Food Banks

Rees-Mogg's great-grandfathers were doubtless uplifted to hear that their wives and daughters had been out delivering nourishing broth to starving families living in squalid housing. They probably owned the squalid housing as well. Not much changes.

"The report doesn’t say or prove that sanctions are the only cause of food bank use, but the researchers do say it demonstrates a “strong, dynamic link” between the two."

Sanctions = removing a person's only source of income, for varying lengths of time.
So it seems pretty likely that that would lead to them needing to use a food bank.

Interesting and measured article at Fullfact, day6. Thanks for the link.

www.theguardian.com/society/2017/sep/13/councils-must-act-to-combat-destitution

"Local welfare assistance schemes are a vital lifeline for people who find themselves in a crisis and without basic essentials, such as food, electricity, or a working oven. It is therefore very worrying that most of these schemes have been cut back considerably in recent years and that 26 local councils have now closed them altogether, including in many areas that we represent (English councils’ local welfare schemes in ‘meltdown’, 12 September)."

Rees-Mogg obviously hadn't acquainted himself with this.

Agreed, FarNorth. There are times when knowing a bit of background and reading between the lines are necessary.

If JRM was praising volunteers giving help because of some emergency or disaster, that would be fine.
To praise them while, at every opportunity, voting to increase the hardship which makes their work necessary, is stunning hypocrisy.

I think this part has been misinterpreted: “To have charitable support given by people voluntarily to support their fellow citizens I think is rather uplifting and shows what a good, compassionate country we are,”

It shows what a callous, incompetent government we have, also.

My mother used to do that, Poppyred.
At the age of twelve I used to put my eight and two year old sisters to bed when my busdriver dad was on late shifts, or sometimes have to get them up in the morning.
I preferred it when my mother was working 6-10 every night, rather than 8-8.

Do you really think it's okay to go back to that?

Poppyred how do you suppose a single mother who is a nurse manages that? She would be paying out more than she earned in childcare. Even after school and holiday care will make a huge hole in her finances. without unsocial hours.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/15/jacob-rees-mogg-food-banks-tory

Oh and Day6 the reason the welfare state doesn't work very well is because we have a government who don't want it to.

Nurses can double their pay by working enhanced hours. If they start work at 4pm or later or work weekend shifts also basic pay goes up every year for at least 5years.

A good list, trisher.

Stop having the richest people in the country in charge of our government.

Stop pretending we have near full employment and give people proper jobs.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/15/healthy-unemployment-figures-mask-hardship-fear-unregulated-jobs-market-irene

2 in every 5 people are in insecure work.

First time I have heard India described as "enlightened"-from the UN's report on India and democracy
In sum, not only do a quarter of the world’s poor live in India, the number of illiterates, school drop-outs, people suffering from communicable diseases, and infant, child and maternal deaths, amount to a staggering proportion of respective world totals. More troublesome is the fact that country has high numbers of hungry people despite the existence of huge buffer stocks of food. And India’s record in providing services-sanitation, clean drinking water, electricity, housing, and jobs-is even bleaker. It is clear that political democracy has simply not been accompanied by the institutionalisation of economic and social democracy.
You can read the whole thing here www.unrisd.org/80256B3C005BCCF9/(httpAuxPages)/AFA456B71A0BD335C1256FFF0052FE69/$file/dchandho2.pdf
If that is the standard we are applying Day6 we have sunk to an all time low.
As for what we could do.
1. Stop zero hours contracts and pay a living wage
2. Stop demonising people who claim benefits and ensure easy and quick access to them.
3. Renationalise fuel supplies and ensure the poorest and weakest are properly protected from fuel poverty
4. Reintroduce emergency payments for people who are suddenly faced with an unexpected bill on benefits or fixed incomes.
5.Introduce a system of fair rents to curb spiralling costs.
6. Provide an adequate debt counselling service through CABs
Well that's for a start anyway

fullfact.org/economy/why-are-more-people-using-food-banks/

DJ I am not proud of the number of foodbanks we have now.

World wide phenomenen apparently. Most enlightened countries have a food bank system. India does, and the USA too...

