People power
It’s still hard for some people to believe in poverty in Scotland.
You could argue the word has been trampled into meaninglessness by overuse. It’s a constant in news reports these days, which most of us watch on nice TVs in our houses filled with cosy centrally-heated air, shielded from reality with expensive gadgets and convenience food and a million distracting channels of celebrity fluff.
You need only look at the comments section below any online news story on foodbanks or deprivation and you’ll always find at least one comfortable middle-class person saying we have no poverty.
What about those in the developing countries, they’ll piously lecture, who need to trek miles just for water? Our “relative” poverty – having less than your neighbours – is an offence to those who go hungry and thirsty on a regular basis.
But next week, the gap between Glasgow and those benighted TV images of parts of the third world ravaged by famine or war is going to feel just a little bit smaller.
I admit I used to be a poverty-denier. I went to a Catholic school were there was almost constant fundraising for what were known as “the black babies” in Africa. We were given squares of cardboard which had to be cleverly folded and tucked and would then pop up into a collection box – a flat-pack piggy bank – which we’d keep on the mantelpiece or coffee table for a month, after which we’d bring them back to school and send the money off to the poor black babies who lived in poverty.
But people said I lived in poverty, too, being brought up on a council estate by an unemployed single mother and given a lilac dinner ticket for free school meals. It was confusing – I had holidays at the seaside and we were the first house in the notorious Sheildaig Drive to get a satellite dish (though according to the toffs, that’s the quintessential stamp of being poor) and on Christmas morning our couch was always jammed with presents. I did all right.
Yet the media would have me lumped in with the poor black babies. We both lived in “poverty”, it seemed. There was even a neighbour of my Gran’s who’d often stop me in the street and give me a pound coin, calling me a poor wee lassie. I’d take the money and spend it on Eyepoppers, but was still mystified. I’m not poor! Why does everyone feel sorry for me? I have SKY! I have a scooter! I went on a school trip to Switzerland!
So we should be forgiving of the fact that it’s hard for some to accept people are living in poverty in this country, when even those apparently raised in the midst of it were off gallivanting to Lake Geneva. When I grew up and became involved in politics in the late 90s I still recoiled at the lefty talk of “poverty” in Scotland.
(I also bristled because these middle-class people were talking about me: the poor kids from the council estates with their dinner tickets and unemployed single parents.)
But that was then, and now the situation has changed more hideously than the left-wingers of the 90s could ever have imagined. There is poverty and it’s the real thing. The welfare state which allowed me to be raised by an unemployed person and still enjoy a hot meal, a school trip and The Simpsons is dead.
I’ve visited a foodbank and spoken to the people who use it. There’s no way their children will be seeing Switzerland. Neither have they much chance of seeing fresh vegetables on their plate. Some can’t even count on a proper cooked meal, as they’ve had their gas cut off. Foodbanks are having to prepare special packages that can be prepared using only an electric kettle.
The generation being raised now within unemployment are living in poverty. We need to accept that word and restore the meaning that was stripped from it in recent decades. Poverty meaning not a shortage of luxuries, but true hunger. Poverty as in having no hot water or heating in winter. Having to choose between starvation and hypothermia.
(I wonder if the do-gooders in the Catholic schools still have the gall to issue the cardboard piggy banks to children these days, now that our own poverty is huge and real. Pushing the image of the starving third world at our children just reinforces the idea that you’re only “poor” if you don’t have running cold water.)
That’s why I’m glad of the recent story in the Evening Times revealing that Glasgow Central railway station will be turned into a foodbank collection point next Thursday (the same day Alistair Darling is appearing at an event in the city telling us we have the best of both worlds), because a local foodbank, The City Mission, had to close its doors for the first time in its history because they’d simply run out of supplies.
Up to 106,000 people travel through the station daily and most of them will be charging through the crowds, not noticing anything except Twitter and the time. But surely some of those rushing thousands will see the foodbank crates and wonder if people begging for food for the poor in the heart of Glasgow is really “as good as it gets”.
Collecting food in the station is surely just a PR exercise. Commuters aren’t generally wandering about with tins of soup and packets of pasta in their bags. They’re on their way to work. If they wanted to make a donation on the spot, the nearest food outlets are the posh Thorntons, M&S and Patisserie Valerie, or maybe they could get some McCoys or Mars Bars from WH Smith.
Except that there are strict rules as to what you can donate to foodbanks and posh sandwiches and madly elaborate gateaux aren’t suitable. So I don’t think they’ll gather much food but they’ll surely get attention from commuters and the media.
Will those in rich, remote Westminster be embarrassed by the reports? That as Glaswegians rush to work to be busy and productive taxpayers in a place soon to be the centre of world attention with the Commonwealth Games, they’re stopped in their tracks and asked to help people starving in “the second city of the Empire”?
The sight of a well-off city worker stooping to drop some food into a plastic crate should shame Westminster as it shows the people are doing their job for them. Not only are people working to feed their own families, but they need to help feed others too, as our London government has abandoned them.
When I visited the Glasgow North West foodbank a few weeks ago to write a report, I saw they had only 17 followers on Twitter. I tweeted about what I’d seen there, and my thousand-strong band of followers were generous enough to retweet what I’d written, resulting in a flood of donations for them.
What they really wanted was a pianist to visit on Christmas Day to play carols for their children who’d be having dinner at the foodbank, because we now live in a country where children have Christmas dinner at foodbanks. One of my followers is the brilliant Eddi Reader who immediately stepped in and found them a pianist, so the children got their Christmas carols.
That’s all very heartwarming. But it should be Westminster’s job. The poor and the sick are supposed to be sheltered and protected by the welfare state we all pay taxes for, yet here’s poverty barging rudely in right under our noses, even into the ornate Victorian grandeur of Central Station.
The Tories in Westminster are in favour of small government, they say. Well, that’s fine by me – they can shrink all the way into nothingness. Let us take over. We’re already doing their work for them, so what purpose do they serve?
The rotten, bloated Parliament in London has shown for decades that it doesn’t need us: no matter how Scotland votes, the government England chose strolls into power regardless. Now these desperate times are forcing us into action, and making us realise that we don’t need them either. In September we can make it official.
How many of you saw the Panorama ,or was it Dispatches documentary during the week regarding Foodbanks?
What completely enraged me was IDS and Edwina Currie in total denial mode regarding this phenomenon.
Both of these Tory politicians accused the patrons of these foodbanks of not needing the food but seeking free food.
Not only do they deny the cause of this ,they would have the foodbanks closed.
How can anyone in Scotland vote for the status quo?
How can Labour voters and supporters look themselves in a mirror.
I abhor WMD ,however I think the need for and cause of foodbanks is an even bigger shame on our society.
