Homelessness is something you expect to find in the centre of cities, not in a park in your own tranquil town.
So, it’s fair to say my gob was smacked when I read the story of Mike, who pitched a tent in Stonehaven’s Mineralwell Park for two months because he had nowhere else to go.
That’s a lifestyle few of us could imagine. How would any one of us cope if all we had for refuge was a scrap of material in a public park?
And it’s certainly not a lifestyle any of us would follow by choice, no matter what the vile former home secretary Suella Braverman might think.
It’s heartening to know that The Haven charity, with funding from Places For People in Chapelton, is supporting folk who have experienced homelessness, just like Mike. He’s now in a house and has started volunteering to pay back the kindness strangers in Stonehaven showed to him.
But there are far too many Mikes out there, and not enough Havens. It is without question that the myriad charities aiming to help people get off the streets and get their lives back are more and more like King Canute trying to turn back the waves.
Let’s go back to my opening premise that homelessness is something you expect to find in the centre of cities. Because is it really something we should expect in an affluent country in the 21st century? More to the point, is it something we should accept?
Of course it isn’t. We shouldn’t have people living chaotic lifestyles that see them sleeping in doorways on high streets. But every single city in the UK has just that – so much so that these poor souls are almost part of the street furniture now; something we hardly notice anymore.
Years of austerity and the cost-of-living crisis are pushing folk to the brink and beyond every day. But these “nobodies” are all somebody. They are somebody’s son or daughter, brother or sister, father or mother.
We should be infuriated that those politicians with their hands on the levers of power at every level of government are failing to help
These people have names and they once had dreams. And they could be any one of us – all it takes is a Sliding Doors moment.
We shouldn’t be looking the other way. We should be infuriated that those politicians with their hands on the levers of power at every level of government are failing to help, but especially at Westminster which, however you cut it, holds the purse strings.
It’s not up to charities or volunteers to fix homelessness. It’s up to politicians to use every means possible, every resource they can, to end this scourge.
They can find billions to wage wars, buy nuclear weapons, and pay their mates for dodgy PPE, so surely they can find the money to ensure everyone who lives in this country has a home to call their own.
Lobster sums up Stonehaven’s great sense of humour
I’m not a huge fan of monuments to politicians, but the latest sculpture to arrive on Stonehaven’s boardwalk gave me a wry smile.
You see, the town’s very own Banksy – the hugely talented Jim Malcolm – has created a giant lobster, inspired by the daft row over plans to open a lobster shack at the harbour.
That’s the one where a local councillor objected to the plans, including lobster tanks, on the grounds that a child might see a lobster move, get a fright, run screaming into the road and be hit by a car. Yes. Really.
Cue a raft of lobster jokes and the crustacean becoming the town’s unofficial emblem.
So, thanks, Jim for making a permanent memorial to daftness and to Stonehaven’s great sense of humour.
Scott Begbie is a journalist and editor, as well as PR and comms manager for Aberdeen Inspired
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