No one is proud that they exist, but we do have to remember that life without them was more difficult for people in crisis and without funds to buy food.

What do you suggest that (any) government does to eradicate them or make them unnecessary?

There isn't an answer, given we have a welfare state. It often doesn't work very well, but it's there and there are many and various reasons for people not having enough money to buy food.

Interesting that the article in the Telegraph about the same broadcast didn't even mention foodbanks.

A sense of proportion?
So it's a good thing that we have doubled the number of foodbanks in the last three years, that the number has gone up 20fold in the last six years?

We are the fifth or sixth richest nation in the world, and we should keep a sense of proportion about that?
I don't think so.
I am not proud of the number of foodbanks we have now.
I am not proud of the number of people who have died after being sanctioned by this government.

Foodbanks are not progress, they are a sign of a lack of compassion in this government.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is a millionaire. He is smug and patronising. Sorry, have to stop saying what I think of him now. Not words to be used in front of people who think charity is uplifting.

Is allowing public schools to keep their charitable status despite not helping other schools like they are supposed to be doing also uplifting?
I don't imagine Rees-Mogg has told us what he thinks of that particular sort of charity.

Which is about desperate poverty in the 6th largest economy in the world.

I think it is wonderful that we have food banks for people in need, hungry families with little income.

I was from one of those families. I started life in a slum dwelling and we often ate bread and dripping because there was nothing else in the house. Mum used vegetable peelings to make soup.

No, not Dickensian but life for the poor in late 1950s/1960s post war Britain.

Abject poverty is not a new thing. It's always existed, but back then you went hungry and made do. We had to wait until Dad's pay-day to buy food and Mum managed as best she could on a miniscule budget. We were the generation that hid behind the sofa when the rent man called....like most of our neighbours. Families were very proud. I cannot remember anyone being on benefits. Fathers walked miles to find work and would do anything to bring money in.

That was only 50 years ago and I thank goodness that poor families get more help today.

Food banks are great things, stocked by donations and run by volunteers. I am so glad we are more enlightened and help is available for those needing food, for whatever reason.

What does annoy me is that people here are engaging in government-bashing as though recent governments (Labour and Conservative) are solely to blame for poverty. People live in poverty for many and various reasons.

We have a benefits system which works for most. No one is left destitute unless benefits are slow coming in or they don't qualify and most people eligible for food bank assistance have either defaulted in signing on or have had a recent monetary crisis, like a big bill, or gambling or drinking problems which mean no food is available for children. Low paid workers and those on flexible contracts probably struggle the most but they are eleigible for benefits and top ups/credits.

I doubt very much that working professionals like nurses and police officers are eligible for food bank help, (given they have to be referred for a voucher) unless they have for some reason not budgeted for living costs. Like anyone they may have had a crisis in their lives but on a day to day basis such workers are unlikely to qualify. They earn a darn sight more than most manual hourly paid workers.

I am glad that today we help poorer members of our society. It's right and proper that we do and the food bank is in fact a compassionate bit of progress, given not so long ago many many children did indeed go to bed hungry and in a dark house because there was no electricity. I was one of them.

A sense of proportion is needed. Food banks have become political currency...but poverty has always existed (it always will, even in the UK) and no government yet has eradicated it.

I think some of you teachers of critical reading skills could do with a bit of practice yourselves.

Perhaps I don't know what politicking means and have misused it....

<heads dictionariwards>

Nope. I've used it correctly. Guess it must just be the misinterpretation skills people have.

"The real rise in foodbanks is because people know they are there and Labour deliberately wouldn't tell them when they were in power."

My interpretation of that is that he's politicking not very convincingly.
(is that four times now, or five?)

<scratches head> perhas people don't know what politicking means...

* Just about the whole of the reading population has misinterpreted it, then Baggs.
Why do you think that is?*

Not that I agree with this. I think "the whole of`" is an exaggeration.

If it's true that just about the whole of the reading population can't make the distinction I've made then I despair of education.

"The real rise in foodbanks is because people know they are there and Labour deliberately wouldn't tell them when they were in power."

I'd like your interpretation of this, please, Baggs.