Socialist Worker Yes or No
link to socialistworker.co.uk
Thank you Julie for such a moving article. I, as a resident of Edinburgh, had not “allowed” myself to realise just how bad things had become just 50 miles away. I am aware of several food banks, religious outlets serving hot meals and even a soup kitchen here, but didn’t somehow know it was the same elsewhere. I have seen the local council doing what it can, but in a time of budget cuts etc, they seem to be limited as to what assistance is provided. Next time I see a request for help, I hope to not just hurry past. For that I thank you.
Was in sainsbury at Gorgie yesterday. Have trolleys at back of tills for food bank donations. If this is the best of both worlds, then heaven help us. What will it take to get people to understand that independence will improve this situation??
Oh how we tut over those countries who have unequal societies with people rushing to help through charities and parcel up our unwanted stuff to send abroad.
It sickens me that this wealthy country has let our own down so badly.
Pontificating governments saying lots but making things worse.
I do believe that this will change after a yes this September. Failure is not an option anymore.
We have the situation in Scotland where Labour want to blame the Scottish Government, the SNP. They are remarkably quiet on Westminster.
This happened over the leak on the nuclear submarine, and the immediately Labour response was how stupid the Westminster and Holyrood Governments were. But the SG hadn’t been informed until shortly before Westminster released the info.
We have the dangerous situation, where Labour feels under threat and as a result has lost all direction.
Poverty and the nuclear weapons program are closely connected. Our share of £100billion would alleviate a great deal of poverty. But again Labour has tied us to this future.
They would rather cut parts of the block grant to pay for mitigating poverty inducing Westminster policies than oppose the renewal of the crippling and useless nuclear weapons.
There seems to be a growing trend in certain sections of the media to downgrade or even deny the importance of food banks and to denigrate those who use them and the volunteers who run them.
I listened, for as long as I could bear, to the Jeremy Vine show, AKA Radio Daily Mail, on Radio 2 the other day on this subject (fortunately Vine himself was away). A studio guest was pushing the line that food bank clients were mostly free-loaders taking advantage of the gullible folk who provide the service and that they were only being used because they existed, not because they were actually needed.
A caller insisted that she had personally witnessed a food bank client driving a Range Rover as evidence of this view, without anyone that I heard pointing out that volunteers give their time and use their own transport to collect and deliver food items to the elderly and disabled.
Another caller opined that nobody in possession of a mobile phone should get help from a food bank, and again there was no-one to point out that job-seekers are required to be contactable at all times but that, for many, a pay-as-you-go mobile is the only way to meet this and avoid sanctions when they cannot afford the monthly charges for a land line.
When even the media fail to attempt any real challenge to these myths they will gather strength and further add to the demonising of the poorest in society.
If you have a massive advertising campaign that people can claim poverty and be given free food allowing them to spend more on drink and drugs then why are you surprised that the number of people claiming free food go up and up?
The number of people in real poverty, as opposed to being poorer than some other people who work and save and don’t waste their time moaning, are miniscule. FACT, end of discussion.
I see the abuse of the system near enough every day at my job and all the bleeding heart whining doesn’t change reality.
3-6 million immigrants managed to find jobs and support their families. 3,000 weegies can’t take their lips from the buckie bottle long enough to even try.
Do fuck off, Peter, there’s a good wee Tory.
Great essay! Rich old bloaters in Labour or Libdem go vote No and save England’s poor, it’s immoral to waste time even thinking about Scottish democracy, you selfish ingrates etc
Or they’re very much like this guy from hit US comedy Two and Half Men link to youtube.com
Seventh paragraph, first line, Mr Editor. 😉 Also near the end “foodbanka”.
Nice article. I’d argue that poverty perception SHOULD be relative. We should aim to pull everyone up, not simply accept a baseline and then march on and leave those people behind as things develop and improve. If people around you can live like kings then you are poor if you live like a working class person. I detest the argument people have used that you should be “grateful” if you haven’t starved to death yet, all the while the money grab goes on at the top and the cronies feather their nests to ever grander levels.
In a country with our development levels and ability it should never cross your mind that it’d ever be possible for someone to be hungry and not something you should be pathetically grateful for, like some abused animal.
In the past people understood better and agreed with the idea of a society that tried to spread the benefits of it across all and pull those at the bottom of the financial or social ladder up a rung or two as the rest rose. The social contract has been broken though in the age of money grubbing and neo-liberalism.
Social security, as it was once known, is now dead and gone. We have a very sad and nasty thing in its place. Not a society I want to be part of so I am voting YES to help build something better and kinder where people are actually seen as valued and not something to squeeze for monry or push out in the cold to die.
@Rod
Those types are vile monsters. Their type in power cause more harm than most people we put in prison. This madness that if we stick our fingers in our ears and sing “Rule Britannia” then we can pretend all is well and we’re No. 1 needs to end. These problems don’t get solved by ignoring them or by just looking out for yourself.
Independence for Scotland is the only way to get away from the poison of Westminster and the London elite bleeding everyone dry.
“Seventh paragraph, first line, Mr Editor. 😉 Also near the end “foodbanka”.”
EVIDENTLY YOU HAVE LOST YOUR MIND.
Good article, Julie.
The fact that any folk (however small a number it may be) live in such conditions that they require food parcels that don’t need to be cooked is quite frankly a crime in a country as wealthy as Scotland. Getting away from the competition that we see for who can be ‘toughest’ on the poorest members of our society is yet another reason to vote Yes.
We’ve got oil that brings in billions and people starving a few miles from it. Unless someone is a psychopath this should make anyone feel bad or disgusted at such an arrangement. It’s as bad as the fabled “let them eat cake”.
link to twitter.com
Peter ta 3.38.
Immigrants can live 10 to a house and go to work in a minibus sharing rent bills and transport.
Glaswegians tend to not to this. I don’t know what you do for a living but you do strike me as a bit heartless and racist.
You should know that some of the poorest in society are in work. Poor BECAUSE they work.
Can you explain why it is that there is a foodbank in Malmesbury? I’m guessing it isn’t Buckfast or Scottish laziness connected.
Now I don’t mind if you don’t answer as I am rather hoping that you’ve taken the Rev’s advice and actually fucked off never to return.
The reason the middle class yes vote is only sitting at 20%.Is because these people have been brainwashed into believing that the self is more important than the collective.Their house and car is more important than nationhood.How have we ended up so shallow ,crass and selfish.That’s capitalism in action folks.The phoney war in the no campaign is based on personal wealth and greed.Surely the real Scotland will reject this individualism and vote yes regardless of whether we will be £500 better off.I sometimes wonder if when these people get married they treat it like a business agreement the way they treat their nation.I really despair sometimes with constant talk of money and currency?Who cares the prize is freedom not money.
Oh, and excellent article Julie. I commend you for actually admitting that you used to be a denier. At least you prove that attitudes can be changed.
