michael lewis

The legacy of Ken Loach at the BBC is well demonstrated in ‘Sorry We Missed You’. ‘Up The Junction’ and ‘Cathy Come Home’ changed politics, bringing the gender issues of unwanted pregnancies and homelessness into every home in the UK. Can ‘Sorry We Missed You’ do it again for modern zero-hours contract slavery?

A family is ripped apart by cruel employment abuses, both in the private sector delivery business and also in the government’s carer business. A woman leaving the cinema commented that we should be grateful for our lives. And yet, I thought, we still want someone (else) to deliver packages on demand and someone (else) to remove the soiled clothes of the elderly. The gig economy is based on exploitation, easily sold to people who aspire to controlling their own destiny: perhaps suitable in the short term, there are longer term consequences that start with mental health issues and get worse from there.