Charles Dickens was famous for writing about the poverty of his time. So much so that the phrase Dickensian Poverty is often used to describe severe levels of deprivation. But Dickens didn’t use poverty for entertainment, he used it as a vehicle to explore human behaviour, good and bad. He utilised the circumstances of poverty and wealth as tools to explore and exhibit the behaviour of those immersed in them. There have been many excellent books, fact and fiction that dealt with poverty in a subjective manner without being exploitative. The recent article in Lad Bible is the opposite. It is what can only be described as poverty porn. It exploits a situation in an intrusive sensationalist way to promote itself. It’s subject matter is the Clune Park estate. Beyond stating the blindingly obvious that it is in a terrible state of disrepair and the council want to demolish it, the article descends into the gutter by publishing a heart rendering letter it found from a mother to her daughter. Presumably nobody gave their permission for this intrusion, just as the feelings of the people of Clune Park and the surrounding area were not considered. The article carries the standard photos and sad looking reporter but doesn’t address the issues, doesn’t suggest any solutions, is full of the usual cliches and ultimately is self serving and disposable. While I acknowledge that Inverclyde has areas of unacceptable deprivation, and nobody is hiding from that, using the unique circumstances around Clune Park as a reflection of Inverclyde without providing any balance is lazy, inaccurate and disingenuous to the people of Port Glasgow that rightly take a great deal of pride in their town.
Ronnie Cowan MP 