Evoking the past: This is the start of addressing poverty, my first reaction is don't pull up the past it has already been lived. Today with all its problems needs answers. Being virtuous when we get old is a great fault, we were better then. Yes, maybe, but we lived in the circumstances that was provided in the time, 1950 is very, very different from 2018.
One thing that can be said is that we have all become more opinionated. What makes me cross, let us see, easy references to those people who sit in front of the tv eating completely wretched food which makes them fat and living off the state. The trouble is of course it does not cover the immense number of people, who are trying to get it together in a world that is difficult and changes the rules all the time.
Our society has fragmented, not necessarily into class divisions but a polarisation between those that have enough, those that have too much and those that are on the poverty line. Don't quote 'frugal' at me, I can be frugal as a single female, but I would be hard pressed to give my children frugality.
What has happened is that society has become greedy, capitalism lies at the base, the ever upward thrust of gaining more for the individual. So some people make it under this system, others don't, this is where the poverty line has been drawn. A case I read only last week, a women died because she suffered type 1 diabetes, she died hungry, no food in the fridge for her to appease the necessary food a diabetic needs.
I find no fault in the rapporteur's report only the figures seem high, he makes rational points, the problem of digitising Universal Credit so that people have to have access to a computer to fill in a form is worrying. With libraries closing down, one good source of using a computer (and you still have to pay a small charge) is lost. As we know banks have been shutting down, we now have no bank in Kirkbymoorside, only the Post Office that has stepped into the breach, and one ATM down at the end of town. The nearest Citizen Advice Bureau is in another town about 15 miles away, and looking at the frail old people you see on the street it would be impossible for them to even contemplate the journey.
Overall rollout of broadband internet in the UK may be high, but those figures hide the fact that many poorer and more vulnerable household are effectively offline and without digital skills. According to 2017 Ofcom figures, only 47% of those on low income use broadband internet at home. Only 42% of those who are unemployed and 43% of those on low income do their banking online. According to the Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2018, 21% of the UK population do not have five basic digital skills and 16% of the population is not able to fill out an online application form.
Then of course if you are young, even any money in your purse for a ticket to get anywhere. Of course there are tattooed swines sitting round on sofas, swigging beer and 'living off the state' but they don't constitute the vast majority of people, they are just there for cheap newspapers to drum up hate against them in their articles. We have become a society so easily led by our own subjective feelings that hate and anger are allowed to roam the streets. We have feral children in our cities, why?
I suspect it will be the volunteers and the ordinary people who will run the day to day basis of our lives, stepping in as Westminster becomes a castle in the sky spewing nonsense to the wealthy about the plight of the poor, it does not have the answers, only those words ' it's the economy stupid'. Repeat to yourself we are the 5th largest rich country in the world!
Paul Mason quote;
"It hurts to admit it but outside the big cities, large parts of Britain resemble a poverty-stricken wasteland, Amid the charity shops, vape shops, nail bars, payday lenders and crumbling old shopping malls and high streets we have forgotten what prosperity is supposed to look like"
Surprisingly I am optimistic, the Conservative Party will eventually fall on its own sword, maybe there will be chaos, Brexit promises that, a new order will emerge, or maybe we will all sink into a middle-class stupor (could be we are there already) but whatever the Statement on Visit to the United Kingdom, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, does hit a few home truths.
postscript, if I have seemed too cross read Aril's blog of yesterday Unravelling and Rethreading, funnily enough I was at the library yesterday sewing with a like-minded bunch of females and we also have a 'repair and recycle' place in the town, and the library is run by volunteers.
I find no fault in the rapporteur's report only the figures seem high, he makes rational points, the problem of digitising Universal Credit so that people have to have access to a computer to fill in a form is worrying. With libraries closing down, one good source of using a computer (and you still have to pay a small charge) is lost. As we know banks have been shutting down, we now have no bank in Kirkbymoorside, only the Post Office that has stepped into the breach, and one ATM down at the end of town. The nearest Citizen Advice Bureau is in another town about 15 miles away, and looking at the frail old people you see on the street it would be impossible for them to even contemplate the journey.