Poverty, social inequality and mental health
Vijaya Murali and Femi Oyebode
Vijaya Murali is a specialist registrar in general adult psychiatry (Cossham Hospital, Lodge Road, Kingswood, Bristol BS15 1LF, UK. E-mail: Lmurali{at}aol.com), with special interests in alcohol and substance misuse, and psychiatric intensive care. Current research includes a study of sleep disturbance in alcohol dependence. Femi Oyebode is Professor of Psychiatry at the Queen Elizabeth Psychiatric Hospital, Birmingham.
“The gulf between the poor and rich of the world is widening. Within the UK, the financial gap between the wealthy and the poor is not narrowing and differences in health between social classes I and V are becoming greater (Smith et al, 1990). Poverty and social inequality have direct and indirect effects on the social, mental and physical well-being of an individual. It is important to note that poverty and inequality are closely linked. Wilkinson (1997) believed that income inequality produces psychosocial stress, which leads to deteriorating health and higher mortality over time. However, the association between income inequality and life expectancy is slowly disappearing and is no longer widely accepted. Those who live in deprived communities, where there is under-investment in the social and physical infrastructure, experience poor health, resulting in higher mortality for those of lower socio-economic class. The effects of income inequality also spill over into society, causing stress, frustration and family disruption, which then increase the rates of crime, homicide and violence (Wilkinson, 1996).”
link to apt.rcpsych.org
Our family are relatively well off but it is not about those with enough it is about those with nothing . Most of my friends are in a similar financial situation as ourselves but do not care a fuck about the poor. This is a division in the population that has been created by failed Westminster policies of respective political parties for thirty years Our family recognise the failure in society and help out when we can. The British society have created what the toffs call a feral class and it just aint right.
That’s absolutely disgusting 🙁 The paragraph talking about simply needing a pianist on Christmas Day brought a tear to my eye, I had to read it aloud to my girlfriend. What kind of state are we living in? 🙁
Peter
As someone who has never seen foodbank i would like to say it must take some guts for someone to even approach a food bank.I cant think of any reason why someone would go to a foodbank unless they are desperate.There dignity must be at rock bottom and there souls destroyed.
Great article Julie. 🙂
If only the No voters would take the time to read some of this, it might make them sleep a little less well at night.
I’d also say that this article would have increased impact if placed in public view right next to the second article mentioned in this post:
link to wingsoverscotland.com
Might be an idea for a Yes campaign flyer there.
I wonder if Alastair Darling will make a contribution to the Glasgow Central foodbank collection while he’s there? Maybe someone should ask him…
When Paul O’Grady is advertising for Save the Children for children in the UK that is an indictment of the Flaws in the Unionist parties, all piggies to the troughs and sod the rest
Peter says:
‘The number of people in real poverty, as opposed to being poorer than some other people who work and save and don’t waste their time moaning, are miniscule. FACT, end of discussion.’
Just love it when people write ‘FACT’, then don’t post one shred of evidence or analytical thought process to support their claim. Somehow those four letters in big capitals is all that’s required to prove a point.
Obviously Peter doesn’t know how things work on this website.
Stomefree
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
O/T cmon scotland
As our new friend Peter, like Edwina and IDS, seems to think that attending a foodbank is like an edition of Supermarket Sweep, perhaps a few facts.
For the Trussell Trust, you have to be referred by an agency, like the DWP. IDS actually ordered the DWP not to issue referrals, to reduce the figures. GPs are also being approached. People are allowed to visit 3 times, that’s all.
This is an abomination in a country as wealthy as this.
I grew up in a country that didn’t have such things. It was Britain, in the 1970s. I’d like to live in one again – Scotland, in the 21st Century.
As Appleby has pointed out, it is a case of ‘let them eat cake’. The westminster gov promote the demonisation of the poor so that people think they should have absolutely nothing in their lives, not a tv, not a telephone, no holidays and definitely not a holiday! When the welfare state was first set up, it was means tested to the extreme, people even had their furniture taken away (sold off?) before they were able to access any monetary support, we are heading that way again.
My cousin and her partner, both care workers in Tyneside, when the subject of food banks came up in conversation were like, “well a mean the druggies just use their money for drugs and use food banks for their sustenance”. Thankfully they did agree when I pointed out the fact that no one deserves to go hungry no matter what their circumstances. The attitude from people certainly South of the border and I know some here, is that poor people needing help from the state are really taking the working tax payers for a ride, rather than them seeing just exactly who it is taken us all for a merry-go-round ride big style!
Just read Peters comments.Must be a lot of anger in there.Why the hostility? Surely even if their are a few scroungers that doesn’t mean there are no poor people.How do you feel about the millions of pound Scots pay for the upkeep of the Royal wasters.Balmoral,Holyrood Palace Etc.Or billions on Trident..yet you choose the weakest members of society as your target?
Doh! I said holidays twice! I mean not even one holiday nevermind two!
I was going through a scheme in Edinburgh the other day, I noticed the lack of cars parked outside people’s homes, poverty is relative but people who want for nowt don’t want to even try to understand that.
I live in the East End of Glasgow so this is a subject very close to my heart. One of the most frustrating things about the situation here is the denial by people like Peter above. Its easier to pretend it isn’t happening, that somehow “its their own fault”, that its people with “chaotic lives”, that its chancers after some free food (who wouldn’t want free food, right?)
The truth is it is happening all around me, to “normal” people and families. Working class people like to look after their own, they have a sense of pride and would not willingly become “scroungers”. The “free food” isn’t just handed out to anyone who wanders past. There is an assessment process to go through before you qualify. No matter how sympathetic the staff are it must be a humiliating process.
The day that you begged for food is not exactly the greatest day of anyone’s life.
Thank you for articulating this so well Julie.
Like Julie, I went to a Catholic school where we saved for the “black babies”, though we had a wee card which was marked when we took our penny in.
My son was born in 1994. By the time he was at primary school (another Catholic school!), the Lent collection for for HomeStart. Kids would take stuff in to build up kits of household necessities, cutlery, crockery, etc. This helps homeless people who are given a house to get set up.
Many cities have a city mission, (or, dare I mention St Vincent De Paul?)Edinburgh Furniture Initiative, etc. If you have good quality items, including furniture, which you are getting rid of, please consider passing them on. The items aren’t sold, they are given directly to people who have been homeless, when they are housed.
I know it’s disgraceful that people need this kind of help in this day and age, but that’s the world we live in until we start to build a new one!
“The UK government estimates that total fraud across the whole of the economy amounts to £73 billion a year. UK government figures for 2012 estimate benefits overpaid due to fraud is £1.2 billion and tax credit fraud is £380 million. So just under £1.6 billion in total; less than 1% of the overall benefits and tax credits expenditure and less than benefits underpaid and overpaid due to error.”
link to cas.org.uk
Peter, you can be as angry and shouty as you like. Without reference to statistics or even absolute facts, I would rather feed a dozen scroungers if it could keep one child from hunger.
