Mindless optimists or completely deranged?

In the middle of the biggest recession our country has known in years the Westfield Stratford City has opened its doors - 300 Shops, 70 restaurants, three hotels, a bowling alley, the countries biggest casino and 14 screen cinema.

Now call me cynical, but doesn't this seem somewhat naive, if not down right stupid. One of the reasons we got into this mess was because of people going out and buying things and building up massive debt. This was one of the top stories on the BBC news, they chimed about how wonderful this was; how it was creating lots of jobs, how it was bringing massive benefits to one of the most deprived areas of England and how it was going to bring many flocking when the Olympics arrived.

I am not going to deny that this has brought jobs, it has rejuvenated a very run down area of Britain and, of course when the Olympics does arrive many will shop there. I believe there will be a lot of economic benefits in the short term. But having watched what has happened over the last few years I cannot see this benefiting many in the long term.

If you think about it, this building is not generating anything except revenue for a few shops and a few wealthy people. The question has to be asked has there ever been any long term benefits to opening a new shopping centre? Some would argue that people spending will mean that this will get the economy going, but it would be interesting to find out how many of those who are spending are actually spending their own money or just building up more credit.

Surely what is more important for any economy is to create jobs that are going to bring long term benefits, and are going to be long term jobs. If you go back; forty, fifty, a hundred years you would generally find that if someone went into a certain job their children would follow them; mining for example.

I cannot see this happening today. When Margaret Thatcher decided to focus on service industries rather than manufacturing she destroyed a way of life. She shut many of the coal mines and factories that were the focus for that town or village, and with this she destroyed whole communities. Now I do not believe that everything she did was bad, (she needed to do something to get our economy going), but I believe she did not think about the long term impact upon many of the communties that saw mines and steel works disappear.

What we have now is a large soulless retail outlet that only generates income for those that work there, the owners of this shopping mall and the owners of the shop. Most of the money that is generated in this place will not bring any benefits to those that live locally, it will only create more debt.

I remember talking to a friend of mine who grew up in a Nottinghamshire mining village and she said; 'the one thing she remembers from that time was the sense of community.' She said if her parents were busy one of the families in the village would take her in for tea.' Do you think the same could be said about the area around that shopping mall? Do you think this temple to mammon will generate a sense of community? And do you think this place will bring lasting benefits?

What will happen after the Olympic is gone? What is going to happen over the next few years as the government's austerity measures start to kick in? Where is the money going to come from to keep this place running? You could try and sell the benefits, but I see little, except more debt. Would it not have made more sense to invest some money in the local high street, and encourage local businesses to open up? This would have meant that the money spent in the local community would have stayed within the local community. Much of what is spent in this place will just go into the pockets of shareholders and big business.

I have listened to this government talking about creating jobs, but they have done very little to prove that they really care about helping business grow. Three quarters of all businesses in this country are small to medium size, but every week, month and year more and more regulations are piled upon business which stifles it; much of it comes form the EU. I can blame the EU for a lot of things, but unfortunately for us our civil servants and bureaucrats are only too willing to add to the regulations that come out of Brussels. If you go to other countries around Europe you will probably find, if the regulation does not bring any benefit they will ignore it.

If this or any government wants to stimulate business they have to realise that when we talk about business and jobs we are actually talking about people. It is people who benefit from jobs and thriving businesses, people and business pay tax which then pays for our welfare state and our local services. Business is the foundation which helps the state function -I know; family, the church, marriage, community, etc are the foundation of a well rounded society. But without a strong economy with strong businesses we would not be able to function as a country.

As the recession starts to bite, and more jobs are lost. I only hope that those who run our country start to realise that what they are doing isn't helping, and start to think about the people they are supposed to be serving.