It is quite shocking to think that today in the UK many families are experiencing hunger and have to choose between paying their bills or eating: "broadband or food".If they have to choose between the internet and eating, and that’s a difficult choice, they clearly have more problems than you think…
Even worse, there are families who have no choice but to go without food – according to a recent report by a Welsh charity, a family with small children went without food for more than 24 hours.And no further information is given, so we have to just take that as face value, and listen as Bernadine extrapolates from it to portray the coming famine for the poor…
And yet, there is definitely a social stigma today in the UK about being poor. Poor people are made to feel like "scroungers" and appear to be the butt of every government cut, which seems to succeed in kicking the most vulnerable the hardest.Poor people are made to feel like ‘scroungers’ because some undoubtedly are! Not all, not by a long chalk.
But please, Bernadine, do tell me why I should pay tax so that the likes of this family can get breakfast delivered to their door?
Even the Equality and Human Rights Commission believes that the government may have acted illegally by not taking into account exactly how its cuts are going to affect the poorest members of society.What the EHC believes and what it can prove are two different things...
And with rising food prices predicted, it seems Bernadine is worried about those unable to produce nutritious meals on a shoestring:
A few grassroots organisations are trying to impart such knowledge, but their efforts remain largely unrecognised – or worse, are seen as inaccessible.Oh, if only someone would write a book about it, eh, Bernadine..?
Food is a political issue, and an immensely serious one that connects us all. Now, more than ever, people need to know how to feed themselves on a tiny budget. At least then they will be able to fend off hunger as best they know how.Just wait for those royalty cheques to start flooding in….
And yet the same people are often heard complaining that "industrial food" has become too cheap nowadays, and so obesity has become a major health problem amongst the poor. You can't have your cake and eat it ;-)
ReplyDeleteIf someone has to make a choice between broadband or food then they are not poor. Simple as.
ReplyDeleteYour verification word is "FOODI".
The only genuinely "poor" people I have ever come across are usually elderly ladies, who because they either have a small pension of their own .. or receive a small widows pension are mitigated against by the "State" by being denied other benefits..
ReplyDeleteThey really are the people who have to choose .. Food or two bars of the electric fire ..
Now that's what I call poor ... and these are the very people whom the Government chooses to ignore because they, or their late husbands worked for a living, as opposed to scrounging every conceivable hand-out & idling whilst watching their 50" plasma TV's ...
Oh, for fuck's sake!
ReplyDeletePeople do not starve in this country and don't the left just hate that. You know the simple fact that business can provide food without their meddling.
And what Curmudgeon said.
Also from her piece comes this little gem:
ReplyDelete'[Writing of her fellow poor peers] I'd stare in horror as they gleefully ate Mother's Pride bread filled with white sugar. Even then I had a concept of "junk food".'
This is a familiar ploy of this species of liberal idiot: desperately wanting the pathetic kudos of belonging to a favoured downtrodden group, yet signalling that she was always superior. The evident disdain for white sugar and bread is probably revealing.
Perhaps her next book could provide recipes for turning unmitigated tripe into something more appetising.
"And yet the same people are often heard complaining that "industrial food" has become too cheap nowadays..."
ReplyDeleteOh, indeed. And she does that in her article.
"Your verification word is "FOODI"."
Yikes!
"The only genuinely "poor" people I have ever come across are usually elderly ladies...They really are the people who have to choose .. Food or two bars of the electric fire .."
Spot on. They tend to already know how to cook, though, having been brought up in the war years.
So are of no interest if your goal is to sell a cookery book...
"People do not starve in this country and don't the left just hate that. "
Yes, it must rankle. That's why the 'obesity/junk food' aspect is pushed..