It's always warm in a bank (1974)

From the August 1974 issue of the Socialist Standard

A building of strong architecture with a fine oak door and shiny brass. In winter the snow is cleared from its doors. Inside we find leather-upholstered seating and the smell of polished wood and floors. But most of all we find it is always warm. No overnight ice on the windows like the bedrooms of millions of houses, the reason being the heating is on all night. Surely this should be a haven for weary travellers, a refuge for the old and cold? But it isn’t, it’s a bank.

It’s always warm in a bank, unlike the overcrowded draughty conditions of a doctor’s surgery or any waiting rooms that affect the working class.

You would say that the workers there must surely be lucky, but seeing all the job advertisements in the papers and on the television, the mundane work must undoubtedly cancel out the warm conditions. Then when they leave work for home they also become weary cold travellers struggling with the elements, the fuel bills and inflation.

How long will you live in a world where only the quest for profit can bring comfort? In a world where thousands of old people are dying of the cold, it’s always warm in a bank.

D. Wright