Bob Cratchit lives, in many towns across Britain today as Bob prepares to feed his family this Christmas. The Charles Dickens character out of Ebenezer Scrooge’s Office in Camden Town has to work till 7pm on Christmas Eve then wait to get paid before he goes shopping for food and family gifts. His wife waits patiently till he returns home that evening and is stressed to the max as to what’s happening.
Across Britain families are waiting expectantly to see if Bob makes it this year as Evian flu amongst the birds has reduced the meal options and 12% inflation has raised the cost of sprouts. Meantime Bob may well be about to lose his job as Ebenezer seeks to cut his workforce with the incoming recession 2023 as now forecast by CBI.
For some Cratchit may be forced to Scratchit , Christmas Cancellation due to lack of funds and his rising debt. Personal average debt in Britain at March 2022 was £34,320 a 5% increase from the previous year. This is slightly less than the average male salary of £38,552 in Britain today. Bob would have claimed to have been a year premature at birth and not in debt.
Charles Dickens author of these Victorian books was married in my local Church and I once lived in one of his old homes on Primrose Hill. I feel that I almost know him, so much so that in the lead up to Christmas we will meet some of his other characters who remain alive and well in Britain today. Dickens knew both London and his native England well whilst his classic style a lesson to all writers. His parables are indeed lessons in inhumanity and a joy when one meets them in real life.
Unlike Bob Cratchit many staff will not have to wait till Christmas Eve to get paid but there is no legal obligation for Employers to pay their staff before Christmas. However many Companies do yet this can cause complications in January as they wait desperately for pay day to come more like Bob Stretchit than Cratchit then. Bob doesn’t use a quill pen and ledger these days for its spreadsheet on a computer now. Long hours still prevail and working from home with the wife and kids in the kitchen a new norm. I did think we had progressed these last 175 years but little has changed. Just ask Bob in your town.
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