A tale of two Kensingtons: London and Liverpool... and the 2015 election's inequality gap
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 เม.ย. 2015
- Anywhere but Westminster | A tale of two Kensingtons: London and Liverpool
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Kensington, one of the poorest parts of Liverpool, fears three more years of Tory austerity and the closure of its Sure Start centre. Its namesake in London could be hit by Labour's mansion tax and its abolition of non-dom tax status. John Harris starts his 2015 general election campaign road-trip by taking the temperature in two wildly different parts of Britain.
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I feel for the retired chap in his large house that he bought 50 years ago, but I feel more for the people scraping along in Liverpool. He has infinitely more options than they do; remortgage to release equity, sell up and move to a nice house in the country or no doubt even if the mansion tax does come in there will quickly be a nice little fiddle to avoid most of it.
Matthew Moss Surely if there is a way to avoid most of it then there is no point bringing the tax in?
Average salary in kensington liverpool is no where near £25k if they earn't they wouldn't live there.
flake452 yeah, I’m wondering if that’s for a household?
most likely a house hold.
Lol probably, I live in Kensington, some weeks I can't even get 20 hours work
And who can afford beyond a room in a house for 69k in Kensington London?
I lived in Kensington Liverpool a couple of years ago.. moved out when I finished university.. Miss it so much, it was such a community...people looked out for each other
Please fact check. The average wage in Kensington Liverpool in 2015 was likely £12.000 not £25.000. Min wage roughly £1k per month.
Resilience Of A Gypsy I’m glad you posted , I was about to move to Liverpool hoping for 25k !
@@thornbird6768 You'll live like a king here on 25k 😂
If it’s minimum wage the it’s not going to be the average is it.
@@danieloliver4558i didnt say the average was min wage i said the infirmation in the video was incorrect. not everyone is on min wage, the average person in kensington liverpool is. It is largely 0 hour contracts for nat min wage.
@@resilienceofagypsy3998 It's not going to be everyone. I think you're just trying to make the situation seem worse than it is
The poor old sod sitting in his £3 Million house thinks Postmen And van drivers still live in his street.
Jimmy Myers Did they ever live there on the same street? They don't need a bedroom tax. Are they gay? Confused me when he said it was to start a family.
Jimmy Myers He’s not a poor old sod, he has options unlike the truly poor.
Yeah, I get that he is emotionally attached to that house, and that he bought it to live in rather than as an investment, but the fact is that it’s a goldmine and he’s sitting on it while people suffer. It doesn’t matter that he’s let it be a pigsty with no central heating until five years ago. It’s still an expensive asset.
He can pay tax on it, or else he can sell it to someone who’ll do it up and possibly make a lot of rent out of it (while paying the tax), and use the money to move into a very nice, smaller place. At his age, it might even make sense to direct the money towards care in a fancy nursing home. We poor people don’t get to own homes at all, and get moved around at landlords’ whims many times in a lifetime!
Correctrix It’s his property with which he can do what he likes.
@@BossySwan Sure, as long as he pays his taxes.
Superb short report - many thanks!
Liverpool City Council pay their Community Services Director £450,117 pa, an unelected official. The current Lord Mayor was voted a very nice pay rise upon entering office. The austerity policy has forced the Council to take some drastic measures, but, seemingly not in their salaries. The official engineering the cuts is earning nearly half a million a year, the irony is unbelievable. The Council could have showm a little solidarity with the ppl who voted them into power, & cut salalries. How much does the Prime Minister receive for being in charge of the country? How can LCC justify paying such high salaries, especially in these times.
Bad Snaxx CEO of a company that employs many less people than Liverpool council make millions
tortozza So? What CEO's & what companies? Companies that are making a profit, profits that run into millions, even billions. CEO's that salaries are linked to those profits. LCC is not a profit making organisation, & it's employees are public servants. Salaries are taken from the money they are given by the Govt to run the city. The Community Services Director is not a CEO, he is not in charge of the City Council, or a profit making organisation.
tortozza So? that's your problem. But well said, Sir. I hope you do. It will split the Tory vote nicely & give Miiliband a much easier ride into No.10. LMFAO.
Austerity isn't aimed at directors or mayors, for wealthy vultures it's business as usual, exactly how conservatives intend, it's Britains hard workers who pay for the mistakes of wealthy bankers... and the lifestyles of other wealthy parasites.
I grew up in Kensington in the 1960's. It is so sad to see the decline of this once great suburb
Kensington Liverpool still nicer than Kensington Philadelphia 💯
She said "London has turned into Monaco". How hard she must have it. Kensington Liverpool has turned into Baghdad.
God, this is shocking.....A tale of 2 countries.....this will blow up one day.
Prophetic... You were right... Unfortunately...
Should parliament move to a different city every 30 or 40 years? Would this give each part of the country the same chance as London?
An interesting idea, or maybe even every 20 years, or possibly a regional parliament in the different parts of England (in the same way that Northern Ireland has Stormont, and Scotland and Wales both have their own national parliaments).