Overall rollout of broadband internet in the UK may be high, but those figures hide the fact that many poorer and more vulnerable household are effectively offline and without digital skills. According to 2017 Ofcom figures, only 47% of those on low income use broadband internet at home. Only 42% of those who are unemployed and 43% of those on low income do their banking online. According to the Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2018, 21% of the UK population do not have five basic digital skills and 16% of the population is not able to fill out an online application form.
Then of course if you are young, even any money in your purse for a ticket to get anywhere. Of course there are tattooed swines sitting round on sofas, swigging beer and 'living off the state' but they don't constitute the vast majority of people, they are just there for cheap newspapers to drum up hate against them in their articles. We have become a society so easily led by our own subjective feelings that hate and anger are allowed to roam the streets. We have feral children in our cities, why?
I suspect it will be the volunteers and the ordinary people who will run the day to day basis of our lives, stepping in as Westminster becomes a castle in the sky spewing nonsense to the wealthy about the plight of the poor, it does not have the answers, only those words ' it's the economy stupid'. Repeat to yourself we are the 5th largest rich country in the world!
Paul Mason quote;
"It hurts to admit it but outside the big cities, large parts of Britain resemble a poverty-stricken wasteland, Amid the charity shops, vape shops, nail bars, payday lenders and crumbling old shopping malls and high streets we have forgotten what prosperity is supposed to look like"
Surprisingly I am optimistic, the Conservative Party will eventually fall on its own sword, maybe there will be chaos, Brexit promises that, a new order will emerge, or maybe we will all sink into a middle-class stupor (could be we are there already) but whatever the Statement on Visit to the United Kingdom, by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, does hit a few home truths.
postscript, if I have seemed too cross read Aril's blog of yesterday Unravelling and Rethreading, funnily enough I was at the library yesterday sewing with a like-minded bunch of females and we also have a 'repair and recycle' place in the town, and the library is run by volunteers.
Although I don’t live in the U.K but in the US, I agree with everything you have written. Both of our countries have been going through tremendous changes these past two years, and although I have hope for recovery from what has/is happening, I am too often in a state of sadness about the hate, discord, and discrimination that prevails. Three years ago, I would have never imagined this happening to either of our countries. The labeling of the poor as lazy and useless and the rich as greedy and selfish does nothing to help the situation. Generalizations are lies because they do not tell the real stories. I am fortunate to live in an area that does not fit into the scenarios that are written about. We have people who are in need but we also have community services and very generous people who are willing to help in many ways. These are not people sitting in front of the TV complaining about things, but rather people who come up with solutions. I think this is the way in small and large towns around the world. It is not sensational, so it does not make the news.
ReplyDeleteHungry is hungry, no matter the degree of poverty there is. There is no such thing as affluent poor.
"These are not people sitting in front of the TV complaining about things, but rather people who come up with solutions. I think this is the way in small and large towns around the world. It is not sensational, so it does not make the news."
DeleteI think there is some of the answer in those words, people do help each other, especially in times of disaster. Maybe there will be quiet movement in politics as well as people realise we are being taken for a ride.
It is tempting to think that there is no deprivation in a little town like the one where I live. That would be wrong. It is just better hidden. The same is true of things like drugs and, sadly, is beginning to feel like that with crime. But like you, Thelma, I am optimistic - we have to be otherwise life would become unbearable.
ReplyDeleteYou could almost say the same about any market town, our three are very similar, I have only ever seen one 'Big Issue' seller. But what lies under the surface heaven knows, and of course when we talk drugs, it just isn't the poor who take them, there are many other people who fund this trade.
DeleteThank you, Thelma
ReplyDeleteEH
I find it difficult to write in a public space about things that are controversial, and yet if we don't the rot continues.
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