Darren McGarvey - Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass

DARREN MCGARVEY aka LOKI grew up in Pollok. He is a writer, performer, columnist and former rapper-in-residence at Police Scotlands Violence Reduction Unit. He has presented eight programmes for BBC Scotland exploring the root causes of anti-social behaviour and social deprivation.

efturryd geenuz iz speel
iboot whut wuz right
nwhut wuz rang
boot this nthat
nthi nix thing

a sayzti thi bloke
nwhut izzit yi caw
yir joab jimmy

am a liason co-ordinator
hi sayz oh good ah sayz
a liason co-ordinator

jist whut this erria needs
whut way aw thi unimploymint
inaw thi bevvyin
nthi boayz runnin amock
nthi hoossyz fawnty bits
nthi wummin n tranquilisers
it last thiv sent uz
a liason co-ordinator

sumdy wia digree
in fuck knows whut
getn peyd fur no known
whut thi fuck ti day way it

Tom Leonard

Poverty Safari
Understanding the Anger of Britains Underclass

DARREN M C GARVEY

This book is dedicated to my beautiful and fragile siblings, Sarah Louise, Paul, Lauren and Stephen. Encoded in this book is everything Ive learned about life in 33 years. Im sorry for the times I wasnt around and for any time youve felt let down by me or anybody else. I love you and look forward to the day we can sit around a table again as a family.

PS : Dont do drugs.

First published 2017
ISBN : 978-1-912147-03-8
eISBN: 978-1-912387-01-4

The authors right to be identified as author of this book
under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 has been asserted.

Darren McGarvey 2017

Contents

Acknowledgements

If not for the kindness, patience and good faith of others, not least the support and encouragement of my partner, Rebecca, this book would have been impossible to complete. The final push required me to take a couple of weeks away from home, leaving her with much to deal with at a time of considerable upheaval in our lives. Thankfully we have a lot of support, particularly from Linda and Edward Wallace, her loving parents, as well as the rest of her family, who are a source of constant support. I dont know what we would do without you. Thank you for your kindness and your example. I also thank Auntie Rosie and my sister Sarah Louise, who are the glue that holds our family together; and Uncle Thomas, for always being there with the heavy lifting. Thank you all for teaching me how to be useful, as well as opinionated. Your support never goes unnoticed.

To my close friends, who I dont see as often as I would like I always write with you in mind. Once we clear the wreckage of our 20s, well hopefully find new ways to be with each other without Lady Carnage looking over our shoulder.

Acknowledgement must go to David Burnett aka Big Div, the first person to recognise and nurture my talents when I was a wayward young person; Hip Hop has given me the opportunity to live an extraordinary life and much of what I have achieved can be traced back to those early days in Ferguslie Park. Thanks also to Sace Lockhart and David Defy Roberts, for being the big brothers I never had and for supporting me throughout my life.

Special thanks to Gavin at Luath Press for trusting my vision and for being intuitive to my needs as a budding (I want to say young) author. Also to Jennie Renton for her input towards the end of the editorial process (I wince at the thought of what I was prepared to release prior to her involvement), and to Hilary Bell, who was a great support at the outset when I had no clue what I was doing.

Many thanks also to Neu! Reekie! for being one of the few safe spaces currently open to me in the Scottish cultural landscape. Much of what ended up in this book came from explorations I was encouraged to embark on at Neu! Reekie! events its nice when people introduce you without apologising for you in advance. Thanks are also due to the editors, directors, journos, professionals and mentors whose support, guidance and constructive criticism have been fundamental in the progression of my writing, in particular, Mike Small, Paul McNamee, Claire Stewart, Stephen Daisley and Karyn, Graham and June at the VRU . I also wish to thank my college lecturers, Kathleen, Felicity, Karen, Mary and Charles, for teaching me the difference between opinion and journalism, and my long-suffering classmates, especially Cat, Conor and Anna-Roisin, who got me through the course after a bad relapse into drinking.

I feel grateful to the Scottish writers and performers, professional or otherwise, who have been a source of inspiration and support to me, in different ways, and in particular, Tom Leonard. Deep thanks are due for his encouragement, wisdom and sincerity and for reminding me exactly what Im up against as an aspiring writer from Pollok. I also thank him for giving permission for me to include his poem Liaison Coordinator, originally published in Ghostie Men.

A tip of the cap to the Poverty Truth Commission, class of 2009 the original and best. Our time together fundamentally changed the direction of my thinking and, thus, of my life. I hope Ive written a book that reflects our hopes, fears, dilemmas and contradictions. Special thanks to Paul Chapman for his thoughtfulness and compassion; when people ask me if I am a man of faith, I still say the same thing: Do I really have a choice? On that note, thank you to my sponsor, James, for showing me a new way to live. None of this would be possible without sobriety.

This book was also made possible thanks to the donations of 228 people, whose support me through a crowdfunded appeal allowed me to focus on writing for a year, knowing that my family would not be adversely affected and, crucially, that I did not have to justify myself to anyone. I am grateful to all of you for affording me the time and space to write Poverty Safari your support has been a point of light in moments when my confidence has dimmed, allowing me to find my way through a thick wood of self-doubt while embarking on my first year of fatherhood my son, Daniel, being the greatest gift of all.

Finally, thank you to my father, who always believed I could be a writer. You might be right. X

Darren McGarvey, July 2017

Preface

THIS BOOK, WHICH began as a side project to my work as a rapper and columnist, slowly consumed every waking moment of my life until eventually I had to draw down or stop all my other commitments to get it finished. It has taken over a year and a half to complete. On 14 June 2017, two days before my final deadline, I awoke to news of a fire in a tower block in west London.

Like everyone, I was shocked, horrified and devastated by the images. As the morning progressed, more news emerged from the now smouldering shell of Grenfell Tower. We heard stories of people being trapped on the upper floors, forced to throw young children from the building before being consumed by the flames themselves. Then there were the tales of heroism and sacrifice, of people who ran into the building to alert their sleeping neighbours with no regard for their own safety. I kept thinking about the phones that must have been ringing in the pockets of the dead.

Later that day, we learned of the farewell messages posted on social media from victims who knew they were about to die. My eyes filled with tears at their courage in such hopeless circumstances. Trapped within the envelope of smoke and flame that had engulfed their homes as they slept, these brave souls faced their final moments with incredible dignity. I thought of my own son and imagined having to choose between throwing him out of a window on the slight chance he would survive, and keeping him in my arms until the flames consumed us. Just contemplating such a choice is terrible enough. Residents in Grenfell were forced to make these decisions.