The U.K. in 2019 -

ab I thought water in Wales was provided through Dwr Cymru a not for profit organisation with no shareholders so different from situation in England ( don’t know about W and NI)

So, this government is doing some good for those who privately rent houses, by changing the laws surrounding the terms of tenancies, which will give tenants more peace of mind.

GG13 yes, exactly, food has never been cheaper, there are numerous charity shops and pound shops around too.

Great posts Day6 and I agree completely that children turning up at school hungry, angry and confused is down to
Rubbish parenting and only that, blaming any government for neglectful parents is ridiculous.
My grandparents were very poor, in the 1930’s but saw that their children were fed, holes in jumpers mended etc and I had a poor ( moneywise) upbringing as a child in the 1950’s, but had a good Mother, who in spite of having to work all hours, kept us clean and fed and happy.
As far as I know there are still free meals for those on very low incomes.

The UK has moved on from “The State owning everything “, leave it to the business men/women who know what they are doing.

I would not and cannot trust a politician or civil servant to organise an egg and spoon race let alone a multi million pound industry. You only have to look at the H of Cs ???

I am satisfied with the water company we have,

Why?

Dinahmo.......everything!!!!!

GG13 - the Labour Party is proposing to nationalize energy, water, rail and post. What's not to like about that?

"Lack of services is not to blame for child poverty and neglect. Feckless and cruel parents are"

Could it, infact be both?

OK parents neglect children, they arrive at school wearing inadequate clothing, pale faced, great grey rings under their eyes.
They have not eaten or drink anything since the bag of chips they had last night.

A for too real and common scene.......how to stop it happening? How on earth can services begin to tackle this?

I feel that some people’s priorities are wrong.

With all the bargain supermarkets around food has never been cheaper.

A “best of both” loaf in Aldi’s is 50p, bags of pasta 49p or less (depends on shape). Fruit and veggies from 59p a bag/pack.

Not feeding your child is negligent and should be classed as neglect. As should over feeding on rubbish and consequently your child is obese and will/ could have life long health problems.

If a mother neglects her children ,no matter, let the state make life easier for her.

I care about children but am fed up of poverty being used as an excuse for not feeding a child for two days. I knew poverty bringing up two children on my own. They certainly didn’t know hunger .

trisher I have just looked up “Labour Party Nationalisation”.......far too many links to post on here.

I suggest you might like to do the same.

Day 6 are you saying we should not support children who have inadequate parents or disfunctional families?

I have no idea what you mean. I haven't written that.

I think I made it clear that neglectful parents, from whatever strata of society, need a finger pointing at them. Yes, those inadequate parents will need support but those children who are the true victims would hopefully be better off if their circumstances (which leave them 'hungry, angry, tired and confused') were noted earlier.

Poverty doesn't leave children in this state. It leaves them without a games machine and the latest expensive trainers, given their household will have a regular income. It shouldn't leave them with selfish, neglectful parents. Many - no most - parents on benefits are aware of their responsibilities towards their children and do their best by them.

Sometimes the tough LOVE these neglectful parents should have had has been missing from their lives and they have no idea how to adequately parent children, As most of us know and learned, from the shock of the first baby coming into our lives, it requires a lot of self-sacrifice, long hours, enormous effort and an ability to put the little ones needs before our own.

We have to stop blaming politicians and policies for people who are abusive, because child neglect (and hungry, tired, angry and confused children) should trigger alarm bells, not sympathy for adults who don't give a damn about the vulnerable children they have spawned.

Lets sympathise with murderers, paedophiles and all sorts of law-breaking criminals too and blame the Tories for that too, shall we?

The far left script is becoming annoyingly tedious. It seems to imagine people have no responsibility for their own lives, support should be there for people at every turn and everything should be made easy for them.

Get real. Cuts to services have happened for decades and new services and methods have been implemented. All governments make cuts. Taxpayers money pays for most of the elfare state. Brown in his Labour tenure savagely cut NHS budgets. Look it up.

Lack of services is cause for concern when the most vulnerable, like the sick, disabled, frail suffer.

Lack of services is not to blame for child poverty and neglect. Feckless and cruel parents are.

GG13 If you would like to provide an example of "far left" policies I'd be happy to debate it with you None of the Labour party policies are far left. No one is proposing to nationalise everything or suggesting that ordinary people should not own property.

