10 years ago

I apologise if I have a bit of a rant here but...10 years ago I moved with my husband to Phoenix Arizona. Arizona is the most beautiful state in the USA but it was a huge change for me as I came from a very small village 13 miles from a relatively small but fairly distinguished market town in west suffolk. What I found in Phx was eye opening - we moved into a large "master planned community" every house had electric garage doors (because security was the name of the game) and because of that we had only 3 conversations with our neighbours in the 3 3/4 years we lived there. It was a complete desert as far as community relations goes. When we came back we lived in Bath and to a certain extent the same happened - we lived in a commuter village and no one had the time for anyone. After 6 months we moved to Lancashire and things changed dramatically everyone here is outgoing and friendly and I am "Blessed" (as Zack Johnson kept saying last night on his masters victory) to live where I do now. It has the values of the village that I grew up in still, but the village I grew up in has now been taken over by communters and "trendy "people who want to live in a converted barn. The moral of this story is that this government has to protect the rural way of life because without it this country is going to die. It has to make sure that there are homes for locals in villages and it has to start protecting farms, farmers and rural people as they are the only ones left who seem to represent the "community" that those of all parties aspire to. It is time for the rural communities to show the way and for the government to respect and cherish that.