Just a FEW things you might not know if you rely on
mainstream media (MSM) PART ONE: political business as usual #GTTO
 |
| See The Canary https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/08/29/one-image-just-annihilated-the-dwps-most-controversial-benefit/ |
1. #Poverty
For many this summer (like others previously) has been haunted by hunger and other deprivations. In July I wrote:
For many this summer (like others previously) has been haunted by hunger and other deprivations. In July I wrote:
The surge in food poverty is
mirrored by increases in period poverty (one in 10 girls in the UK do not have
access to sanitary products), funeral poverty (about 4,000 people a year
have public health funeral; the modern equivalent of a Victorian pauper’s
funeral), homelessness (a rise of 169% between 2010 – 2017, with a current
estimated total of 236,000) and use of temporary accommodation (up by 65%
between 2010 – 2017, with over 100 families becoming homeless each day). With
all this, and more, in mind it is not surprising that some politicians,
charities and journalists are beginning to speak of the shocking
‘normalisation’ of hardship, destitution even. There is much evidence too that
benefit system does not work with significant numbers of people on benefits
experiencing increasing hardship. For example, a recent study of those on
Universal Credit found that 72% of people surveyed were experiencing some
adversity; from ‘struggling from time to time’ to constantly having ‘real
financial difficulties’*. And to add insult to injury we discover that the
Conservative MP forced to apologise (and donate a five-figure sum to charity)
after tweeting defamatory comments about the Leader of the Opposition has had
his legal fees paid by two Party donors. I for one can think of better ways
that money could have been spent. ….
*I’m fairly
sure that it took The Canary to point this out as other media outputs were
suggesting the percentage was lower than 72%
And now it’s ‘back to school’ time we have this, reported
in the Liverpool Echo:
A new study from
the Children's Society has found that the average cost of a secondary school
uniform is now a staggering £340 per child each year, reflecting a 7% increase
(or £24) since 2015. The study said that one million children in the UK are
living in families who are getting into debt to meet the rising cost of
uniforms, with one in six cutting back on food and other basic essentials in
order to afford them. It explained that the high cost of uniforms could be put down
in part to school policies that make parents buy clothing from specialist shops
rather than giving them the choice of buying items at cheaper stores. However, it added that a government failure to clamp
down on school uniform costs despite pledging to do so in 2015 also meant more
families were struggling.
Responding
to the findings councillor Gerard Woodhouse, who has spent years proving free
school uniforms to children ... said the
situation was severe in Liverpool, with thousands of families affected by back
to school poverty. Cllr Woodhouse told the ECHO: "In Liverpool thousands
of families are (struggling to buy school uniforms). It's not only parents on
benefits, it's working parents too, parents on low incomes or affected by
in-work poverty. I thought last year was
bad, but this year we had 350 applications in one week alone. I've never seen
it so bad."
So even though we know:
@jrf_uk [Joseph Rowntree
Foundation]: Work should be a
route out of poverty. It's not right that despite the percentage of workless
households [14%] being at a 20 year low, the percentage of households in
poverty [24%] is at a 20 year high
31st August 2018
|
The Conservatives ‘proudly’ tell us:
@10DowningStreet: More children than ever before now live in a home
where at least one adult is in work. That means a better start in life for
the next generation, and a stronger, fairer economy that works for everyone.
31st
August 2018
|
Clearly a lesson in how to twist a fact to fit a false agenda. As if we needed any more examples.
2. #DWPCrimes
Just over a week ago on Thursday of last week (30th August) I took part in a twitter storm #DWPCrimes. Here are a few I retweeted:
2. #DWPCrimes
Just over a week ago on Thursday of last week (30th August) I took part in a twitter storm #DWPCrimes. Here are a few I retweeted:
@pplsassembly: The number of people dependent on foodbanks has
been rising exponentially 1.3m+ parcels in last year, increasingly because of
stoppage in benefits and especially since rolling out of #UniversalCredit.
#DWPcrimes
#ToriesOut
|
@Hepworthclare: The Tories have punished the poor the disadvantaged and the
dispossessed by a variety of measures, including the welfare benefits system.