Unfortunately both parties are moving to the extremes.

As a Conservative I can see this, but have never seen a post from a Labour voter admitting there is anything wrong within their party ( apart from one that is)

Oh I expect Lammy was talking about instances like Rees Mogg who was supporting his argument about leaving the EU by using a quote by the neoNazi party in Germany the AfD. Which has been described as racist, islamaphobic and anti-Semitic. In other words all round good eggs???.

There has been a general trend by the ERG, towards supporting neo-nazi parties in Europe. Hannan, has endorsed the FvD in the Netherlands.

History seems to becoming full circle with politicians supporting these political parties.
Moseley supported the Nazi party in the 1930s I seem to remember.

Thought David Lammy was great on Andrew Marr and the reason he called the ERG worse than the Nazis was because they embrace such right wing policies whilst pretending to be part of a democratic Party. He also condemned anti-semitism which he said was to be found on the far right and the far left of political parties.
Day 6 are you saying we should not support children who have inadequate parents or disfunctional families? The welfare state has been steadily eroded in my lifetime and it isn't just money which helps, it's the proper provision of caring services, which nurture and teach children there are other ways to live. It requires professionals in every field from nurseries and GPs through school meals, counselling and mental health services all of which have seen their funding cut.
Joelsnan yes school meals should be free to all and some provision should be made in school holidays.
You may not accept it Anniebach unfortunately it is true and it may be neglect but who do you think is going to do anything? Social services are stretched to their limits and couldn't cope with the numbers of children not fed properly.

I would though like to quote from an article written by Matthew d’Ancona, as an example of the sort of rhetoric I am finding worrying.

“In what moral universe is the statement “I wouldn’t even rape you” categorised as satire? “
This was a tweet sent to Jess Philips by Carl Benjamin. Carl Benjamin’s is now a candidate for the EU election standing on UKIPs ticket.
Gerard Batten described Benjamin as a proponent of free speech “a classical liberal” and who wasnt actually making a literal speech.

“And there we were thinking that Benjamin was just a vile mysogenist.”

Last week we became aware that the press regulator had ruled against Johnson, for his inaccuracy that had breached press guidelines.
“The Telegraphs defence was that “ Johnson’s comment were clearly comical polemical, and could not be reasonably read as a serious, empirical, in depth analysis of hard factual matters”

Given that ther3 is a very good chance that Johnson will go for leadership and might even be successful it will be useful to know which of his statements are comically polemical or sweeping generalisations or even serious and empirical..These things matter quite a lot when you are running a country”
Remember Peter Thiels statement about Trump? That we should take Trump seriously but not literally. In other words we should acknowledge his political impact, but nothing he says is necessarily true, or a statement if fact.

In my view that is true of Johnson.

Farage pledged “to pick up a rifle and head to the front lines” if Brexit didn’t happen.
Farages “fear of god” speech has caused widespread condemnation.

Predictably the charge that this language is inflammatory has been met with scornfall denunciations of liberal snowflake ray. But it is appalling to chart the increase of death threats sent to Abbott, Soubry, Lammy, Creasy, Berger and many others.
Jo Cox still looms large over Westminster and so it should.

So, beware politicians who trumpet free speech and confuse it with civic recklessness.
Beware too, those who excuse lies, or threats or hatred as satire, and posture the victims as po-faced “political correctness” even as they stoke up more trouble”

So much is at stake here.

Whitewavemark2. It’s simple to find on the Internet #Marr

GG13 I am sorry, but I didn’t see the Andrew Marr show, so I am afraid I can’t comment.

It isn’t acceptable GrannyGravy , he needs to look at his own party with anti semites being protected

Are you referring to David Lammy MP who on Marr yesterday actually called the ERG and right of the Conservative Party “worse than Nazis”.

Or is this acceptable?

Some more worries about the U.K. in 2019.

This is a letter from a long time employee of the bbc - Patrick Howse

pbs.twimg.com/media/D4K3nlQWsAEo4-g?format=jpg&name=large

Micheal Hestletine has warned of a chilling similarity between the political climate in the U.K. today and that of the 1930s.

There is mounting evidence of this phenomenon and many examples can be found with depressing regularity.