It’s A Wonderful Life – living in Osborneville.

Yeh, I know, it’s that time of year when they show old films and wheel
out stories about the Angel of Mons, and of our boys in the trenches singing Kristlenacht with the Huns and kicking a ball about no man’s land. Or that old Capra favourite It’s A Wonderful Life in which George Bailey (Henry Ford) wishes he’d never been born. I’m from Clydebank, so I know how he feels. One of the key scenes which establishes George Bailey’s creditability is when he uses the
money set aside for his long awaited honeymoon to bail out the Savings and
Loan. George is down to his last dollar. He holds it up in the air, kisses it
and whoops as they shut the door to bankruptcy, him being charged with a
criminal offence and going to jail, but most of all he whoops at not being duped
into buying into Old Man Potter’s vision of a town dominated by a man with the
most money, a plutocrat who isn’t scared to use any means to get what he wants.
As George explained when people were busting the door down to take out their
money from the Saving and Loan, it’s not here. ‘You’re money Mary is in Bert’s
house and Bert your money is in—’ well, we know how he saved the day.

Clarence the angel showed George what would have happened if he
hadn’t be born. This was Second World War American angst. Troops would come
home. They’d work hard all their life, but no matter what they did men like
Potter were always was one step ahead, and all the money and power went to these
pre-war profiteers.

The houses Potter built compared to the houses the Savings and
Loan built were in English estate agent language: spacious detached
residencies, rent or buy, reasonable terms. No Angels allowed. Jesus where to I
sign the lease? For of course, this is heaven, a time when Reagan played second
fiddle to and picked up a few tricks from Bonzo, which he used later to great
effect. We don’t, of course, live in Pottersville, we live in Osborneville. We
never had it so good. If you believe that you’ll believe an angel will come to
save us. I vote for Bonzo. Where’s a monkey when you need him?     

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