Thursday 7 September 2017

It's A Day With A 'Y' In It....

...so it must be time for yet more 'poverty' bollocks from the dear old 'Grauniad':
Paula Snowdon, who runs the Hub House, a converted end-of-terrace community centre on Seventh Street, describes malnourished families begging for food.
“Most had received benefit sanctions and were basically starving when they came to us,” she said. Others turned up wanting little more than a chat.
“We had individuals who hadn’t spoken to another person for days, sometimes weeks. Solitude is a major issue.”
'People are starving!' is a great hook, 'people need a chat!' not so much...
Some asked only to sit on the Hub’s sofa; private landlords lease homes without furniture in the numbered streets, forcing many tenants to live without the luxury of settees. Some arrived seeking refuge from the network of drug dealers that has infested the village: one resident on Eleventh Street counts six dealers among its 54 red-bricked properties.
Wait, people can't afford furniture, but can afford drugs? So much so, there's an increase in supply to mean the demand?


Yet what astonished Snowdon most was the prevalence of mental illness. “The actual way of life around here causes problems. I would say that 85% have a mental health illness such as anxiety and depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Children are born into deprivation and high unemployment: people feel forgotten about.”
So they can also afford children? And the luxury of 'mental illness', most of which falls into the 'excess of self-indulgence' category?
Next month, a delegation from the trust will meet the minister responsible for the “northern powerhouse”, Jake Berry, to discuss a proposition to build industrial and commercial space that will allow small businesses to flourish. Officials believe that £30m of state funding over four years will bring in three times that amount in direct investment, along with a sustainable income of £2m each year that will be invested to deliver bespoke projects like the Hub House.
And this can all be cured by throwing yet more taxpayer cash at them?

5 comments:

James Higham said...

"Wait, people can't afford furniture, but can afford drugs? So much so, there's an increase in supply to mean the demand?"

Don't they sit cross-legged on the floor?

In a circle?

jack ketch said...

" private landlords lease homes without furniture in the numbered streets"

Huh?! Surely most rented homes (as opposed to 'temporary' dwellings), be they private or Housing Asses are leased unfurnished?

“Most had received benefit sanctions and were basically starving when they came to us,”

My Eldest has had more sanctions than hot dinners the last few years (because he is unable to get out of bed on time to get to the Job Centre) and yes there have been lots of times when he has 'basically' starved....because he wouldn't or couldn't get off his arse and hitchhike to ours for some food or walk the 8 miles to the next town where there is a food bank. Hell the Food Bank even offered to deliver to him if he'd only do the necessary 'paperwork'. Nor was he capable, apparently, of actually buying food from the 'food money' we and the rest of the clan would send him. Then as soon as the benefits roll again (several £K in back payments last time) he fecesbooks about how wide his new widescreen is or grizzles because no UK breeder will sell him a pedigree staffy.

So colour me, someone who is on benefits and caring for an insane partner in rented accommodation and who has had to use food banks on occasion (I shall just say the word 'PIP' by way of justification), totally and utterly unsympathetic towards the residents of Hash Street...Hogarth eat your heart out.

Flaxen Saxon said...

What a dilemma. I certainly wouldn't be able to cope as I used to hide my drugs in the sofa.

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JuliaM said...

"Don't they sit cross-legged on the floor?

In a circle?"


SNORK!

"Hell the Food Bank even offered to deliver to him if he'd only do the necessary 'paperwork'."

*speechless*

"I certainly wouldn't be able to cope as I used to hide my drugs in the sofa."

:D