At least independence will lift thousands out of poverty immediately as the average earnings in Scotland are lower than for the whole UK.
They’ll still have the same amount of money, of course, but will no longer be below the poverty line.
Peter we are all a P45 from disaster, count your blessings and think there but for the grace of God go I, if we can’t see or are unwilling to help people less fortunate no matter their circumstances what kind of society does that make us?
Peter. I don’t know where to start. I live in a middle class neighbourhood of private 80’s built houses. My neighbours have always pleaded a measure of poverty. However one has always worked part time and the other has been a public servant for 20 years. They claim child benefit and at one point were claiming family tax credits. They both smoke twenty a day. They lived in a house worth £200k. They had a brand new car on the drive. They also slag off the poor, immigrants, labourites, northerners, Londoners, renters, gypsies etc, etc..
However it seems,like Gideon, it is ok to claim benefits(he wrote an article in the DM,I think, saying how he has had to ‘give it up like many others’ in the high tax bracket) if you are well off. But if you are poor, well you don’t deserve to get any help at all. If you had to live in that sink estate with no hope of work and depression sets in maybe, just maybe you would be hitting the Buckie too.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think it is worse to claim when you don’t really, really need it, whilst berating people that live a life most of hope we never experience.
tartanfever
“Just love it when people write ‘FACT’, then don’t post one shred of evidence or analytical thought process to support their claim. ”
It sometimes works though TF. For instance.
Peter is a TWAT.
Best proof for vote YES – are two maps:
Scottish people are creating more wealth than most regions in UK:
link to businessforscotland.co.uk
But Scotland is poorest region in UK:
link to businessforscotland.co.uk
Better Together for British elite in London and bitter together for Scottish people.
@ Alex and others – I posted this link last a while ago during a similar thread so am taking this opportunity to highlight it again.
link to aberdeencity.gov.uk
On this webpage you will see mention of Fountain of Love and Peace Church which are Nigerian Evangelical. In other words, folk from Africa are now feeding the poor, hungry and homeless of Aberdeen. I have spoken to many Nigerians and they do this because they remember historically what Mary Slessor did for their country. Ironic or what?
This ACC list of foodpoints is the tip of the iceberg with many more not even mentioned. This is the Oil Capital of Europe by the way.
I remember one ‘independent’ councillor (closet Tory) from one of our valley towns, when asked about the food bank in his ward he likened it with people rushing to a pub for happy hour.
Doh! – posted on the wrong thread (Sorry rev)
Clootie says:
8 March, 2014 at 5:31 pm
Labour did a wonderful job of protecting Scotland eh!
It was actually to their advantage – a good use of fear “it would be worse without us!”.
The 8th. richest country in the World (Scotland) and we have this as a measure of our society – shameful.
As for “Pete the Tory” and the Poor taking advantage of free food for drink and drug money.This is avoiding the cause and focusing on the effect.
a) Take away self respect
b) Give them a distraction (and make money)
Not the West of Scotland – Red Indians and Whisky / Aborigines and booze / The clipper trade taking tea from China and sending Opium back (was that Better Together too?)
You can only be Rich if someone else is poor. It is a relative measure and the divide is growing and growing.
Hard work and effort should be rewarded but the gap does not have to be offensive.
Vote YES and please let Labour recover their original values some day soon.
Some stats say we have had 26years of Tory rule in the last 44 years.
I’m afraid I make it 39 of the last 44 as “New Labour” was a Tory party.
Led by people who have since demonstrated all the Tory traits.
Peter, go to a food bank and see it for yourself. If you don’t come away cursing the government that brought us to this, and allows it to continue while cutting taxes for people earning over 150,000 per annum, you are less than human.
Go to Glasgow NW where Julie visited. Imagine folk making up little Christmas gifts to donate so that the folks coming for Christmas dinner have a wee something to open. Ponder on parcels specifically picked out for people who can’t afford to heat food. These are people without choice; they have nowhere else to turn to.
Oh aye, I nearly forgot, away and take a flying fuck tae yersel’.
I am not a violent person. I have never hit anyone in my life, but If IDS or Edwina had been within range the other night, it could have been a first.
In my time, I’ve taught poor kids. I’ve taken in hats, gloves, scarves and tights for them in the winter. I’ve made sure they were slipped some extra food in the dinner hall. I’ve known other teachers to do the same and more. Why? Because the kids needed it – that’s why. No other justification required.
We didn’t stop to question whether they deserved it or whether their parents were addicts. We just did what any decent human being would do for a child in need. End of.
Scotland’s oil and its wealth belongs to our poor kids every bit as much as our well-off ones. It’s their inheritance too and we should never forget that, nor the fact we’re only giving them back what is theirs in the first place.
In our area people over 40 years olld prefer going hungry rather than suffering the indignity of visiting a foodband.
Somebody wants to show ‘the cat’ Galloway Julie’s articles on his just say naw pish whit is just say naw who does he think he is Zammo oot fucking Grange Hill..dobber
Shocking isn’t it, I was disgusted by my local supermarket ( ASDA Portlethen, Aberdeen) I asked the door guy where the foodbank trolley was and he told me ( very sadly) that the manager said it wasn’t needed any more because xmas was past,I just couldn’t believe it
It is easy to get angry at folk like Peter but he is probably more to be pitied as he has been fed this propaganda shite by a compliant MSM and he actually believes it. It’s like the Scots who will vote no they have been brainwashed by the big lie
The reason Westminster wants us is because they make a good profit off of us, and they skim off that money to subsidise their standard of living. I think it could properly be called fraud and corruption, plus all the companies that grease their path through legislation and planning with directorships, expenses tax avoidance etc.
That is some of the money that should be going to the poor and needy not the rich and greedy, it’s a political ponsi scheme for the establishment, our superiors. All you have to do is join a political party lick the right boots get elected and open a bank account. That’s it job done. Don’t upset the high heed yins and your set for life. Unless yon ECK bastard comes along to upset things.
NOW YOU KNOW WHY ALL THESE RATS IN THE ONE SACK ARE FIGHTING TOOTH AND NAIL.
it’s their puggy that’s under threat if we go. God help us the poor might even get a fair shake. YES
Julie
You and I will never agree about the usefulness nor the necessity of foodbanks.
I’ll tell you a wee story from the heart. No money, no food and desperate my mother and I went to the Samaritans basically to beg for food.
We got lots of sympathy and a half full tin of powder soup. Now if their had been foodbanks I’m sure that would have been much better for me at that time.
I doubt though that having a full belly would have made up for the shame.
Lets get this straight, foodbanks although a necessity because of evil government policies are an abomination. I do not support them, not a single tin. If you do you are being used by an uncaring government that is forcing you to do that.
Julie I appreciate your commitment to the poor but you are not helping anyone until you fight for the scrapping of foodbanks. Do you get what I’m saying?
