Twin Towns

‘REPETITION, repetition, repetition - it’s everywhere. It’s everywhere.

Newbury - twinned with Winchester, Cheltenham, Exeter, Clapham…

If it’s not Tony Blair’s tape getting jammed, it’s yet another President George Bush or a new pop act that looks and sounds like all the old pop acts.

And then there are the highs streets. Long gone are the days when you had to travel to a city centre to buy authentic urban clothing. Now, you can buy your combat pants, cargo pants and incontinence pants in any town you like.

The Guardian has seen a report by the New Economics Foundation, a body which set out to find out how the nation’s high streets have been taken over by what it called “clone town Britain”.

Of the 103 towns in England, Scotland and Wales surveyed, the foundation discovered that 43 have become clones, able to boast few local businesses and specialist outlets.

Places like Exeter, Middlesbrough and Cheltenham are now indistinguishable from one another, and from Stafford, Newport and Newbury.

And from this bland uniformity comes boredom and aggression. It’s true. Andrew Simms, the NEF policy director says these towns are nothing less than “breeding grounds for antisocial behaviour…These are soulless and soul-destroying places.”

That they are. But at least all the cloned towns now have a Boots chemist to get your Prozac from without the pharmacist relaying your drugs history to the local butcher, baker and candlestick maker…’

Posted: 6th, June 2005 | In: Uncategorized Comment | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink