Child poverty cash

I imagine that you have to first ask how that allotted money is spent in this country before blaming the EU. How many are being paid " silly amounts " in which to carry out this service and how much are they demanding ?
Don't forget, this country wasn't behind the door when greed was dished out either, by politicians or the public itself.
Do we ever seen an inventory as to where/how these funds were spent ? No !

I just felt like putting my head in my hands when I read this earlier today. Surely to goodness the chaps in Whitehall could have directed this money to some useful purpose. What can they have been thinking of? I despair.

Ellanvannin the UK was given this cash but has failed to spend it. There is still a little time and the House of Lords has told them to get on with it. I imagine it is all audited properly and that's why they discovered the breakfast clubs were not eligible, but my point was that someone in government should then have looked at how other countries were spending their allocated cash and gone ahead.

Luckygirl I, too, felt a sense of despair. It's not as if we don't need it. I'm sure several Gransnetters know of worthwhile projects which could have done with this cash. Westminster needs to catch up quick.

Maybe tackling UK child poverty will be on Boris's list once he has paid for bringing police numbers back to 2010 levels and helping provide some faster rail travel?

There does seem to be a reluctance to discuss these sorts of things with other countries, perhaps because each country does not want to admit that the way they do things is not the only way.
I don't think it is just countries or Governments though, I have seen it happen in industry within the same company, nobody seems willing to admit to needing input from anyone else.

However, with our Government and this money, my suspicion would be that they just didn't care enough.

I recently read, in a history of British Unions, that Arthur Scargill was sent over a million pounds by Russia during the devastating miner's strike to help ease the poverty they were suffering.

And he kept it.

It was many years before the truth came out.

When I think how those families begged, pleaded, marched and suffered, I could shove him down a mine shaft.

BradfordLass72, can you please provide a link to your above allegations of Russian money being given to the striking miners.

I ask because the only reference I can find is by way of a Guardian report of Margret Thacher preventing such funds being transferred.

Link to that article can be found here:-
www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/aug/29/margaret-thatcher-soviet-aid-miners

BradfordLass, what sticks in my mind about Scargill was the fact that when each strike day was over he'd be going back to his mansion worry-free while the miners trudged back to their mortgaged homes not knowing if there'd be food on the table.
What a despicable character that man was !

Could Mods put both threads on the subject together, please.

When I see the level of poverty in parts of the North East where we have the biggest foodbank in the country this makes me so angry.

I lived among striking miners and watched them collect donations of food parcels, chop their fences down to burn the wood for the fire and the desperation of those who had no choice but to break the picket lines and risk being ostracised by the entire community.

Sad times indeed, but typical of any one in charge of a powerful union Arthur was okay wasn’t he ? Thought he was the big shot.

Grandad1943
At the time of the miners strike I was very involved with fundraising for the miners through my own union (SOGAT)
We heard these rumours and of course we were very angry.
But it proved to be untrue.
Read Roy Greenslades article in the Guadian ( May 27th 2002) where he apologies to Arther Scargill.

Scargill, who recently took his much shrunken and impoverished union to court to make them continue to pay the rent on his flat in the Barbican in London until he dies or chooses to give it up www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-25731328

I have always supported the unions as a protection for workers and remain a retired member of the union I belonged to when working, but my contempt for union leaders, is beyond measurement, with their big salaries, and multiple 'benefits' from subsidised housing to company cars. They constantly bring the last scenes of 'Animal Farm' to mind.

They all forget the true needs and wants of their members when money bags are waved in front of their eyes.

Arthur Scargill should have done the apologising

We are off thread now. The current situation is appalling. Even if the gov. found breakfast clubs exempt they could surely have made an effort to find out from all the ‘bumph’ they must have been sent.

I read this and swung between fury and despair, there are children going hungry all over the country. Really disgraceful.

The National Union of Mine Workers (NUM) is one of wealthiest trade union organisations in the world due to its now very small membership and the way it has handled its investments in recent times.

In regards to Arthur Scargill, since the end of the 1980s miners strike and his subsequent retirement as General Secretary of that organisation, Scargill has been offered ever-increasing millions to give his account of all that happened in those turbulent years while he held the above position. However, Scargill has repeatedly turned down such offers, and remained silent.

