Another food bank opens. Hurrah!

We have to face facts - this Conservative govt doesn't care about the weakest members of our society. The belief of many of them is that by working people can claw their way out of poverty.

Obviously, looking at the numbers, there are many using food banks who haven't before. one reads that some nurses and school teachers are using food banks.It's a strong indictment of our society that anyone should need to use them.

Casdon

Baggs

Casdon

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Charity should not be needed in the fifth richest nation in the world to pay for basic necessities of life. Charity is a good way to supplement peoples lives, to enrich them and support their quality of life. Something is very seriously wrong with a rich society that expects people to use a food bank to survive.

I agree that it shouldn't be necessary but it is so people who are helping the unnecessarily needy are being charitable, which is a good thing.

Which is what I said above. Do not assume I meant more than I actually said. Nor you, maiz, because that's what you're doing too.

Baggs your comment was meant in a political context, otherwise you wouldn’t have highlighted the word ‘fault’ - I didn’t assume, I knew exactly what you meant. What do you mean by the way when you say ‘unnecessarily needy’, that’s also a political comment?

You did assume, casdon. You don't know why I 'highlighted' the word fault. I'll tell you, and yes, it was political but not party political. the reason I accented fault is because I think the reasons food banks are needed are complicated.

One 'complication' I struggle with is that, for all the talk of people not having enough to eat in this country, one doesn't see many actually thin people about, whereas if you look at old photographs of people in this country from two or three generations ago, you do. This, to me, means that poverty is relative at least to some extent.

I've been poor enough in the eighties myself to qualify for free milk for my kids but I and they have never not had enough to eat and never looked as skinny as kids my dad went to school with in a mining village in Yorkshire.

The political 'self-satisfaction' that people are complaining about is a separate issue from what I spoke about in my initial post.

For casdon's benefit, the highlighting there is because I haven't actually seen the scenes that people are complaining about.

Baggs

Casdon

Baggs

Casdon

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Charity should not be needed in the fifth richest nation in the world to pay for basic necessities of life. Charity is a good way to supplement peoples lives, to enrich them and support their quality of life. Something is very seriously wrong with a rich society that expects people to use a food bank to survive.

I agree that it shouldn't be necessary but it is so people who are helping the unnecessarily needy are being charitable, which is a good thing.

Which is what I said above. Do not assume I meant more than I actually said. Nor you, maiz, because that's what you're doing too.

Baggs your comment was meant in a political context, otherwise you wouldn’t have highlighted the word ‘fault’ - I didn’t assume, I knew exactly what you meant. What do you mean by the way when you say ‘unnecessarily needy’, that’s also a political comment?

You did assume, casdon. You don't know why I 'highlighted' the word fault. I'll tell you, and yes, it was political but not party political. the reason I accented fault is because I think the reasons food banks are needed are complicated.

One 'complication' I struggle with is that, for all the talk of people not having enough to eat in this country, one doesn't see many actually thin people about, whereas if you look at old photographs of people in this country from two or three generations ago, you do. This, to me, means that poverty is relative at least to some extent.

I've been poor enough in the eighties myself to qualify for free milk for my kids but I and they have never not had enough to eat and never looked as skinny as kids my dad went to school with in a mining village in Yorkshire.

That's because if you are hungry, the cheapest way to fill your belly is with high carb foods, which are generally the cheapest.

growstuff

Baggs

Casdon

Baggs

Casdon

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Charity should not be needed in the fifth richest nation in the world to pay for basic necessities of life. Charity is a good way to supplement peoples lives, to enrich them and support their quality of life. Something is very seriously wrong with a rich society that expects people to use a food bank to survive.

I agree that it shouldn't be necessary but it is so people who are helping the unnecessarily needy are being charitable, which is a good thing.

Which is what I said above. Do not assume I meant more than I actually said. Nor you, maiz, because that's what you're doing too.

Baggs your comment was meant in a political context, otherwise you wouldn’t have highlighted the word ‘fault’ - I didn’t assume, I knew exactly what you meant. What do you mean by the way when you say ‘unnecessarily needy’, that’s also a political comment?

You did assume, casdon. You don't know why I 'highlighted' the word fault. I'll tell you, and yes, it was political but not party political. the reason I accented fault is because I think the reasons food banks are needed are complicated.

One 'complication' I struggle with is that, for all the talk of people not having enough to eat in this country, one doesn't see many actually thin people about, whereas if you look at old photographs of people in this country from two or three generations ago, you do. This, to me, means that poverty is relative at least to some extent.

I've been poor enough in the eighties myself to qualify for free milk for my kids but I and they have never not had enough to eat and never looked as skinny as kids my dad went to school with in a mining village in Yorkshire.

That's because if you are hungry, the cheapest way to fill your belly is with high carb foods, which are generally the cheapest.

