Who cares? Nobody else seems to these days. Why the sodding hell should I? Boys from the Black Stuff: Moonlighter ***** security guard to Dixie Dean
What do you want me to do? Make friends? ibid. Dixie to Chrissie & Logo
What’s wrong with qualifications? ibid. Dixie to son
What is there to get up for? ibid. son to Dixie
They’re after me. The whatsits. The dole. ibid. wife of Dixie to friend
If I’d known what was going to happen, I wouldn’t have done some of the things I’ve done. To you. I sort of erm made a lot of mistakes with ya, son. ibid. Dixie to son
You are shite. You are nothing. You’re the dregs dragged here off the dole. ibid. thief to Dixie
Every man has his price right? All men can be bought. And the incorruptible man has the highest price of all. ibid.
Wife: Don’t you think it would be a good idea to see a doctor, love? I mean you’ve been sort of .... Tommy, where are you going?
Dixie: Out of my mind. ibid.
How much guilt can I take eh, girl? Boys from the Blackstuff: Shop thy Neighbour ***** him to her
A woman who has recently become aware of the massive and total futility of her life. ibid. social security boss to officer
I want your name. Give us your friggin’ name. ibid. Chrissie to social security officer
I wouldn’t be you, not for anything. ibid.
I can’t cut off what they haven’t got. ibid. Chrissie’s wife to Chrissie
Self-pity. That’s all I’ve heard from you for months. ibid.
We’re chasing people with nothing who only want a little. ibid. Social security boss to officer
Thank you, almighty God. Thank you. You work in mysterious ways all right. And none of them are worth a wank. ibid. Chrissie
I can’t even get mad these days. ibid. Chrissie to wife
I have a mind up here and it’s screaming, Chrissie. ibid. Chrissie’s wife to Chrissie
What is the point of living our lives when, when you get up in the morning and it’s all downhill from then on? ibid.
Gissa job. Go on gissit. Gissa go, go on. I can do that. Alan Bleasdale, Boys from the Blackstuff: Yosser’s Story ******* Yosser to groundsman
Come home. Please. ibid. Yosser to Maureen
She used to be our mummy. ibid. child to child
I can manage. No sweat. I can cook. Course I can cook. Who says I can’t? ibid. Yosser
You’re Graham Souness, aren’t ya? You’re famous. I’m Yosser Hughes. You look like me. Magnum as well. ibid.
I could have been a footballer. But I had a paper round. ibid.
I hate this job, you know. I don’t want to disconnect people. ibid. Electricity man
Mr Hughes. We’re from the social services. ibid. SS bloke
Leave my disinfectant alone. ibid. tramp to Yosser
Are you after my body? ibid.
When I was little – when I was – there was so much to look forward to. ibid.
There’s a good chance they’re not his neither. When we were married I had this sort of friend. Well it was the only thing that kept me sane. ibid. Maureen
He always thought he was going to be somebody. ibid.
They want my kids now. They’ve got everything else. ibid.
Priest: Call me Dan. Dan.
Yosser: I’m desperate, Dan. ibid.
She didn’t love me. She didn’t love the kids. I know you want to talk to me about the kids. I want to keep the kids. I want to keep the kids. ibid.
Don’t come back unless you bring an army. ibid. Yosser to social services
Send me away. Where they are. Let me be with them. ibid. Yosser to doctor
I wish I was dead. ibid. Yosser to tramp
I’m dead but you smell. ibid.
There’s nowhere left to go. ibid. Yosser to rozzer
Is this all there is? Down to this. For the rest of my life. Eh? ibid. Yosser in rozzers’ car
Most of us either talk to ourselves or through our arse. ibid.
Let me go home before I die. Alan Bleasdale, Boys from the Black Stuff: George’s Last Ride ***** George to doctor
He was blacklisted in ’58. Went to work on the black stuff. ibid. Mary Malone to doctor
When a man loves his kids, he loves them more than anything in the whole friggin’ world. And that’s a fact. ibid. George at son’s gravestone
What are the men thinking about? Don’t tell me that they’re trying to safeguard the future because they got none whatever way it goes. And they may as do what’s right. ibid. George to sons
The only reason things got better ’cause of men like your father. ibid. Mary Malone
George: Just be yourself.
Yosser: But what happens if you don’t like yourself? ibid.
But my dreams – those dreams of long ago they still give me hope and faith in my class. I can’t believe that there’s no hope. Can’t. ibid. George to Chrissie
We’re all here today not to send George to a better place or a Judgment Day or to worry about our own going but to remember his life. And curse the fact that he’s not here. He was a good man. He was the best man I ever knew. ibid. Chrissie stands up in church
Three years ago this was a quiet pub. There was only fights at weekends and weddings. ibid. bartender to Chrissie
Everybody is either respectable or a villain. I mean they had a good reason to get pissed. Now they just get pissed ’cause they wish they were dead. So do I. ibid.
You know what he stood for? Yeah well that’s dead and all. ibid. Chrissie to Loggo
What’s going wrong, Loggo? ibid. Chrissie
The Great Depression, like most other periods of severe unemployment, was produced by government mismanagement rather than by any inherent instability of the private economy. Milton Friedman
When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results. Calvin Coolidge, attributions & variations
Unemployment is of vital importance, particularly to the unemployed. Edward Heath
I still have my unemployment books and I remember when I worked for the sanitation department and the post office. Denzel Washington
People are wrong when they think that an unemployed man only worries about losing his wages; on the contrary, an illiterate man, with the work habit in his bones, needs work even more than he needs money. An educated man can put up with enforced idleness, which is one of the worst evils of poverty. But a man like Paddy, with no means of filling up time, is as miserable out of work as a dog on the chain. That is why it is such nonsense to pretend that those who have ‘come down in the world’ are to be pitied above all others. The man who really merits pity is the man who has been down from the start, and faces poverty with a blank, resourceless mind. George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London
Unemployment or the loss of income which will always affect some in any society is certainly less degrading if it is the result of misfortune and not deliberately imposed by authority. Friedrich Hayek
While people will submit to suffering which may hit anyone, they will not so easily submit to suffering which is the result of the decision of authority. It may be bad to be just a cog in an impersonal machine; but it is infinitely worse if we can no longer leave it, if we are tied to our place and to the superiors who have been chosen for us. Dissatisfaction of everybody with his lot will inevitably grow with the consciousness that it is the result of deliberate human decision. Friedrich Hayek