Jack's English Journal

Statistics show that your accent strongly affects your chances of employment. Some accents are considered unfriendly and unintelligent compared to others. For example, someone with a Liverpudlian accent might not find it as easy to get the same job as someone from Yorkshire because one third of people find the Liverpudlian accent to be unfriendly and unintelligent. Whereas, the Yorkshire accent is considered to be warm, friendly and intelligent. Therefore, there is a higher possibility that the applicant from Yorkshire will get the job. Some people are paying to change their accents through elocution lessons because of the effect it’s having.

Parsons,

That ‘old hag’ has the comfort of concrete to sleep on. Her only way of eating before returning to her home, a street corner, is to beg. Empathy is clearly not your forte. Frankly, your article is based upon stereotypes, nostalgic rubbish and hyperbolic right wing drivel.

I am treating your article as entirely serious in my response. Although provocative, I believe your article does voice your opinion. Therefore, I would like to begin with asking if you know how people become homeless. Have you any idea how people find themselves on the street? Down on their luck with no hope but to beg for spare change from passers by in London. You think you do. ‘Their position is their own fault. Drug addicts and alcoholics. Too lazy to get up off their fannies.’ The person with the perfect life doesn’t turn to alcohol or drugs Mr Parsons, but then again, nobody has a perfect life do they? Some people hail their past as a better time, some don’t have enough money, some have family troubles, some simply don’t have family, some can’t bear to live with themselves, some have a destructive mind. Nobody has the perfect life. However, some people’s struggles are somewhat worse than others. Life, life can be a struggle in itself. In hard times people look for a way out, an escape. Drugs and alcohol are two such things; abused for an escape from a place where someone isn’t happy. They become addicted, life becomes more and more difficult. The escape can be all that one lives for, the escape from their very own being or mind. The drug, the thing that brought them down, the thing that placed them on the street, whatever it may be, is not the problem Parsons. The problem is, in fact, the difficulties that the person is going through. For whatever reason, maybe they weren’t getting enough support from others when they needed it, they turned to drink or drugs. These things are the side effect, the side effect of unhappiness, loneliness or a person going through rough times. They advance to something more than a side effect in the finality of being homeless but they only begin as that escape, the side effect. It is not their fault that they are on the street Mr Parsons, it is however, where they are now.

But you don’t have anything against homeless people do you? It’s begging that you dislike. Well, one must assume that you dislike the homeless in general because it is difficult for one to survive as a homeless person without begging. It is the thing that buys them their evening meal, possibly their only meal. It is that few coins that one might drop in the cup, or the hat, or whatever it may be, that keeps that person going. Now, you would argue, as would I, that that isn’t everyone. Correct, that isn’t everyone there are some people who use the money they gain from begging to purchase that escape that they’ve been longing for. Those drugs or that can of beer. Consider what I said earlier, those things that this type of beggar is buying is their escape. It has become an addiction but it is their way of temporarily leaving their troubles behind them. This is why there shouldn’t be homeless people because those people wouldn’t need that can of beer or those drugs if they weren’t having to sleep on a street corner every night.

The problem is not that these people are begging, the problem is that we have homeless people. People in such a financially desolate situation that they have to beg for passers by spare change. The problem is that the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor. Anyway, I won’t bore you with my political opinion.

Next time you walk past a beggar, it is your choice entirely whether you rifle through your pockets and find some spare change from that coffee earlier and drop it in their cup. Whether you do or don’t doesn’t bother me at all. What does bother me, is you slating this group of people, as a dignified journalist. Discriminating against any group of people, no matter who they are is wrong. Also, please leave out all abuse and scatological language next time you’re trying to formulate a good argument to convince people you are right. And if you weren’t trying to convince people you were right, keep the rant to yourself.

‘Beggars of Britain’ is an article written by Tony Parsons and published in Arena magazine. Considering language used like ‘shell suit’, I would estimate that the article was published in the mid to late 90’s. The article displays Parsons’ point of view about beggars in Britain.

Within the article, Parsons presents a very one sided view of begging. He says multiple negative and even abusive things about beggars. One of the points that Parsons makes is that beggars are lazy, ‘… Young beggars, who look like they could run a four minute mile if they ever made it up off their fannies.’ Although phrased rather crudely, Parsons seems to be saying that beggars wouldn’t be in their position if they weren’t so lazy. He also talks about how begging is no longer a taboo and how he wishes it still was, ‘Of all the taboos, don’t beg was the greatest of all.’ Parsons then says something rather outlandish, ‘You could sleep with your sister before you went begging.’ This is a gross exaggeration from Parsons and it only further emphasizes his dislike for begging and beggars.

Throughout the excerpt of the article that we looked at Parsons continually repeats begging, beggars and beg. Within just the first four paragraphs, Parsons repeats these words fifteen times. This sets the tone of the article as a rant; by repeating beg, begging and beggars several times he comes across as angry.

Parsons uses scatological language in his article and other abusive language rather provocatively. ‘He (his Father) would have been happier seeing us sleeping in a shoe box full of shit than he would have been begging.’ This line seems to be screaming for a reaction, it feels as though it has been designed for people to react angrily at.  He also describes a begging old woman as an ‘obese hag’, this is simply offensive/abusive and I would say that it has been used either because that is his actual opinion or because he wants a reaction.

On whether this article is completely serious or not, I would say that Tony Parsons is being somewhat serious. I think that the points that Parsons makes are his actual opinions but he has probably been excessive in order to get a reaction to his article, to provoke people to respond with anger. Arena magazine was apparently aimed at ‘black collar workers’ in the late 90’s, so it was probably the kind of magazine in which Parsons could get away with being provocative in this manner. In my opinion, the article is rather unprofessional and does not display a balanced argument. Therefore, I do consider it a rant and one that I certainly don’t agree with in any way, shape or form. Tony Parsons currently writes in The Sun and this only further convinces me that this would be his actual opinion.

If there is anything more you think I should add to this, especially the fourth paragraph, let me know.