Poverty in the UK - disappearing according to Boris

No, they're not JenniferEccles. If you had a good grade in English Language, you could never have drawn that conclusion.

No problem Greta. That's how I interpreted it on second reading.

It bugs me when some people relate hard work to earnings.

It bugs me too gillybob. As far as I am aware earnings are related to skills. Everyone works hard with very few exceptions and not all at the lower end of the payscale.

The minimum wage should be enough to live on but without luxuries. Who decided that Ladymuck? And who decided what are luxuries? Some views expressed on here are pretty Victorian and yet they come from people who grew up with a National Health Service, free education and a welfare system we were all supposed to be able to rely on and that is without even thinking about the pensions we now have.

I just wonder if the holier than thous ever actually worked?

I'm waiting for a fortune to fall at my feet if educational qualifications, prudence, hard work and being frugal equate with wealth!!

GGMK3, The UK has a free education system up till 18, healthcare free at point of use i.e. NHS.

The UK still has a benefit system, but bad news travels quicker than good, and suits some political agendas.

Universal Credit should be a safety net not a lifestyle choice.

Why are so many Gransnetters against "wealth" ?

JenniferEccles

You are not concerned about the high level of poverty and inequality happening in this country now? Brought about by austerity unneeded, zero hour contracts people on poverty wages, in insecure work poverty.

Government can change this but doesn't want to.

With the way the Tories run the economy even the poor or those you deem feckless or unworthy won't get any help or money on benefits to fritter away that's what this post is about. We have instead austerity. And people living in poverty unable to manage.

If the government brought in a living wage that would help as a start.

GGMK3, The UK has a free education system up till 18, healthcare free at point of use i.e. NHS.

Why are you telling me this GG13. It's really unlikely that I don't know. I was comparing the fact that when the Victorians had some of the attitudes and beliefs voiced on here we did not have such things.

Those voicing such beliefs now will all have lived with these things available to them and their families all their lives but are being incredibly judgemental, and judgemental to their fellow UK citizens without a fact to base it on. The Victorians may have had some excuse for such vicious lack of compassion but I don't think those making such comments have any excuse.

Why are so many Gransnetters against "wealth"?

Who is against "wealth" GG13, and in what way have they expressed this antipathy? (It helps if you quote what you are asking about).

GG13 have you ever worked out what the distribution of wealth has been in your favour. Have you added up what you have taken out of the system and set it against what you actually paid in. Even though you have taken advantage of the universal benefits available to have them while, it seems, accumulating savings far in excess of someone currently receiving benefits and enjoying the "luxuries" of life.

Now someone else is paying for your pension, your calls on the NHS, etc. It is highly unlikely, unless your earnings were very high, that you actually paid in as much as you have taken and continue to take out.

to have them while and had them while

GGMK3, We have private health care, our business pays for Private Health care for all employees and their families.

We are still paying tax at a high level, as a WASPI I am yet to get my State Pension.

Some of our children were privately educated.

Our “taking out” as you put it has up till now been minimal.

Just want to say. A Corbyn government would have addressed UC and other benefits looking to provide fairness above all. All the polices would have made life fairer for everyone. People may say but there was so many polices they were needed to get UK up to the level of other European countries and all were costed, so thought out. His the Labour manifesto was is fair that's what counts what this country needs

But we got Johnson.

I hope we get RLB and Richard Burgon

I watched PM Q Jeremy Corbyn stood up for the poor on UC
But Johnson was just playing at politics.

Couldn't agree more Grant. Johnson and the Tories want the poor so cowed they stop complaining. Silent and poor. Perfect for right wing exploitation.

Nor Grant. Grany!

Don’t make me laugh.
A Corbyn government would have bankrupted the country and of course the poor would have been the first to suffer.

He wanted to stifle wealth creation and capitalism, both of which provide jobs.

There was also a plan to give tenants automatic right to buy their rented property at well below market value.

We have a property we rent out and, along I bet with many others landlords, would have sold it long before that was implemented, had Labour got in.

The result of course would have been a serious shortage of properties to rent.

Everyone dodged a bullet by giving the Tories such a huge majority.

There are some kind and compassionate posts on here that warm my heart this miserable gloomy day.
If wealth depended upon hard work and dedication I think we'd see a completely different society but ofcourse it doesn't.
As it is none of us choose the situation or family we are born into, or the genes we inherit. We do not start off with equal opportunities in life, and there's plenty of research which shows that disadvantages at birth follows through school and to employment.

JenniferEccles I totally agree with your last post. Labour under Corbyn would have seen entrepreneurs,leaving in droves.

Not a huge Boris fan, but if Corbyn had won we were seriously considering "buggering off".

Nobody could have been more disadvantaged than Mr.Gravy, but by pure determination, hard work and taking every opportunity however small, he and our family have prospered as have our employees.

I know of a few families who appear poor but drink/smoke and gamble and have takeaways like you wouldn`t believe and have never done a days work in their lives.
AND keep having more children.
We work and couldn't afford to live a life like that.
There are very few m p`s who live in the real world as they can`t see the wood for the trees.
RANT OVER.

I get very tired of wealthy people saying 'I worked hard'. Most people work hard. No one's life is more valuable than any others.
People hate to be told that actually they have been very lucky. They are lucky to have been born in a country where they are not starving. They are lucky to have been given chances. They are lucky that they were healthy enough to take those chances... It goes on and on.
I believe that wealthy people use the justification of 'I worked hard for it' to silence the little voice inside them that feels guilty for having so much when many have so little.
I am comfortably off. I appreciate that every single day.
As a retired Community Psychiatric Nurse I have seen and worked with tragedy every day of my working life as well as dealing with a fair bit in my own life, as do most people.
The entitlement of some people blows my mind.

JenniferEccles I don't think anyone "maintains that it's entirely the wicked governments fault if the feckless fall on hard times" It is however, the wicked government's fault that the services are not in place to help people whose lives have gone wrong. And, as I said in my original post we now have a PM who has no understanding of what it's like to be in poverty.

JenniferEccles You have assumed that landlords would hve sold their properties if their was a Corbyn government is wrong I think. A flood of properties new to the market would have resulted in cheaper housing for first time buyers and a loss of income to the landlords.

If you are very savvy you might be able to reinvest and achieve a similar return otherwise you would be restricted to deposit accounts with low rates of interest.

The lunch expenses and `sleep` (sorry showing up) expenses of these MPs and Lords are more than some people have to live on. I find it outrageous that poverty is ignored and sidelined by people like Boris. That is just in our country never mind worldwide.

I watched a documentary about Binmen clearing up our mess after Christmas. It moved on to sewer workers who were trying to clear a "fatburg" a dirty and dangerous job. I couldn't help thinking, if half our bankers went on strike would we miss them? Without a doubt we'd miss the Council Workers. what is the ratio of the average banker to Worker's pay I wonder.