Peter away back to the Eugenics site you probably frequent.
OT seen ITV news, not having a tv licencse will no longer mean being charged with a criminal offence, rip your license up
@Thepnr,
What do you suggest as an alternative – let the poor starve and hope that it shames Westminster into action? Could be a fare few casualties before that happens?
@Thepnr
I see what you’re saying, but I can’t really agree with you.
Once independence is ours, and the system begins to actually support the victims of poverty instead of victimising them, THEN we can shut down the foodbanks, as they will hopefully no longer be needed ever again.
Cutting off the supply to those who are badly in need of it in the name of principle sounds a bit misguided to me.
The irony is that Business for Scotland make a clear case that business owners, middle classes, etc. can all be better off in an independent Scotland and with a better distribution of wealth and better off working class. Being against a healthier and wealthier society for ALL just makes no sense no matter which way you look at it.
@ Thepnr
Sir, you disgust me! I sincerely hope that you meet no financial problems for the remainder of your miserable life.
Your mother swallowed her pride and when she was driven by despair and, no doubt, a nagging hungry child approached strangers for assistance which was freely given. Now you would deny that same assistance to others in their hour of despair.
I, and I’m sure that I am not alone here among users of this site, will continue to do whatever I can to help anyone who is less fortunate than I am.
It may well be that I am the unwitting tool of an uncaring Government but sooner that than know that I could have been of some small help but was prepared to pass by on the other side.
Foodbanks in one of the potentially richest nations in Europe is telling us we need to intervene in the management of our nation,then change it to suit and to serve the people who live here.In short,we need that yes vote and we need it to be loud.
@Davit
@Oneironaut
Let the poor starve? Of course not. But lets not legitimise foodbanks.
How it worked in the past was we helped each other. That’s broken down for one reason or another.
I told you about the Samaritans, well my mother was dead at age 32, I was aged 12. Poverty was the reason for my mothers death.
How many here went to charity for your school clothes? How many had no presents on Christmas day or food for that matter?
Foodbanks are a disgrace in this day and age, as decent Scots we will be rid of them, even the thought of them turns my stomach.
The Americanisation of our society is almost complete, where the strong stand on the backs of the weak and the poor are left to circle the drain. Foodbanks are here to stay under this model the only way we can change this is to vote yes and make the people sovereign and then we will not suffer this abomination
@Thepnr
“How it worked in the past was we helped each other.”
What’s the difference between that and someone starting up a foodbank to help people?
Individuals helping each other is fine when it’s only individuals who are suffering, but the problem today is much worse than it was back then. Entire communities are suffering now, and a larger and more organised effort is needed to help them.
Even if we secure a Yes vote, those people still have to survive another two years under constant attack by the Tories who will be desperate to wring everything they can out of Scotland before they lose control of it.
Until then, foodbanks are a necessary life-support measure, and I’ll help them when I can. There’s no place for false pride here.
Are these 3-6 million immigrants living in Scotland? Or has someone been lapping up Tory based media?
Could it be that these guys that try to beat the system have just learned to survive in the chaos created by successive idiot unionist governments.Each tries to impose their own present day dogma on the system and as soon as that is done,it changes because the other mob come up with a harsher way.
“Being against a healthier and wealthier society for ALL just makes no sense no matter which way you look at it.”
Ha, ha. I might not succeed, but at least I know there are others who have failed worse and who are less deserving than myself.
They just aren’t genetically programmed to survive, let alone thrive. Surely throwing shed loads of cash at an undeserving cause is a sin? Boris certainly thinks they, the poor, are of less spiritual value than decent members of society. Remember, “the harder you shake the pack the easier it will be for some cornflakes to get to the top.”
link to theguardian.com
@Oneironaut
I do admire your concern, but don’t you get it? You are playing into the hands of those that want you to start foodbanks so as we take care of the poor rather than the government.
The uncaring government we have now ignores poverty, the safety net of welfare is governments job. Don’t let them fool you into doing their job for them just because you care.
Thepnr, I agree with you; they are an abomination. I also resent the need for foodbanks when we live in a very wealthy country. Surely, we all pay our taxes so this very situation doesn’t occur. That Westminster can fund any amount of wars and Jubilees and war “commemorations” and yet not find enough money so that people can eat is a disgrace.
I, also, worry that by “legitimising” foodbanks aka “The Big Society” we’re allowing Westminster to get away with their programme of demonising the poor and moving money from the many into the hands of the few. However, as others have said, what else can we do? Other than vote yes and change our society? As much as I loathe what Westminster are doing – I’m sure all the posters on here do – we can’t do nothing. Perhaps that’s exactly what Westminster are hoping for and we’re playing their game but still, as I see it, it’s a choice between doing what’s right or sticking to a principle that no one in Westminster cares about anyway. Hopefully, after independence we can all do our best to ensure that this can never happen again in Scotland.
O/T – sorry, but just for everyone’s info, I’ve just completed a panelbase survey on independence. This is the second one I’ve done so I’m really not sure whether these polls are of any value at all as it appears they’re asking the same people, over and over.
However, interestingly, it did ask questions about whether I thought the unionist parties should agree on powers to be devolved collectively and before the referendum, whether I trusted them to carry out their proposals and also whether I thought Labour had been damaged by their association with the Tories. It’ll be interesting to see the results of that and/or whether they’re released.
I too remember the “Black Babies” at school (and if I remember we got photos and got to choose names for them as well).
But in those days mothers didn’t have to work as dad’s wages were enough feed the family and pay all the bills (and go out for a couple of pints after the football). Putting on the electric fire was no sort of a worry. We don’t realise how far we have gone down now on the journey to second world status.
There was of course poverty then but the welfare state and government which understood that full employment was the most important constituent of a successful society set about fixing it. Then we had a slow stumble and the inchoherent economic idiocy of Margaret Thatcher which destroyed industry rather than fixed it (as the Germans did).
I went off to Africa and there I learned poverty is relative. In Africa you are poor if you don’t have a bed and sleep on the floor.
Poverty is relative indeed I learned and a lot of it is in the mind but no less real because of it. Poverty here is exactly as it is in Africa . It is being unable to afford to relate in the same terms to the people around you in the ways they interact daily. Poverty in our society starts at a level which means your children can’t go to the cinema their friends are going to, or you can’t have a pint with your friends, or you have nothing to put in the envelope for the church, or you never buy new clothes or fruit is a luxury you can’t even think of or you don’t know of you will get any hours at all this week at your work.
And it gets worse. You have no money for the electric. You can’t buy mince. There is no milk for the tea (except the baby’s milk if we actually have any of that).
That is where we were in 1910.
We now have developed a whole strata of society which has disengaged. And they sometimes blow all their funds on cheap cider or drugs. Or they die in their houses or throw themselves into the sea.
