Food for thought

I have lived here in the Wisbech area now for three years. My thoughts on the town have not changed much from my immediate first impressions. Overall, I like Wisbech. It's a fine old town. It has everything you need, but here's my little rant about what could be improved:

The very first time I visited Wisbech, I asked people on the street for directions to this place and that. I had to ask nearly twenty people before I found one person who spoke English. I kid you not! I was even about to enter a shop, but was dismayed because I could not understand the signs on the window. I later discovered that they were in Polish. Being a foreigner here myself (I'm Scots!), I'm not having a go at our Eastern European friends (my wife is from the old East Germany), but the balance is surely wrong when the majority of people on the streets can't speak more than three words of English? I'm reliably informed that the local English people consider themselves too high and mighty to demean themselves by working on the land ... hence the influx of cheap labour.

I like the central market. This is something you don't get much of up north. However, on closer inspection, the town centre is dominated by banks and charity shops. Worrying, isn't it? Local businesses close down every year and more charity shops fill the void. More and more of us buy online these days and this is the result in our towns .... empty.

Wisbech is proud to promote that several costume dramas and films have been shot in it's well preserved Georgian streets (and so it should be). However, most of the streets are run down and well past their best. There seems to be a history of fires in the town. Right in the centre, there is a large building that was burned down a couple of years back and it still has not been repaired. For me and many others, this sums up Wisbech .... it's broke. Skint! No money. Dead. This is draining the soul out of the town.

My Blip today is of a mural of a butcher shop. I would much rather see a pretty mural than a decaying old building, but wouldn't it be nicer to see a real shop?

Food for thought.

Here's a song that springs to mind :-( The Corries

P.S. I'm still sick