Lune Industrial Estate #9: Tomorrow's Industry

One of those days outside that you tend to get around this time of year, where the sky's bright, the temperature's mild, the sun's peeking through the clouds, and you start to think that spring's only a hop, skip and a jump away. It's then usually followed by another two months of rain, cold and darkness, so worth making the most of.

So far in my quay-based blips, I've focused on the unused, derelict and decaying buildings on the industrial estate. However, among the crumbling walls, piles of rubble and rows of smashed windows, there are still some businesses up and running. Here and there you can see a snoozing security guard, or a couple of blokes in overalls on a fag break. The silence is occasionally punctured by the grinding of machinery, and at one point this afternoon, by the barks of a ludicrously small but nonetheless aggressive guard-terrier which decided to repeatedly throw itself at the fence as I took my shots.

Somehow, the fact that there's still activity going on here makes it more eerie, not less. I remember from my days working on an industrial estate how desolate the place could feel at the quieter times of day; I wonder what it's like for the few workers left in buildings like this, and what they reckon the future holds.

Cue Dropkick Murphys.

Young kids in Catholic schools
Elderly parents living under your roof
You pay the bills and you pay the price
You don't back down and you won't play nice
The disgraced values of the company man
Are why you fight and sacrifice
Don't bend or break for their one-way rules
Or run from battles you know you'll lose

Greed is blinding you
But we can see
He's got yesterday's values
Living in tomorrow's industry

They see your eyes, they see your face
But it's your soul they wanna take
Yeah, welcome to the future it don't seem fair
But this is your struggle, the cross you bear
They know you're paying, they don't think twice
There's a dollar value on your life
You don't compromise and you don't break
Yeah, it's your principles at stake

Greed is blinding you
But we can see
He's got yesterday's values
Living in tomorrow's industry

The daily outlook it's so bleak
Saving every dollar of every week
Living month to month, you've got to get ahead
But all the while falling deeper in debt

Greed is blinding you
But we can see
He's got yesterday's values
Living in tomorrow's industry

The weight falls hard on the stand up guy
The one you can count on you can rely
This is your future it don't seem right
But this is your battle, this is your fight
Something in this country has got to change
If we're ever gonna see those days again
Your parents may have done it with just one job
But now we're working for less, and twice as hard.