The are matched in number by judgemental pricks like Peter
My wife, a CAB advisor reckons a good proportion of the food banks referrals she processes are “at it”. (Her words, not mine).
However, in the same breath, she has to deal with abject poverty where often the case has been made worse by failure by dwp to pay and complications by pay day lenders.
Even her CAB branch are fighting for any funding at all and rely on generous and committed volunteers.
@Boorach
“Sir, you disgust me! I sincerely hope that you meet no financial problems for the remainder of your miserable life.”
Mr Boor, where do I begin?
You have chosen to be very judgemental. My miserable life hahaha, sorry to disappoint you but I’m quite happy, thank you very much.
Can I ask though, just what is it about YOU that sets you off so much that you surmise others you have never mey must have a “miserable life”?
Never address me as Sir again by the way you miserable old cunt.
@Thepnr,
I’m on your side, I completely understand where you are coming from. I have felt angry when I see food donation schemes going on in Tesco. There is no doubt that the supermarkets are profiteering by these initiatives; they are increasing their turnover when they encourage us to buy extra food to donate to the foodbanks.
And it makes me angry that when we do buy something to donate we are letting the government off the hook; it should be their policies that help the poor in society, not our charitable donations.
I would never discourage anyone from making these donations, they are vital, but it is difficult to forget that every time we do we are making it easier for the government to abandon welfare policies.
If we have foodbanks in our new Scotland then we will have failed.
callum says:
“My wife, a CAB advisor reckons a good proportion of the food banks referrals she processes are “at it”. (Her words, not mine).”
I do think there are some people who will probably take a freebie and not have too much embarrassment, but to be an advisor at CAB it would surely be desirable to be non judgemental.
I know that may be asking a lot, but really, anyone needing referred to a food bank is probably not having a party either. I know people who will not give money to homeless folk, I do when I can.
Why would you sit on the fg street? I mean they probs have no mansion or car or fancy holidays…
I was once subjected to a prejudiced CAB advisor with no witness, if it ever happened again I would complain about them, big style.
(animal noises – sorry it’s the only way I can articulate what’s coming out of my head at the moment).
So let’s get to it: thank you Rev for the clip anent the weather prospects you posted earlier – brilliant and heart-breaking. I have shown that to a number of people today at our YES stall and the rest of my family this afternoon.
Now for the rest:
Peter – some wise words for you “forgive them father, they know not what they do” in your case, what you say.
Appleby 3.45pm indeed
CameronB 4.34pm Thank you for the information
Alex at 4.40 Indeed
AnneDon at 5.07 agreed and other post with thanks
Stuart Black at 5.43 – Steady Stuart, this is a family site and Peter has probably never heard of the mile high club.
Jeanie – Thank you – it happened at my school too as my Great Gran was a teacher there and I know what she did.
Croompenstein at 6.24 You are very kind in that remark and a point well made.
For everyone else, if you were not mentioned please take no offence I empathised with all your comments.
As a child, I was lucky, I was never short of (good) food, a warm bed and love. But I had friends at school who would ask to eat the “runts” of my apple – and it wasn’t until I was older that the penny dropped (see my comment above to Jeanie).
My Mum and dad had two jobs each to make ends meet and now as I see them in their old age, worn out but still with the spirit of shared socialism, concerned yet about me, my wife, their grandson and his wife and their great grand-daughter – I’m proud of them and I thank them for it. And that’s what makes me red faced with embarrassment when I think of the oik’s that we voted for that were meant to go and ensure that these circumstances never again befell us.
Ah well, just say Naw eh? Aye right!
Julie, thank you for this a great article and a reminder of what is and what might be for many more – the ghost of Christmas future indeed – Dickens would have been proud of you raising this issue and no doubt ashamed that you had to.
@Thepnr
“How it worked in the past was we helped each other.”
It seems some people don’t understand the give and take of solidarity in a caring society. It is NOT shameful to accept help and it is not weak/foolish/indulgent to give it. Remember the saying “there but for the grace of God go I” is something we could all do well to keep in mind. Nobody really sets out to sink into poverty and being born into it or dragged into it as a child or as someone wrecked by age or disease is not ever a “choice”.
Are there chancers and users who exploit the system and others’ generosity? Of course but they are nothing compared to those who actually need help. All families and organizations and societies have some but it is only a convenient excuse to plead “compassion fatigue” when the real problem is the dreadful feeling that someone somewhere might get more than me. Check any trough and you’ll see that piglets, despite the ample food in front of them, will direct their snouts at their neighbours’ feed in the fear that they might somehow be getting more.
Westminster is imposing a society of snout to the trough. Scotland can do so much better. But let’s also be practicaly human. If we need help let’s be glad of it and not be ashamed to accept it and let us be generous and happy to give knowing the positions may be reversed sooner than we think and best of all lets take the wealth God gave this country and use it to ensure that when someone is told “get a job” there really are jobs to get and homes to come back to that are decent and warm and where the young are protected and the old respected and cherished and there are no health statistics that are the shame of the western world.
There are only a few million people in Scotland and given the wealth in the country there is no excuse AT ALL for its present condition.If Scotland is allowed to decline even more into a pathetic shadow of what it could be then it deserves to be erased from the history books but in a few months a simple YES can change everything.What kind of a nation is it that would in such a situation even think of saying no?
How ironic is it that they have a supermarket basket for collecting for a foodbank in Broomhouse in Edinburgh in the Sighthill Branch of the CLYDESDALE BANK ….
Great article Julie. I’ll be back on the streets tomorrow trying to convince people that the only to eradicate this, and other injustices is a Yes vote on the 18th, September.
@Thepnr
Ok, maybe the people running the foodbanks are becoming the replacement for the welfare system…
But what happens if we shut down the foodbanks? Do you think the Tories will go: “Oh dear, they’re not running foodbanks any more, I suppose we’d better cut down on the sherries and trifle and start helping out the poor instead!”? They probably won’t even notice. And I doubt the media will bother reporting on the rising death toll either.
Until we become independent and are in a position to rebuild our society, we have no real choice but to deal with the mess in whatever way we can.
Cutting the supply lines and just sitting there hoping that things get sorted out before too many people die is not something I want to be a part of.
I’m not going to comment any further on this, since I don’t want to end up in a constant back and forth until it starts to become more of a sore point between us than it already is. When all is said and done, independence is what we’re both after and until then, we’ll both help in our own ways.
@ Thepnr
Sir, (and believe me when I choose to address you as such it is in no way an indication of respect, rather the opposite) long may you continue to be happy, I wish you no ill. There is sufficient misery in this country already without adding to it.
However, your attitude to food banks is reprehensible. To deny people in need because you are ashamed that you were once on the receiving end of a charitable act disgusts me. It is the equivalent of walking past the victim of a hit and run accident because some kind adult comforted you when as a child you had fallen off your bike.