@@simonyip5978 By moving the centre of power to a different part of the country all of the economic drivers that have made London so prosperous would migrate as well. Having regional assemblies would be better than the current situation but would not eliminate the regional inequality that exists now.
@@dave161256 A lot of London's wealth concentration is more to do with finance than the government, and believe me a lot of us Londoners would like it gone too as it's meant massive price & rent inflation, while most of us aren't actually paid much more than the rest of the country (the "average" wage number is massively inflated by the super-rich who do live here, but most here are pretty underpaid).
This country needs some proper devolution - give regional & local authorities more power to run their own communities, take those powers away from Westminster.
superb reporting .
I like you programs very much, and think that they show reality. Thank you very much
As an American, I can honestly say that the underserved cities and neighborhoods in England look gorgeous in comparison to American cities. See Baltimore, MD.
Juarez Lee-Shelton yea but... Birmingham
There are a lot of very rundown and dangerous places in most British towns and cities.
The row houses in Baltimore and Philadelphia also exist in much of the UK and the local authority owned housing estates are similar to the projects in the USA.
There are some beautiful rural villages, market towns, suburbs etc, but there are a lot of places that have mass unemployment, street crime, drug problems, disfunctional families, abandoned houses and factories etc.
Only a couple of minutes drive from Kensington, Liverpool are Childwall and Woolton, two of the north west’s most affluent areas. Liverpool always gets painted as rough, it is in some areas, but some are affluent and desirable.
and Grenfell Tower was in North Kensington
It's 4 years since this documentary was made and Tories still making drastic cuts with Austerity not going anywhere. Get the Tories gone - for ever.
Tories are clearing up Labour’s mess. Happens every time.
Twiglet, please elaborate because the arguments could go round in circles. What mess? Parliament? The fact that all parties are out for their own gain? But give me the core moral values of Labour over the tories any day!
D L Look at how Labour pissed a huge surplus the inherited in the 90s/early 2000s up the wall during the 2000s. Had they not been needlessly borrowing so much in 2007 we would not have needed austerity as the public finances would have better weathered the financial crisis. Add to that Mid Staffs, anti semitism, an inept and incompetent leader, no credibly costed policies, internecine divides within the party, the Iraq War lies and you wonder why I dislike the Labour Party!
I dislike all but I do not like to see austerity. It is not needed. We could find other ways. This 'they did that, but they did this' mentality/game we all have and Westminster have us playing gets us nowhere.
D L How else do we reduce borrowing apart from implementing sensible reductions in public spending? Hopefully you’re not proposing more borrowing and more debt?!
It’s the international investments from Oil Rich Countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Wealthy Chinese investors, who have purchased many very expensive properties in central London, some properties are around over £100 million.
So that rich couple of fellows had spoken up and backed those who were fighting against the abhorrent bedroom tax, maybe they would have gained some respect when they speak of ''having to leave their homes, in which they planned to retire and had lived in for years''.
They, I'm sure didn't though. They probably supported it. Can't have it both ways? Unfortunately in today's Britain you certainly can, as exemplified in this short film.
Crouchy232323 I suppose you could argue that there's a lot of downsizing you could do (like the rest of us could only dream). Then again, you get taxed on what you have as soon as you get three million. Still, what's left could pay for a lot of rent, or they might consider Swiss banks and a tax haven. There is also that sense of, why should you change where you live? It can be an accident of birth, but it sort of makes sense to live where you have been born into, or for a long time.
Im from Liverpool 6.. Elm Vale. it was an affluent area up in-till 80s... I don't recognise it now, run down and in need of investment. imagine living in Juges Drive... great vid.
@00:40 that place turned out to be a coffee shop and later got raided
Ed is best and I have voted Labour because do not want snobbish tories to keep running the country.
hahahahahahahaha wtf hahaha gobshite try living in kenny
Lol
0:03 Wow.
Mary Ann Sieghart did an excellent Newsnight feature on Kensington, London. Watch it.
is the salary one or two persons?
Their Hero ,Millydweede , has spent more time in Israel than Liverpool .
"London's turned into Monaco." That's what I've been saying for the last 5 years.
With a lot more murders.
@@MisAnnThorpe Excetly. It's a lose-lose situation. I'm getting out before it sinks. Cheerio!
@@bluceree7312 You sound very wise indeed.
@@MisAnnThorpeyep with bad weather and much worse crime Monaco has almost no crime for it's size!
An average wage of £25k in Kensington, Liverpool actually sounds alright to me. Okay, if you've got a family and your partner isn't working then yes, life will be a bit of a struggle but as an average wage in what is supposed to be a poor area, £25k as a stand alone wage is probably only just under the national average.
26k is the average wage for the uk, however I do doubt that people in that area would be able to earn that amount of money. Manchester is where all the jobs north west way which could pay you that type of money
Average wage for Liverpool was something like 21,000 at the time of the article, journo lazily used the national average. I would be surprised if the average income of a Kansington resident was above 13k even now.
