation. and yet our age seems to mark a return to this piecework, health, safety and insurance free age.

in truth it never went away - the princess anne disaster is like the marchioness disaster, any number of collapsing victorian houses (and indeed fires in theatres) like grenfell.

 if task monkey did not take 30% off the top would it not just be like a village noticeboard, wouldn’t it be that there was (if not no then at least less) surplus value (all/ most of the value created by the worker going to the worker). there is a potential in the new technology to make things better (not that it is going to happen).