Editor,
A brief recent history of the imaginary town of Cotford, county town of Cotfordshire.
After the end of WWII, manufacturing in the UK boomed. And Cotford in particular invited people from all over the world to work in its factories, brickworks and engineering plants.
These people became part of Cotford, but sadly, they were not always welcomed by people who misunderstood that other countries had different ways of doing things, and that some of the people who made their homes here looked different from others, too.
But over the next few decades, the cultures all settled in and, as a whole, benefited from each other.
Cotford flourished.
I’m not a historian, but there was a change in the UK in the 1980s that is still having a negative impact today, and far from the major utilities and infrastructures being owned by the government and local authorities, they are in the hands of private individuals who run them for profit, not to provide a service.
Housing and healthcare have been particularly badly affected, leading over time to a rise in drug addiction and homelessness, often one causing the other.
So in the 2020s, along comes a Very Rich Man. He wants to “help” Cotford, so he builds numerous flats which he lets at a reasonable rent, and sets up drug and alcohol rehab centres.
Within a few years, nobody is trying to sleep in a freezing cold shop doorway and suffering the added indignity of being urinated on.
Oh, hang on, I’ve just been told I got that last bit wrong.
In fact, the VRM simply bought a football team, provided ten men in hi-viz to remedy all the social problems of the town centre, and interviewed probably the most divisive person in the country when it comes to matters of race and immigration, and gave him a platform to once again whip up hatred of a particular demographic.
So sorry for the confusion.
Kind regards,
Cassandra Smith
Great Barford
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