The power shift.The extremely wealthy will go on purchasing from the very best shops, otherwise no one would know that they were the very wealthy. The yuppies, with their champagne glass, before taking the tube home, I suspect will be searching the ‘situations vacant’ columns in the press. The middle class, and the lower-middle-class, with their two cars, their two jobs and two children, will struggle on in the way they do, but with fewer frills. The very poor will still be so. So this leaves the wrinklies, some with their pensions, their savings depleted, will be the last bastions supporting the British economy. This has been obvious for some time, especially in the supermarkets, where those in work are filling the aisles at the weekend, but for the rest of the week it is the elderly who are doing the shopping, buying a coffee and a bun at 11 o’clock, and in many cases cooking the food, rather than taking packets home,
Irresponsibility. One aspect of the credit crunch, has been that everybody seems to be aware of where the responsibility lies for the situation we are in, the civil service departments and those in the government, that control financial transactions. What I find not only surprising, but unacceptable, is that no one seems to be taking the blame, no one has been reprimanded, when in my view the situation has been obvious to many of us all, and written about for over two years.
The sea, sailing, and water taxis in the credit crunch. Having sailed to and from Africa in the 20s, and then served aboard a warship, I have always had a notion that I would like to have a small sailing boat. At one time I actually bought the plans to construct a sixteen foot amateur racing yacht which I was going to build in an extended garage. The problem was that the family wouldn’t sail with me, so it all came to nothing. We now live at the seaside, where once there was a harbour and a beautiful view of the Irish Sea, but in their wisdom the council decided to close off the harbour, build a huge revetment and install a large marina where the harbour had been. The other day Sophie and I went for a walk in this area, and the number, variety and cost of the boats tied up there was astounding. We had many Millions of pounds worth of toys floating in front of us. I think the proportion of sailboats to motor- boats was about even. I, of course, was mainly interested in the sailboats, but remembered a holiday I had had in the South of France, where a Frenchman kindly offered me a sail in his motorboat. Apart from the problem of getting it away from the mooring, the rest was just like driving a car on an airfield, with about as much skill and interest. I find it unsurprising that people in the first flush of enthusiasm, often do not wish to take the time and want to face all the difficulties of controlling a yacht in rough water and high winds, when the yacht becomes really interesting and is in its own element. Instead they buy a motorboat, a water taxi, at great expense, and within a year or so rarely go out in it, and try to forget about the annual costs. It is my experience of looking at boat yards all my life, that people tie up money in a boat, with every intention of using it, but there is always some reason for doing something else. I believe the credit crunch will affect the boating industry more than any, which is a shame, because it has taken decades to arrive where it is today.