Save The Children analysed data for local authorities across the country, which shows that in 29 areas more than one in five children live in severe poverty.‘Severe poverty’?
Save The Children said it was a ‘national scandal’ that so many were suffering and warned the situation would only deteriorate as unemployment rises and the welfare system is reined back.Oh noes! It’s a disaster! There will be shanty towns springing up everywhere, amongst rotting heaps of garbage. Children will go hungry and their diseases untreated.
And all in England!
‘Children are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal,’ said Sally Copley, the charity’s head of policy.Errr, hang on. Having no heating isn’t ‘poverty’. That’s having no shelter at all. And ‘without eating a proper meal’ isn’t poverty either. That’d be having no food at all.
‘At the moment these children are hidden from official view and their plight unrecognised. If these children are to have a future, we must acknowledge their desperate need and urgently target government help towards them.’
Just how are they defining this ‘severe poverty’? This 'desperate need'?
In some areas, one in four children lives in a home which brings in less than £12,500 a year and goes without things most of their peers take for granted, such as having friends round for tea.OK, time to stop taking any notice of this ‘charity’…
To measure severe poverty, the charity combines both income and material deprivation.
This means a single parent family with one child aged under 14 on an income of less than £7,000 – or a couple with two children under 14 on less than £12,500 – and going without things such as separate bedrooms for older boys and girls, proper birthday celebrations and having friends round for tea.
Now, if I were the head of policy at a large charity, I’d be utterly ashamed to open my mouth on the subject of ‘severe poverty’ if my definition of it would be not having balloons and cake on my birthday, instead of living in squalor in some Third World hellhole.
Isn’t it lucky for Save The Children that they managed to find someone with no scruples whatsoever to give the job to..?
The Lancashire Telegraph ran this story and I responded in pretty much the same way you have just done. I also included the line "Hang their heads".
ReplyDeleteWhat a useless and undeserving charity.
All the more reason not to give these rent-seekers any funding whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteJust posted this on GOS...
ReplyDeleteDuring the BBC's Breakfast programme this morning, much was made of Save The Chidren's finding that an increasing number of the UKs children are living in what they regard as "severe poverty." This apparently means that the children's guardians are finding it increasingly costly to feed them properly. A similar piece during "the news where I am" (Wales) claimed, in the finest traditions of victimhood, that Welsh children suffer in this respect more than children elsewhere in the UK.
In this land of taxpayer-funded pseudo-charities, heaven forfend that I should appear uncharitable, but either some of these surveys are carried out by and on behalf of rent-seeking organisations keen to increase their income by exaggerating the scale of the problem, or, if the problem is so bad that "severe poverty" is an accurate description of the lives of many of the UK's children, then our ruling elite needs to admit that we are a third-world developing nation, and ask serious questions about why we are sending billions in foreign aid to countries better off than ourselves.
So, how do they grade Africa, China, and India, and other places where they also, and MOSTLY work, if BRITAIN has "severe poverty"?
ReplyDeleteI have heard StC Germany describe "poverty" here, as "not having their own T.V in their room."(!)
Furor, some bright spark, sorry, I mean epic arsehole, came up with the idea of relative poverty, and the rent seekers latched on to it like a leech. Absolute poverty is pretty much history in western nations but relative poverty is open ended since the goal posts move every time the rich get a little richer. Save The Chiiiiiiiiildren and fellow travellers won't stop whining until everyone has precisely the same, and since that state of affairs won't last they won't shut up for long.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if STC is a fake charity these days?
You think that's bad here in Cumbria we have cretinous missionary county council coming out with this bullshit
ReplyDelete"I am pleased that we have put the alleviation of poverty at the top of our agenda. But not just financial poverty. We must also address the poverty of ambition and the poverty of opportunity. We need to stimulate economic activity and be more business-friendly.
Eddie Martin is the name attached to this piece of stupidity.
Just got Save The Chiiiiildren's 09 report. Here's a quote:
ReplyDeleteInstitutional income continued to grow.We received £90.9 million from governments, multilateral institutions – including the European Union and the United Nations – and major foundations.
Total income that year was £170.9m.
BZZZZZZZT! Fake charity.
Poverty needs to be redefined as being unable to adequately feed, clothe and house yourself and our dependents.
ReplyDeleteWelfare also needs to be redefined so it provides sufficient support to households toadequately feed, clothe and house themselves.
Welfare should not be comfortable.
I grew up sharing a bedroom with my kid brother. And since 'proper birthday celebrations' doubtless require a troupe of professional entertainers I reckon I can tick that box too. True victimhood at last!
ReplyDeleteXX Anonymous said...
ReplyDeletePoverty needs to be redefined as being unable to adequately feed, clothe and house yourself and our dependents.XX
Trouble comes when "adequate" includes every person in the house having their own T.V. As in my comment about Children in need Germany.
and having friends round for tea.
ReplyDeleteOh noes! No honey, crumpets and ginger beer either then?
What utter rot!
I never give this type of Charidee the time of day, let alone my hard earned. Fake is exactly right.
Save the Children? Is this the same fake charity that wastes pots of money on promoting the CAGW scam?
ReplyDeleteThought so.
On a brighter note, someone in Full Sutton maximum secrity priso has done his bit to save the children by seeing off child murderer Colin Hatch. Nice one, prisoner X!
Save us from Save the Children.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said, absolute poverty (such as we have here in Mexico) is all but unknown in Western Europe.
ReplyDeleteBritain, however, does suffer from severe spiritual and moral poverty - just try pointing out to STC how foolish their statements are and you will see all shades of Neo-Gramscians coming out of the woodwork to denounce your 'improper jugmentalism'.
Feh! Plague on both their houses!
"What a useless and undeserving charity."
ReplyDeleteAs Angry Exile points out, this in no 'charity' at all...
" A similar piece during "the news where I am" (Wales) claimed, in the finest traditions of victimhood, that Welsh children suffer in this respect more than children elsewhere in the UK."
They've been very clever, giving the breakdown in their publicity shot, so each area has something to focus on for a 'local' angle...
"I have heard StC Germany describe "poverty" here, as "not having their own T.V in their room."(!)"
Give it a year, this bunch'll be claiming the same thing!
"Welfare should not be comfortable."
Spot on!
"True victimhood at last!"
ReplyDeleteWe'll ALL be victims soon!
"On a brighter note, someone in Full Sutton maximum secrity priso has done his bit to save the children by seeing off child murderer Colin Hatch. "
Bet the cops will be pulling out all the stops to try and solve that one.
So they can move him to a cell with Huntley!
"Britain, however, does suffer from severe spiritual and moral poverty..."
Can't argue with that.
XX "Britain, however, does suffer from severe spiritual and moral poverty..." XX
ReplyDeleteThe R.A.F had (have?) a phrase they put on failed Pilots records when R.T.U'ing (Return To Unit) them; "Lack of moral fibre".
Seems to adequately sum up the whole of Western Europe these days.
Jeremy Vines stand-in Vanessa aired this topic on Radio 2 yesterday. She trooped in the single muvva with four kids and told her sorry tale. Virtually every e-mail and caller asked the same question
ReplyDelete"So why have you got FOUR children if you have no income?"
Much discussion along similar lines on MoneySavingExpert:
ReplyDeletehttp://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2880776
StC invited a member poll on the definition of child poverty. When the forum broke into a furor over the little publicised definition behind "poverty" and "severe poverty", StC slinked away and have declined to add any comment!