Why don’t you find yourself a less defensive picture thingy and open up to the big, bright world out there
@frazer allan whyte
Your post was so good I read it twice, I stirred up a bit of a hornets nest but didn’t mean to. Apologies to Boorach for my swearing, you did upset me though.
All I would like to see is a society where the poorest were taken care of by the rest of us, i.e. the government.
I also read an article the other day where a family from somewhere in Fife had to walk a round trip of 12 miles to visit a foodbank in Dunfermline which was the nearest one to them. The had to walk this round trip as had no money for transport and had to go for the “cold food” option as no power to cook. This is 21st FFS and we are a rich country, why is this happening? Why not just go the whole hog and reintroduce workhouses for the poor. I read these things and have no idea how people can possibly even consider voting No, well I do because they’re alright thanks, never had to decide on whether to spend their last £5 on a power card or Pot Noodles for their kids dinner. And btw that £5 powercard only gets your about £4.20 of electricity because that’s another (hidden) charge for being poor (and you pay a higher tariff) – all this while the power companies are making obscene profits – I sometimes despair, I really do.
@Boorach
Oh dear, it seemed I “apologised” too early, in other words I hadn’t read you last post.
“Sir, (and believe me when I choose to address you as such it is in no way an indication of respect, rather the opposite)”
Why not just come out and say what you really mean? You disrespect me? Oh I’m offended.
“your attitude to food banks is reprehensible”
I don’t think so, I think that supporting such an abomination in the 8th richest country in the world is reprehensible. Don’t you get it FFS?
Why don’t YOU open your eyes to reality and stop pretending YOU are being so fucking good by giving two tins of beans one tin of spam and a fucking bag of chips to a food bank.
YOU are doing no one any favours except those in power, sorry but your not helping. you are deluded.
Coming from a mining family, the upsurge of foodbanks brings back memories of the miners strike where our mums and dads had to rely on donations of food and coal / logs to feed us and keep us warm as there was no money for anything.
We the children got tokens for free school meals and for teens at high school that was mighty embarrassing.
I remember the white tinned food of steak, mince etc. which were stamped with EU on them and also remember the mums, grans and aunties and other villagers rallying around setting up collection points where other villagers could make donations.
For these proud and hardworking people it was demoralizing and embarrassing, but they had NO choice.
Many, many years later I am going through the same with my brother who has been unable to find a job, had is JSA stopped in January and then sanctions hit in.
He has little food or money. He doesn’t have TV or a satellite dish. He doesn’t have a car or any other extravagances that people assume that unemployed people have, but he needs help….. and thousands more are in the same situation.
Like has been stated, you can’t just turn up at foodbanks and expect to get food, you have to be referred and that isn’t as straight forward as it made out to be.
The end result is that he had NO choice and turned to me for help and I had to buy food for him and will probably have to do so until we get things sorted out.
He’s lucky. Some people just don’t have the luxury of family that they can turn too for money and help.
I myself don’t have a lot, but I don’t see helping out as a burden, but a moral duty to help not just my brother, but anyone else who is less fortunate than me.
The above was something that I thought I would never see again in my life time.
So how do you think honest, hardworking mums and dads or some unfortunate person who can’t find a job, or has lost his / her job feels?
I say to the Peter’s, the Thepnrs, the Ian Duncan Smiths, the Edwina Curries of this world and everyone else to have a heart.
You may have or have not suffered in the past from hunger, embarrassment, failure, but this is the present and the probable future for hundreds of thousands of men, women and children.
Is that right in a modern so called developed, caring and affluent country? No it isn’t.
……….. And for anyone that may find themselves in a similar situation to my brother, go to their local Citizens Advice Centre and seek help, as the volunteers are only too willing to listen and will offer advice and help. I know I’ve already been.
@Ann
Your post had me weeping, because it is genuine. I remember the miners strike well and everybody at my work Kestrel Marine at the time agreed to donate a tenner a week from our wages to the fund.
No doubt it was from these donations that the bags of food came from.
I obviously haven’t done a good job in arguing against food banks but if only you could see what I really mean and how I feel. It is ridiculous that if you become unemployed for whatever reason, your benefits may be delayed and then it’s starve or be refereed to a food bank.
Come on, is this really necessary in 2014?
Thepnr
Can’t apologise for upsetting you I’m afraid, I really wanted to stick a firework under you.
Having said that I fully endorse the final para in your 9:18 post, unfortunately with the present mob lording it over us that is just not going to happen.
My father abandoned us when I was just four leaving my mother with five children to raise. That was1950 and there was precious little help for a single mother in those days. Mam often claimed that she had scrubbed every doorstep in Tain to keep us together but keep us together she did. I can’t remember ever being really hungry, there were alway’s pal’s mothers who would put a plate of mince in front of us. Harvest thanksgiving and the small parcel of fruit etc from the Church was one of the high points of the year.
All I am saying is that since the tories disbanded society it’s up to us, all of us, to try each in his own way, to put it back together again. Brick by brick, tin by tin.
@Thepnr
What would happen if the food banks closed down though? We all agree they should not be necessary in any civilised society, but they are there, they are a fact.
Just read Derek Bateman’s new article. Oh dear, he still thinks the BBC is not biased against independence, apparently it is just down to cuts and the management. Who knew?
@Boorach
Let bygones be bygones. We are not as far apart as you may think. I like Tain, the mussels are exceptional.
Lets do that and put it together brick by brick. Couldn’t agree more.
First many thanks Julie McDowall for a very thought turning article.
What type of human being does it take to no longer care if a child go’s to bed hungry and will waken up the next day with very little hope of alaying that hunger.
Are they even to be considered a human being at all, does our Westminster government actually have the feelings and emotion’s of a normal person anymore. Is the call to power and the need to remain there more compelling than using their actual powers to help the most disadvantaged and vulnerable of a UK nation.
All the unionist parties are united to further measures of austerity in the near and far future, and appear to be sticking fingers in both ears regarding the poor and disadvantaged of the UK, and thats all in the name of political power. At least here in Scotland we will have the chance to rid ourselves of the food bank disgrace forever, and just by putting a ST Andrews cross on the YES box Sep 18th.
Finally does God exist, I hope he or she does, and when those sanctimonious Westminster bastards who go to pray on the Lords day, he remembers how they have treated the worst off in this country and he reserves a special place in hell for them, because no human should treat another human like that in this day and age.
Thepnr
From a mining family, I say a belated thanks.
I believe that if the general population had thought that the miners were in the wrong, things might have been a lot tougher than they were.
The EU food mountain surplus was a blessing to say the least. I suppose in a back handed way that’s what the European Union in its earlier disguise was. Lots an lots of waste, but handy for something.
Like you I don’t believe that foodbanks are right, but they are a necessary evil to keep us on the straight and narrow and to keep us on the right side of wrong.
We the general populace are right, the Westminster Government are wrong and even if there is a change of who is in control after the 2015 Westminster Elections things will be no different.
