suzyj_75's review
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
This work deserves much more than 5.75 stars for the research and compelling writing alone. I've never read a book which made me feel so hopeless before, and yet it was worth persevering to the end. It gives voice to those experiencing economic disadvantage and social disenfranchisement, shames those exploiting and terrorising people and examines how social and economic policies have brought this about. I felt as though I was reading a Jack London expose, but it was dates from 1997. What would the 'undiscovered country' look like now, with cost of living crisis thrown in as well? Intriguing the book highlights spiritual damage as one of the results of ongoing economic disadvantage, and should come with a warning as it will change you spiritually - you will come out the other side after reading it mourning, grieving, heart broken and determined to un-do the damage created by heartless economic and social policies which have robbed the poor to pay the rich, deeming people economically worthless and redundant. We have stopped thinking of humanity in human terms and need to begin again.
"People have become objects....people have had the humanity squeezed out of them... poverty is bad for people."
"In the new world without equality, the new wealth of the rich was paid for entirely by the new poverty of the poor"
"Spiritual damage. It runs deep and into unexpected places....which saw everyone treating everyone they came across as though they were mere objects....No friendship. No trust. No care. Not for anyone and not for themselves...many of the affluent, too, have come to look upon the poor as mere objects..."
"A mainstream society that is losing its humanity is willing to create a poor country in its own image, but the destruction which sweeps through this undiscovered country then causes a new cycle of damage to the affluent"
"People have become objects....people have had the humanity squeezed out of them... poverty is bad for people."
"In the new world without equality, the new wealth of the rich was paid for entirely by the new poverty of the poor"
"Spiritual damage. It runs deep and into unexpected places....which saw everyone treating everyone they came across as though they were mere objects....No friendship. No trust. No care. Not for anyone and not for themselves...many of the affluent, too, have come to look upon the poor as mere objects..."
"A mainstream society that is losing its humanity is willing to create a poor country in its own image, but the destruction which sweeps through this undiscovered country then causes a new cycle of damage to the affluent"
hxsib786's review
5.0
Nick Davies - Dark Heart
Dark Heart should be a required reading. It describes the tales of the poorest and destitute of Britain, the hidden Britain. Showing how they face the same struggles, again and again, across the country. It begins with the boys in the forest, Jamie and Luke, who have fallen into prostitution and drugs, pushed into the care systems by broken families. This is the magic, of Davies journalistic piece, he describes first a case, and then he slowly breaks it down, analysing what are the factors that led to this tragic state affairs. With each case we learn something new and our understanding broadens about the state and factors of poverty in Britain. He shows that when benefits are cut till they barely keep people alive and job opportunities are low, it opens the floodgates of crime, drugs, and desperation.
In the end of the book, Davies asks what are the reasons for such spikes in poverty and crime. He concludes that years of government cuts to public services, to the welfare state, and education are to blame. Davies also goes on to say that after many of these cuts to welfare state were made, the richest of the country were given tax cuts, allowing for the rich to grow richer and the poor to grow poorer. He then asks what could allow for such cuts being made? It is because the poorest of this country are seen but as objects to be used, firstly by the rich, and then resultantly by themselves. They lack any hope to rise from this pit that they have thrown in to. They have been reduced simply to an economic burden, for whom there aren’t enough jobs. This growing lack of humanity, or ‘Dark Heart’ as Davies calls it is, is the sole factor that allows human lives to be reduced to statistics and spreadsheets. It allows for ideas that were once on the fringe of the political spectrum to become government policy.
**Note: this is my first writing a review in a long time, and I’ve never been particularly good at writing, so this review doesn’t really convey how great this book is, however if you all want to know anything about poverty in Britain I would recommend you start here***
Dark Heart should be a required reading. It describes the tales of the poorest and destitute of Britain, the hidden Britain. Showing how they face the same struggles, again and again, across the country. It begins with the boys in the forest, Jamie and Luke, who have fallen into prostitution and drugs, pushed into the care systems by broken families. This is the magic, of Davies journalistic piece, he describes first a case, and then he slowly breaks it down, analysing what are the factors that led to this tragic state affairs. With each case we learn something new and our understanding broadens about the state and factors of poverty in Britain. He shows that when benefits are cut till they barely keep people alive and job opportunities are low, it opens the floodgates of crime, drugs, and desperation.
In the end of the book, Davies asks what are the reasons for such spikes in poverty and crime. He concludes that years of government cuts to public services, to the welfare state, and education are to blame. Davies also goes on to say that after many of these cuts to welfare state were made, the richest of the country were given tax cuts, allowing for the rich to grow richer and the poor to grow poorer. He then asks what could allow for such cuts being made? It is because the poorest of this country are seen but as objects to be used, firstly by the rich, and then resultantly by themselves. They lack any hope to rise from this pit that they have thrown in to. They have been reduced simply to an economic burden, for whom there aren’t enough jobs. This growing lack of humanity, or ‘Dark Heart’ as Davies calls it is, is the sole factor that allows human lives to be reduced to statistics and spreadsheets. It allows for ideas that were once on the fringe of the political spectrum to become government policy.
**Note: this is my first writing a review in a long time, and I’ve never been particularly good at writing, so this review doesn’t really convey how great this book is, however if you all want to know anything about poverty in Britain I would recommend you start here***
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