Undoubtedly he and those surrounding him made a series of poor judgements at the start of that strike, but there were many in in the Labour movement that totally betrayed not just Scargill but all who engaged in that year-long battle.

Reports that Scargill "pocketed" funding sent from Russia during the miner's strike are total rubbish in my view and no one has ever brought forward any evidence to support such accusations.

Accounts written of the strike have been produced, in the main, by the right-wing media and writers. Those of us that worked in the transport industry as drivers at the time of the strike and were running into areas such as South wales in all probability have the greatest knowledge of what was really happening "on the ground" throughout that terrible and very complex situation. However, in regard to many of those accounts written, I and many of those who I am still in contact with find there content truly laughable.

Many involved in that dispute (including myself) would wish to see Arthur Scargill produce his version of what occurred prior too and during those many months of the miner's dispute. However, I feel that after so many years have passed he now never will.

If we are the only member of the EU that hasn't spent this money I'd like to know who was tasked with allocating it.
It must have fallen into someones remit...

Grandad1943, those of us who lived in a mining village in
South Wales during the strick know more than those who drove through, we lived it everyday

And it was the wealthy NUM who demanded the bereaved of Aberfan paid to remove the tips which had killed their children

The Aberfan Disaster Memorial Fund (ADMF) was set up on the day of the disaster. It received nearly 88,000 contributions, totalling £1.75 million. The remaining tips were removed only after a lengthy fight by Aberfan residents, against resistance from the NCB and the government on the grounds of cost. Clearing was paid for by a government grant and a forced contribution of £150,000 taken from the memorial fund. In 1997 the British government paid back the £150,000 to the ADMF, and in 2007 the Welsh Assembly donated £1.5 million to the fund and £500,000 to the Aberfan Education Charity as recompense for the money wrongly taken. Many of the village's residents suffered medical problems, and half the survivors have experienced post-traumatic stress disorder at some time in their lives.

Frankly I wouldn't believe a word that Arthur Scargill wrote. An account by someone further down the ranks, but close to the centre who had nothing to lose by an accurate account would be more acceptable (and believable)

Grandad1943, you rebut the talk of the Russian millions but do not mention his attempt to get the union to pay for his second home in the Barbican (a very expensive address), nor do you mention his attempt to buy it under the 'right-to-buy', He said he was doing it to add assets to union funds, but there is no evidence he ever discussed this plan with the union, nor that they agreed with it.

I agree with a number of posters here - the issue of Arthur Scargill and the Miners' Strike in 1984 is a side issue and a distraction.

We could discuss the impact of the Corn Laws on poverty as well, or Lord Melbourne's actions.

TODAY we have an ongoing level of ongoing incompetence in Government that permits this "Child Poverty Cash" to be misused. More specifically not used at all.

The argument that 'restrictions' were placed on its use is a non-starter. As a member of the EU our Government and Civil Service know what funds are available, and how they are intended to be used.

Should we believe then that this fund is deliberately not being used, or that our Government/Civil Service do not have the capability to understand what or how to apply for and use those funds.

Back in the days of 'Storm Desmond' David Cameron appears to have deliberately not applied for emergency aid from an EU fund that the UK was entitled to - why?

Seems on the face of it, this latest action is just trying to repeat the subliminal messaging about the EU being bad.

I agree Railman

I agree that the issue of Arthur Scargill and the 1980s Miners dispute is a distraction from the main topic of this thread. However, i responded to the initial post that diverted the thread, as once again we witness right-wing members of this forum attempt to "trash the names" of leading members of the Labour movement in their hopes of drawing attention away from the total failures of this Tory government.

Further to my above post I would be happy to join any thread that wished to discuss the Miners Dispute.

Attempt to trash the man of honour Scargill ? ?

Surely some way could have been found to use this cash - although, spread over the whole of the UK it would have to have been spread very thinly.

There are still some Sure Start centres open so could the money not have been directed to them if not to school breakfast clubs or towards funding free school dinners.