Mum's Monday: The Road to Wigan Pier - by George Orwell

Wigan pier – does it exist?

That is a good question and George Orwell in his book ‘Road to Wigan Pier’ explains how you may answer this question. It seems from this book that you can make your own mind up and it I think it depends on how you look at life.

The book explains life in Wigan how it was a Coal industry town, most of the resident men working down the mines. Even though these hard working men were walking to work going down the mines, then making their way to the seams of coal that could be anything up to 3 miles away from the pit shaft, working an 8-hour shift, and then walking the same route back, these men still lived in poverty. Having no baths and only having a strip wash in the evening, only to go back to the mine again the next day and carry out the same job the next day and the next. Despite that, these to me seem like proud working men. Although they are earning a wage of £2 a week they still have to pay for their work equipment and other usual stoppages, and then pay their rent, whether it be a shared room or a small 2-bedroom terraced house with their families and all other household/living expenses. It was their life and they got on with it; they accepted their lot.

The first part of the book was interesting to read about life in Wigan and where George Orwell stayed and interactions with the people living and working there. The second half of the book talked more about Socialism, but did start to ramble a bit, however, I feel there is a deeper meaning which kept me reading.

The living wage - are people chasing something that doesn’t exist? By 2020 the minimum wage will be £9 an hour but by then people may say they need £10 an hour to live on or more (I’m not saying I’m not guilty of saying I would like more who isn’t?) now we have more technology developing all the time with more advanced products so the more expensive they become and people wanting all the latest products which sometimes leads to temptation. Back when the book was written they didn’t have big screen smart TVs, mobile phones, computers, cars and holidays abroad available. All of this for some people is essential to be included in what is now perceived as the cost of living and therefore the money they earn is never enough. With loans and credit available it is easier to get what you want, but to also get into debt which further strains on the household budget/living wage, which then creates the vicious circle of them complaining they don’t have enough to live on.

For me the living wage does exist, we live a modest lifestyle and we save for what we want to make it work and if we didn’t then we wouldn’t have been able to go to Wigan and start looking for the pier.   

The second part of the book talks about socialism, which public ownership of companies, industry and transport. I think being owned by the public is a good idea in principal as people will want to take pride in their work and want to make the system work. My concern would be that although people can choose their own acceptable working conditions within the law, the system has to make money and keep people in work, although temptation may get the better of them so may run the risk of swapping to capitalism again if standards of work start to fall.  

I think Road to Wigan Pier is another way of saying road to a living wage. I think it is clever to use Wigan Pier as a metaphor and now people can make their own mind up.