Complaining caterwaulers

Winge, winge, winge, moan, moan, moan. We're a nation of complainers according to ex support worker.

In a conversation about families in hostels last summer, he said that some people make a "career out of complaining", whilst for others, and he flagged up the Bangladeshi community, complaining wasn't in their "culture", they were more than likely to leave things to stagnate in fear that a complaint might jeopardise their housing.

There is truth in this but Bangladeshi's have a long history of speaking out, as do of course native English families. In their book "The New East End" of Tower Hamlets in the 1980's, Dench, Gavron and Young argue:

"There has... been a contest for housing in which both groups feel badly treated. Bangladeshi's are over crowded and many feel that the promises made by the official points system are not honoured. Whites are hard pressed to make any case at all under current procedures and maybe inclined to subvert the system to get what they want."

Today, everyone is hard pressed to make a case, such is the crisis within housing. Molly, my Camden mum, ran out of breath. Mohammed couldn't follow his friend and go to the Camden New Journal. Not that the Camden New Journal would take a story now, so many thousands and thousands of people there are clamouring for a council flat.

The only way to make any headway is to complain. You have to make a career out of it. Billie would not be viewing those properties if she did not complain. Hannah would not have got out of the hostel had she not complained but she is in temporary now and if she ever wants stability and permanence for her children, she's going to have start all over again.

Complaining is time consuming and exhausting. You literally have to make a full time job out of it. Over and over you are told that your points are too low or that others are in greater need.

I'm shattered just thinking about it. But if I want my son to have his own space, if I want secure foundations where I can raise him, if I want affordable rent so I can work myself off benefits, well then I have to complain. I have to become a complaining caterwauler. What fun.