The Poor on Poverty and Radical Gardening
Thinking Allowed
BBC
4.4 • 997 Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2011
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Gardening is the epitome of a peaceful pasttime, associated as it is with semi-somnolent suburban weekends, the sound of hedges being carefully clipped and the reassuring aroma of freshly mown grass. The notion of 'radical' gardening implies little more than a concerted attack on the mass of weeds accumulated in an herbaceous border or a garden makeover culminating in a fully decked patio. However, there is a radical history to gardening and it has been the site of protest and counterculture in Britain from the Levellers and the Diggers in the 17th century to today's so-called Guerrilla Gardeners. On today's Thinking Allowed Laurie is joined by George McKay and Tim Jordan to discuss the protest, politics and plots of the garden. Also on the programme, Tracy Shildrick on her illuminating study of the underprivileged of Teesside and why nobody describes themselves as poor. Producer: Charlie Taylor.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take some time for yourself with soothing classical music from the mindful mix, |
| 0:06.0 | the Science of Happiness Podcast. |
| 0:08.0 | For the last 20 years I've dedicated my career to exploring the science of living a happier more meaningful life and I want |
| 0:14.4 | to share that science with you. |
| 0:16.1 | And just one thing, deep calm with Michael Mosley. |
| 0:19.4 | I want to help you tap in to your hidden relaxation response system and open the door to that |
| 0:25.4 | calmer place within. Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.7 | This is a Thinking Loud Podcast from the BBC and for more details in our terms of use and |
| 0:37.0 | much, much more about Thinking aloud. |
| 0:39.5 | Go to our website at BBC.co. UK. |
| 0:43.0 | Hello, I must have been about, I suppose, 14 years old when I complained to my mother about the food we had to eat at home. |
| 0:51.0 | Why I wanted to know couldn't we have the sort of food I got when I went |
| 0:54.2 | around to my friend Jim's house in Bhutl? Why couldn't we have egg and chips? |
| 0:58.7 | Chip and his dad always had egg and chips and a big piece of buttered bread, a doorstep, and a big mugger sweet tea. |
| 1:04.6 | Why couldn't we have that? Why? |
| 1:06.8 | Well, my mother with that keen eye for social distinction, which is the principal attribute of the |
| 1:10.5 | lower middle class, quickly put me right. They only eat ech and chips |
| 1:14.8 | and bread Lawrence because they can't afford any better. They're not like us. |
| 1:18.2 | They're poor. Well that word and its resonances lies at the heart of a major Joseph Roundtree Foundation research project |
| 1:26.0 | which has been ongoing at Teesside University for the last 12 years. |
| 1:30.0 | The researchers hardly need to travel far to find subjects who would qualify as poor. |
| 1:34.6 | Teasite has some of the most impoverished areas in the whole of the UK. |
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