Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass

36 Pages·2017·0.39 MB·English

by  Darren McGarvey

DARREN MCGARVEY aka LOKI grew up in Pollok. He is a writer, performer,
columnist and former rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland’s Violence
Reduction Unit. He has presented eight programmes for BBC Scotland exploring
the root causes of anti-social behaviour and social deprivation.
Liaison Cooardinator
efturryd geenuz iz speel
iboot whut wuz right
nwhut wuz rang
boot this nthat
nthi nix thing a sayzti thi bloke
nwhut izzit yi caw
yir joab jimmy am a liason co-ordinator
hi sayz oh good ah sayz
a liason co-ordinator jist whut this erria needs
whut way aw thi unimploymint
inaw thi bevvyin
nthi boayz runnin amock
nthi hoossyz fawnty bits
nthi wummin n tranquilisers
it last thiv sent uz
a liason co-ordinator sumdy wia digree
in fuck knows whut
getn peyd fur no known
whut thi fuck ti day way it Tom Leonard
Poverty Safari
Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass

DARREN M GARVEY
C
This book is dedicated to my beautiful and fragile siblings, Sarah Louise, Paul,
Lauren and Stephen. Encoded in this book is everything I’ve learned about life
in 33 years. I’m sorry for the times I wasn’t around and for any time you’ve felt
let down by me or anybody else. I love you and look forward to the day we can
sit around a table again as a family.
PS: Don’t do drugs.
First published 2017
ISBN: 978-1-912147-03-8
eISBN: 978-1-912387-01-4
The author’s right to be identified as author of this book
under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.
© Darren McGarvey 2017
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
Introduction
1: Crime and Punishment
2: A History of Violence
3: The Call of the Wild
4: Gentlemen of the West
5: The Trial
6: No Mean City
7: Nineteen Eighty-Four
8: A Question of Loyalties
9: On the Road
10: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
11: A Tale of Two Cities
12: Wuthering Heights
13: The Outsiders
14: The Trick is to Keep Breathing
15: The Cutting Room
16: Great Expectations
17: Children of the Dead End
18: The Stranger
19: Tales From the Mall
20: A Disaffection
21: Garnethill
22: The Way We Live Now
23: Housekeeping
24: Waiting for the Barbarians
25: The Naked Ape
26: The Sound and the Fury
27: Frankenstein
28: Trainspotting
29: The Moral Landscape
30: The Metamorphosis
31: The Changeling
32: Rules For Radicals
Acknowledgements
If not for the kindness, patience and good faith of others, not least the support
and encouragement of my partner, Rebecca, this book would have been
impossible to complete. The final push required me to take a couple of weeks
away from home, leaving her with much to deal with at a time of considerable
upheaval in our lives. Thankfully we have a lot of support, particularly from
Linda and Edward Wallace, her loving parents, as well as the rest of her family,
who are a source of constant support. I don’t know what we would do without
you. Thank you for your kindness and your example. I also thank Auntie Rosie
and my sister Sarah Louise, who are the glue that holds our family together; and
Uncle Thomas, for always being there with the heavy lifting. Thank you all for
teaching me how to be useful, as well as opinionated. Your support never goes
unnoticed.
To my close friends, who I don’t see as often as I would like – I always write
with you in mind. Once we clear the wreckage of our 20s, we’ll hopefully find
new ways to be with each other without Lady Carnage looking over our
shoulder.
Acknowledgement must go to David Burnett aka Big Div, the first person to
recognise and nurture my talents when I was a wayward young person; Hip Hop
has given me the opportunity to live an extraordinary life and much of what I
have achieved can be traced back to those early days in Ferguslie Park. Thanks
also to Sace Lockhart and David ‘Defy’ Roberts, for being the big brothers I
never had and for supporting me throughout my life.
Special thanks to Gavin at Luath Press for trusting my vision and for being
intuitive to my needs as a budding (I want to say young) author. Also to Jennie
Renton for her input towards the end of the editorial process (I wince at the
thought of what I was prepared to release prior to her involvement), and to
Hilary Bell, who was a great support at the outset when I had no clue what I was
doing.
Many thanks also to Neu! Reekie! for being one of the few safe spaces
currently open to me in the Scottish cultural landscape. Much of what ended up
in this book came from explorations I was encouraged to embark on at Neu!
Reekie! events – it’s nice when people introduce you without apologising for
you in advance. Thanks are also due to the editors, directors, journos,
professionals and mentors whose support, guidance and constructive criticism
have been fundamental in the progression of my writing, in particular, Mike
Small, Paul McNamee, Claire Stewart, Stephen Daisley and Karyn, Graham and
June at the VRU. I also wish to thank my college lecturers, Kathleen, Felicity,
Karen, Mary and Charles, for teaching me the difference between opinion and
journalism, and my long-suffering classmates, especially Cat, Conor and Anna-
Roisin, who got me through the course after a bad relapse into drinking.
I feel grateful to the Scottish writers and performers, professional or otherwise,
who have been a source of inspiration and support to me, in different ways, and
in particular, Tom Leonard. Deep thanks are due for his encouragement, wisdom
and sincerity – and for reminding me exactly what I’m up against as an aspiring
writer from Pollok. I also thank him for giving permission for me to include his
poem ‘Liaison Coordinator’, originally published in Ghostie Men.
A tip of the cap to the Poverty Truth Commission, class of 2009 – the original
and best. Our time together fundamentally changed the direction of my thinking
and, thus, of my life. I hope I’ve written a book that reflects our hopes, fears,
dilemmas and contradictions. Special thanks to Paul Chapman for his
thoughtfulness and compassion; when people ask me if I am a man of faith, I
still say the same thing: ‘Do I really have a choice?’ On that note, thank you to
my sponsor, James, for showing me a new way to live. None of this would be
possible without sobriety.
This book was also made possible thanks to the donations of 228 people,
whose support me through a crowdfunded appeal allowed me to focus on writing
for a year, knowing that my family would not be adversely affected and,
crucially, that I did not have to justify myself to anyone. I am grateful to all of
you for affording me the time and space to write Poverty Safari – your support
has been a point of light in moments when my confidence has dimmed, allowing
me to find my way through a thick wood of self-doubt while embarking on my
first year of fatherhood – my son, Daniel, being the greatest gift of all.
Finally, thank you to my father, who always believed I could be a writer. You
might be right. X
Darren McGarvey, July 2017