george orwell's 1937 tract, the road to wigan pier, gave a shocking description of the grim reality of the time. pinched faces, ruined by malnutrition. eight to ten people living in three—room houses with no bath and infested with bugs. many working class adults have none of their own teeth. orwell brought home that britain was two nations. seven decades on, and everything has changed. very few children are barefoot and malnourished. obesity is a national problem. most teenagers have mobile phones. and wigan itself sometimes tires of its association with the misery of the past. so, yes, we've moved on. but that doesn't mean we can relax, go home and play on a chinese—made tablet. we have a new challenge to face. it's a first world problem we have now. it's about how we create more productivejobs. this box—making factory in wigan provides semiskilled work. the town needs more of this. but it needs even more of the top end stuff. without that, we can't get pay levels up, or tax revenues to pay for public services. i think the objective has got to be to look at creating those higher—produ