[BITList] Tory councillor 'laments closure of workhouses' inmeeting about mental health services - UK Politics - UK - TheIndependent

[HUGH]

Mike,

I don't think he knows anything about what an actual, as opposed to a vaguely guessed, workhouse was, so mainly he's guilty of ignorance. For other reasons I've done a study of the Poor Laws and related, and I find that in Scotland something like the English workhouse hard labour conditions were applied to a class of beggars  in the 1700s, but it was not universal. My great grandmother died in Greenock Poorhouse in 1891, in her 90s, paying her own way through an annuity.  The place accommodated (in separate areas) alcoholics, the "insane", the poor of any age, and the "solvent" elderly in an early version of the care home.  Jane Cameron's family were working class tradesmen and foremen.

On another track, and a footnote to my last ....

One of my colleagues when I was in Denmark, 1965-67, was Trevor "Big TC" Lucey, a devout Liverpudlean.  His view of the England football team was simple and never varied - the team should consist of the Liverpool team. When it was pointed out that some of the team were Scottish, he'd shrug - "So?"  End of subject - they play for Liverpool and that's enough.

Hugh.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20140710/1256eea4/attachment.html>