Betsy Rocks er
Kensington isn't even scouse anymore, it's changed a lot since this video
Even here is alot of poor immigrant groups about half the women interviewed probably what 80% plus poor immigrants now I bet.
And the centre did indeed close...
No wonder that the Gini coefficient is so low in Britain when you claim the poorest areas in Liverpool make £25k... Good on you Britain - no income inequality here -just two Britains, much like two Americas.
Don't forget New Labour didn't do a thing for Liverpool between 1997-2010. 13 years and not a fig! So don't blame Tories for inner city Liverpool decay.
london should be an independent state, its economic dynamics and needs are vastly disparate than the north of England
how so?
Do you mean like when Singapore broke away from Malaysia?
how much monthly salary British politicians can get ..
I know the salary about mayor of Brentwood city nearby Oakland ,California...that mayor only can get 1400 usd a month,,less than 1000 gbp...
KENNNNNNNYYYYYY LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!
I don't understand the London/Monaco comparison?
They are both Tax Havens
@@PatrickJMcF I see thank you
Now we should compare Newham & Peckham with Calderstones in Liverpool. Kensington is 1 of best areas in London and the worst area of Liverpool.
I was born in Hampstead Garden Suburb and grew-up in Tuebrook so I know both Kensingtons very well and I have experienced both extremes
also Kensington in London is not so Tory anymore
Kensington is more lib dem now due to brexit but they are natural Tories mostly.
What North/South divide...🙄
Watching this in 2017 now they went Labour lol
i like kenny my car got keyed there on two separate occasions
Anywhere but Liverpool what you talking bout
Even the rich parts of Britain look like a dump. But location location location. Not a bad investment 12k -> 30m in 50 years. He earned £60.000 a year just by living in that house. More than his salary and pension I bet. But all real estate bubbles will eventually pop, better sell now while it's still worth something.
3, not 30 mil
"We're always going to get a conservative because that's just the way it is here"
Oh no it's not :D
Save Kensington, vote Joe Owens!
I do struggle to see the point of shutting sure start centres. it only kicks the can down the road. surely the tories can see some logic, even financial, in early years support? or is it just a case of razing everything labour did to the ground to make a point? it's just sad. the mansion tax was a stupid idea though. when labour picks fights like that it never looks good to anyone other than the people who're going to vote labour anyway. sort it out labour!
and both are now labour hoo-rah!
You wanted ZOG, you've got it!
Don't even put theses comments up all of them got paid turned corrupt
Justice for Grenfell!
justice for what? a washing machine fire ? it was a tragedy they always happen evry year wtf are you talking about?
There's nothing to seek justice for.
It doesn't make a difference when u do..lol
£69,000 lel
Tha is r farager the 1 now a cafe n I recognise some mums icl , shortstart in kenny was horrible as is as a kid there ,I was 6 when this video posted bu it’s gone abi better bu kenny in lvp is better more ppl get on well
The very notion that if you work hard, make smart decisions and become wealthy you are now the enemy of everyone else and should have all your money taken away from you to give to people who did nothing to earn it is just ridiculous.
Joe Schmoe 🤦♀️
No one wants to take all your money. Also, you are most definitely not smarter or more hard working than all poor people, you most certainly are luckier.
@@bluceree7312 I'm smarter and more hard working and I know this because I am no longer poor.
@@CasiodorusRex I think you are poor, morally.
@@CasiodorusRex Your modesty apparently prevented you from also adding "smugger".
Haha both areas effected by immigration arab sheikhs and other rich in one and arab(and other) refugees in the other.
i used to love liverpool ,i lived at 62 hawkins street and kensington .i miss the smell of the coal.liverpool are good people,i was an american kid who used to live there and attended bollerstreet school.i made many friends which i still remember.i used to play football at newsham park and take in an occasional game at anfield.great days indeed.its dirty and cold but it was home.but looking at the people there today i know it has changed,you never saw a black in liverpool or a muslim back then.i see diversity is poisoning my beloved england.
alejandro you've pretty clearly exposed yourself as a racist
White privilege hey 🤔
Austertiy was caused by Labour. We all know it and those mums could have coffee morning and the support of their husbands and save £millions but what we do need is many more kids.
Nothing to do with 2008 bail-out of the banks Im sure.😐
Hmm I notice in Liverpool we have our usual case of children having children then wondering why they are poor. Oh and the lady who needs to learn basic English surely the place to learn basic English is in her country of ethnic origin after all are we not always being told of massive contribution these highly skilled professional migrants make
9:17 - sorry love but not sure you’ve been here long enough to earn free stuff from the government, never mind the right to moan about it being withdrawn.
;-)
Job, property/marriage, stability, ankle biters in that order, why is it so difficult to understand.
Born and bred in Handsworth,Birmingham and lived in ‘Kenny’ Kensington,Liverpool and also lived and worked in Kensington,London due to the poxy Tories I had to get ‘on my bike’, Tebbitt style for work!