The best things In life aren't free
The first time I remember being aware that there was such a thing as politics and economics was one day in the early 1970s when I went into my local sweet shop to buy a bag of crisps and discovered that they had gone down in price from 3p to 2 and a 1/2p. I asked the bloke in the shop why and he said "it's because of the budget" which I thought must be a wonderful thing if it lowered the price of crisps. I don't know if Anthony Barber or Dennis Healey was Chancellor of The Exchequer at the time but I like to think it was the latter and that's why I became a Labour voter — forget Socialism, give me cheap crisps and I'm yours for life. I know 1/2p doesn't sound like much but you could buy two Black Jacks for that back then.
Then one Friday night sometime later my mum sent me and my sister down to the chip shop with 10p each to buy a bag of chips, only for us to discover that they had gone up to 12p for a bag so we had to go back home to get the extra 2p. Thus my dreams of a Socialist Utopia of inexpensive greasy food and snacks were dashed and I learnt that in politics and economics there's no such thing as a free lunch — or a bag of crisps — and what they give with one hand they take with the other.
Download: Money (extended version) - The Flying Lizards (mp3)
6 Comments:
If only people could maintain that childlike appreciation of self-interested politics.
Oh wait.
The mad thing is when you think about how much you first paid for a pint of beer. For me it was 80p in 1986. On Friday I paid £3.60.
20 TOKENS FOR ONE DISC!!!!
Nice, but I wonder if people remember the crisps that came unsalted and had a tiny blue bag inside in the corner that contained salt?
..forgot to add, we're talking seeing those up in Glasgow, circa early to mid-sixties and beyond.
When was the last time anybody saw Slade on a bag of crisps?
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