You don't need to be a sociologist to know that people don't talk to each other as much, or know each other as well, as they used to. I remember my Grandmother's house in South East London in the early 1960s. It was a hub of activity for the extended family, many of whom lived in the surrounding streets. For a child Christmases were magical: a knees-up around the piano, not a TV is sight, dozens of people in the house.
Ten years later that had all changed. The family had dispersed not only to different parts of London but also to other parts of the country (and other countries). We never got together in quite the same way again.
This sense of separation and isolation in our communities is almost tangible: look at the 9' fences which are built between the tiny gardens in new housing estates, for example.
Perhaps people want to keep themselves to themselves: maybe that's partly why the (and my) extended family broke down. But it seems that there are real benefits to getting people engaged in thinking about their community. See this interesting speech, by 'Minister of Communities’ (you all knew that we had one of those, didn’t you?) David Milliband for more on that subject. If you agree – or disagree – with what he had to say, feel free to post a comment below. (One of my goals for this week is to see if we can persuade Mr Milliband to come down and have a chat with us, down here in deepest Berkshire.)
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This blog is being used by the Thatcham Vision team to publish news about the project , links to developments which are relevant to the topic areas covered by the emerging action plan and notes on issues and ideas related to the development and implementation of the Vision.