They always were the cheapest.

How do you explain the correlation between deprivation in the UK and obesity? It's well documented that certain regions have a higher percentage of deprivation and it's the same regions which have more overweight/obese people.

People did not get fat on the cheapest foods when they only had enough or had less than enough.

I really dislike foodbanks as an indicator of poverty, but they've become a symbol which people understand.

It's not so much that people can't afford to eat, but they don't have the money to afford food and heating, housing costs, travel, clothes, etc etc. People don't generally donate to pay people's housing or heating costs, but dropping a couple of boxes or tins in the collection box is easy.

Baggs

People did not get fat on the cheapest foods when they only had enough or had less than enough.

So how do you explain the correlation between deprivation and obesity?

Conservative MP Lee Anderson says there isn't a massive need for food banks in the UK, it’s just that people “cannot cook properly, they can't cook a meal from scratch, they cannot budget.”

They're out in force today.

People ate differently when I was young. If you were poor meals were made from potatoes and vegetables and not much meat and people were much more active.

Now there are things like pizza pasta and confectionary that are cheaper to eat and have considerably more calories.

Food banks have now become institutionalised and a socially accepted response to declining welfare provision, and naturally Tories champion them because they are a substitute for adequate state support.
I think provision of food banks is only acceptable in a crisis but as a permanent provision does not solve the structural issues of poverty in a relatively rich country.

AGAA4

People ate differently when I was young. If you were poor meals were made from potatoes and vegetables and not much meat and people were much more active.

Now there are things like pizza pasta and confectionary that are cheaper to eat and have considerably more calories.

... and pies!

Pizza, pasta and pies - the three "p"s - all relatively cheap and filling.

I too sometimes think that I have been transported to a parallel universe where the population is being brainwashed into thinking that wrong is not only right but laudable.
Is it now being suggested that we turn people away from food banks if they don’t look thin enough to qualify as hungry?

Idiot of the day

Conservative MP Lee Anderson says there isn't a massive need for food banks in the UK, it’s just that people “cannot cook properly, they can't cook a meal from scratch, they cannot budget.”

I Googled Lee Anderson and I quote.

While serving as a Labour councillor on Ashfield Council in 2018, he was suspended by the party locally for allegedly dumping boulders to block access to a local camp site. He was later given a community protection notice over the action, and instructed to remove the boulders.

After this he defected to the Conservatives.

Give it a few minutes and we will have some GN members telling us about their sainted mothers who fed 14 children in a two up two down on 7 carrots and a lamb bone. Followed by comments about Foodbank users all having the latest i-phone, expensive manicures and flat screen tv. Oh and cars. Oh and smoking

Casdon

Baggs

Casdon

Baggs

Charity is always a good thing, regardless of whose 'fault' the need is perceived to be.

Charity should not be needed in the fifth richest nation in the world to pay for basic necessities of life. Charity is a good way to supplement peoples lives, to enrich them and support their quality of life. Something is very seriously wrong with a rich society that expects people to use a food bank to survive.

I agree that it shouldn't be necessary but it is so people who are helping the unnecessarily needy are being charitable, which is a good thing.

Which is what I said above. Do not assume I meant more than I actually said. Nor you, maiz, because that's what you're doing too.

Baggs your comment was meant in a political context, otherwise you wouldn’t have highlighted the word ‘fault’ - I didn’t assume, I knew exactly what you meant. What do you mean by the way when you say ‘unnecessarily needy’, that’s also a political comment?

Yes. I’d like to know who the unnecessarily needy are

what a prat

Yes. I’d like to know who the unnecessarily needy are

I think they are the 'deserving poor'. If we're going to resort to 19thC charity, we might as well use the correct terminology...

Oh I thought it meant the undeserving poor.

Maybe she means people like nurses that should be paid a wage that wouldn’t necessitate the need for them to use food banks.

volver

^Conservative MP Lee Anderson says there isn't a massive need for food banks in the UK, it’s just that people “cannot cook properly, they can't cook a meal from scratch, they cannot budget.”^

They're out in force today.

Which party was it that removed sure start centres that amongst many things taught basic cooking skills?

And reduced cooking in the school curriculum?

Monty Python's Flying Circus -
"Four Yorkshiremen" from the album Live At Drury Lane, 1974

The Scene:
Four well-dressed men are sitting together at a vacation resort
'Farewell to Thee' is played in the background on Hawaiian guitar

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
You're right there, Obadiah
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
A cup o' cold tea
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Without milk or sugar
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Or tea
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In a cracked cup, an' all
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor

Mr Anderson, MP, cost us £223,000 last year, apparently. I understand that he is happy to explain to my foodbank clients that,"cooking from scratch " they can eat on 30p a day.
Celebrity cookbook, out in time for Christmas, perhaps?