ABSTRACT
A child I talked to in an East End of London school remarked to me in a matter-of-fact tone, ‘My Mum says when you’ve got ten children, you can’t go nowhere.’ And indeed how can they, with all the fares and the admission prices and the cost of refreshments for twelve? In that same primary school, the only children who ever did go out were the lucky ones whose father had a job that involved a van, which he could bring home, and did, though he probably wasn’t supposed to; and on Sundays – probably breaking regulations – the whole family plus aunts, nephews, friends, and Nan, numbering sixteen or so, would pile into the van and go to Southend for the day. Is the new high price of petrol going to take away from such a child these outings he so rarely has?