@ Thepnr
As you say let bygones be bygones.
Something for you to ponder as I head for bed;
Thatcher decreed that there is no such thing as society.
Cameron has destroyed the welfare state and called for the big society.
Whatever we do one of them wins. Denying food-banks gives it to the witch, supporting food-banks gives it to cameron.
I say to Hell with both of them common decency says we each do what we can for our fellow man.
Goodnight
@Ann
Things will be different, Right will win in 2014. Yes.
Good to see youse reaching some sort of agreement.
By way of focus, please have a swatch at the front page of tomorrow’s Sunday Herald, as posted on the latest thread, by Marcia – the part relevant to your ‘argument’ will leap out.
We may well say yes on 18th September, but we still have to suffer what ever Westminster flings at us until full Independence in 2016
Just let’s hope that Holyrood can protect us because the London Government will try it damnedest to make our lives hell!!!!!!!
Right will win 2014
I am too positive to be doubtful
too optimistic to be fearful
and too determined to be defeated
Quite sad to read posts that seem to divide us (food banks).
The logic of both arguments are quite valid – “we shouldn’t have them” and “people need our help”.
All I can say is work together to change it and don’t turn on each other.
@Thepnr
I am very pleased to see that all you want to see is a society that takes care of its poor. So do I. However, society is not the same as it once was people are not so keen to help each other. Thatcher’s government saw to that. “There is no such thing as society”, Westminster’s focus on greed and self-importance above all else! We are still living with that legacy today and it’s alive and well in the Tory ranks. The “I’m alright” culture.
We will get back to that caring society you spoke of when we vote yes and can determine our own future, our own principles and our own definition of society and finally rid our very rich country of poverty!
BUT in the meantime who eats the food from foodbanks. The wealthy?, The visiting Tory ministers?, Who? THE POOR, THE HUNGRY, THE NEEDY! For many there is no other choice.
When in history was the poverty of children in parts of Glasgow at 47%? The Great Depression?, The Victorian era?, Period of the Black Plague!!
C’mon we’re facing real hardship in Scotland, we need immediate action now! If a few tins of food stop a child going hungry I’m all for it! For many years I have collected tins for those most in need and they have always been very welcomed, sometimes sadly like as if you’ve given them a thousand pounds!
Lets work together, lets help people NOW! And come September lets remove this vile poverty forever!
“There is no such thing as society”
I’m with you on that, the wicked witch is dead but poverty is alive and flourishing.
Please don’t get me wrong, you (readers) have no idea how much I will do to help people. I’m not against foodbanks, I am against the existence of foodbanks!
There is a difference.
I am deeply saddened that we live in a world where we discuss the details of poverty – how far have we lost the plot? We must support each other, we must be people with a vision, we must be a fun nation full of go for it folk.
Fantastic article Julie. I personally blame Margaret Thatcher and the box sitting in the corner of the living room.
@Boorach & Thepnr thank you for that. I salute you both. This is why YES will win. We’re all different, have different opinions but the heart is in the right place. Thon Peters of the world don’t know what a heart is.
Paula you have cheered me up.
Here’s something from 1971 to cheer you up, Les wasn’t in the band then. This is the original 😮
@Thepnr
“Please don’t get me wrong, you (readers) have no idea how much I will do to help people. I’m not against foodbanks, I am against the existence of foodbanks!”
Thanks for clearing that up!
I completely agree!
“The Tories in Westminster are in favour of small government…”
What they actually mean is they want Westminster government all to themselves excluding the people for whom it is meant to represent.
Westminster is democracy (they want to gerrymander it).
Westminster is law (they want to control it).
Westminster is regulation (they want to do something for their pals).
Westminster is tax generating (they want your cash).
Westminster is representative (Scotland has 4% representation and falling).
Westminster is for debate (they are all agree on austerity, welfare reform, privatisation and new nuclear weapons).
Westminster is forever (or so they think) …
VOTE YES2014
We sit at the top table apparently;
Thank you, I expect this will be the most enlightened article not to be found in the Sunday newspapers today.
“We are the media now!” Rise up Scotland and rid yourselves of the Tories and their puppets forever.
Excellent article as usual Julia. Thanks very much.
ps
Anybody interested, a well-known disability human rights campaigner Samuel Miller has reported the death by starvation of DWP-Atos victim Mark Woods to the United Nations. There are a few other bits and pieces in the following blog post for those interested in the British Government’s ongoing vast campaign of human rights abuses against the unemployed, the sick and disabled and those living in poverty or being deliberately forced into it by British Government policy –
Was Mark Wood the last stumbling-block for Atos?
link to mikesivier.wordpress.com
Thank you, Julie, for this article.
So much food for thought.
(Can all this food for thought be converted to actual food at the food banks? ;-D )
@ joe kane (11.48am) above.
Haven’t you heard the latest?
Atos wants out of their contract. Maybe it just wasn’t as profitable as they thought. Or maybe even this multinational conglomerate has more heart than IDS (yeah, pigs might fly).
Most likely the profit and the damage to their corporate image were weighed up.
This is what happens when government is privatised. Profit and corporate image matter, not the people.
Thanks lumilumi.
The very public and humiliating implosion of Atos, seeking an early exit from its taxpayer subsidised half billion pound contract, is a pretty astonishing success story for grassroots activism.
The whole of the so-called welfare reforms of IDS are in meltdown. The DWP is an expensive and socially destructive shambles. The ESA regime for sick and disabled people is a human rights atrocity which the police need to start criminal investigations into. Likewise the fraud being committed by Jobcentres deliberately diddling people out of money which is legally theirs.
For what it’s worth, the backlog of Atos-related work that has accumulated since the Tories came to power is staggering. There are rumours Atos can’t get professional medical staff to work for them. All sickness and disability DWP re-assessments have had to be suspended for two years. The sheer scale of the government chaos involving the most vulnerable people in our community is mind-boggling.
And IDS hovers serenely above it all, his belief system denying any of this exists, as he showed in the BBC Sunday Politics today when publicly confronted with the empirical evidence.
Reference –
Doctor recruitment crisis leaves Atos begging for help
link to thefedonline.org.uk
The moment when #IDS claims child poverty has decreased despite being shown the graph behind them #bbscp
link to twitter.com
Out of curiosity, will Alistair Darling’s little photo-opportunity be happening at the same time that the foodbank collection is going on in Central Station?
And is there likely to be any Yes campaign presence near the event too?
Might be worthwhile bringing along a banner or something advertising the foodbank collection event. Would look good for Darling’s message that we’re “better together” on any news images with that in the background. And it just might make some of the No voters wonder what kind of society they’re really supporting.
Who knows, maybe some of them will be guilt-tripped into actually helping out instead of listening to Darling shovelling out a pack of lies.
Just a thought… Not sure if anyone is even still reading this thread…