Child poverty cash

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.

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

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 !

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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 !