How Do They View Us? (1)

The use of a simple little word, "decant", seems to provide as good a starting point as any when attempting to gain insight into the way in which social housing tenants are perceived by their landlords. The Concise OED, admittedly mine is an old copy, defines decant in the following way:

decant, v.t. Pour off (liquid or solution) by gradual inclination of vessel without disturbing sediment; pour (wine) similarly from bottle into decanter; (fig.) move or transfer as if by pouring.[f. med. L DE(canthare f. L. f. Gk Kanthos CANT used of lip of beaker)]

This was certainly my understanding of the meaning and usage of the word, you decant chemical solutions, you decant wine, you decant sherry, you decant port, you do not decant people. Or you didn't until the advent of the 2012 Olympic Games. Social housing tenants are, in housing terminology, now being "decanted" to make way for the Games.

When I first read the word used in this context it immediately conjured up images of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. And of human foetuses artificially created in test tubes and intellectually and physically enhanced or diminished according to their predetermined social status in Huxley's hierarchical, socially engineered society.

So how are tenants viewed in the hierarchical brave new world of privatised social housing? I would suggest that we are the Epsilons, the lowest stratum of society to be coerced, controlled, moved at will and never, never to have more than token control over our homes or communities and, therefore, our lives.