It's what they do.#DWPCrimes
|
@BlogRedRobin:
Under the Tories attempted suicides by disability benefit claimants have more
than DOUBLED after introduction of the fit-to-work assessment. How much
longer is Britain going to allow the @Conservatives to persecute + terrorise the disabled? #DWPCrimes
|
AND
THIS ONE:
@Card007Teri: Tory propaganda has demonised the disabled. NO MORE. We stand for
humanity, compassion and empathy. #Toriesout
#DWPCrimes
 |
This Thursday (6th Sept) there was a further #CrimesofDWP twitter storm. The need for attention to this is clear.Thus:
- People
on Universal Credit owe 63.7% of all rent arrears. But just 24.9% of
tenants are on the benefit.
- Universal
Credit claimants’ arrears have increased by 76% on average.
- There
was a £210,000 increase in arrears due to Universal Credit in a year.
- Before
Universal Credit, the average rent arrears was £207. Now it’s £365.
- Halton’s debt recovery teams have had to double in size since the DWP launched Universal Credit. (Halton Housing CEO Nick Atkin, reported by Steve Topple https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2018/08/29/one-image-just-annihilated-the-dwps-most-controversial-benefit/ )
And (again quoting Steve Topple):
The think tank Resolution Foundation a report into Universal Credit (which is calls UC), calling for it to be 'fixed"....
It says that if Universal Credit worked
properly:
700,000 families could benefit by a
total £2.9 billion a year…
This is not going to happen. By its very nature, UC is designed to make
sure working people are only on it for a short period of time. An estimated 2.8
million people are in the low-paid, unpredictable-hours world of the “gig
economy”. If these people claim UC, and if the DWP says they’re not working
enough, they could be sanctioned until they find more work or earn more. This
is intentionally designed to force people to take whatever work comes along.
It’s ‘race-to-the-bottom’ mentality. …
This is the biggest point politicians, pundits and think tanks miss. UC
is not fixable. It’s the ‘Trojan Horse’ to usher in a brave, new, dystopian
world where all poor people are on a race to the bottom. And it’s designed to
split the poorest in society into two groups.
These are the ‘deserving poor’*; people who drag themselves out of
destitution just enough so the state won’t support them. But it will pat them
on the head and say ‘well done’ anyway. And shoo them off into the gig economy
and in-work poverty. Then there’s the ‘undeserving poor’; sick, disabled and unemployed
people and feckless workers – who deserve nothing more than to drown in a tidal
wave of brown envelopes and sanctions; because ultimately, they’re not
productive to society.
[*I have written about other ways in which people are divided into
categories of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ in the #HostileEnvironment of #ToryBritain
see:
3. #WarCrimes
With reference to our 'relationship' with other nations there's this example:
With reference to our 'relationship' with other nations there's this example:
Experts from the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) have
“strongly” suggested that war crimes have been committed in the ongoing civil
war in Yemen. And while Theresa May dances in Africa, her
government’s actions mean the UK is complicit in these alleged crimes…
In a report released on 28 August, the UNHRC found that:
parties to the
armed conflict have perpetrated, and continue to perpetrate, violations and
crimes under international law…
individuals in the
Government of Yemen and the coalition, including Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates… have committed acts that may, subject to determination by an
independent and competent court, amount to international crimes.
On 9 August, a Saudi-led coalition bomb hit a school bus in Yemen,
killing 40 children and 11 adults.
This was just the latest tragedy in a brutal war.
Since March 2015, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition has been fighting
Houthi forces in Yemen and those loyal to former president Ali Abdullah
Saleh. According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi-led coalition is:
supported by the United
States and the United Kingdom.
This is because Saudi Arabia is also the “UK’s biggest arms customer”.
According to Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), the UK has licenced £4.7bn
of arms exports to Saudi Arabia in the past three years. And these arms have
been used in the brutal Saudi-led war.
As (CAAT) reported:
The UK has
continued to support Saudi airstrikes in Yemen and provide
arms despite overwhelming evidence of repeated breaches of international
humanitarian law.
This is in clear violation of European and international law. It
also violates the UK’s own guidelines on arms sales, and makes a mockery
of the government’s claim to control arms exports “rigorously”. Yet
foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has defended the UK’s links to Saudi Arabia.
https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2018/08/31/theresa-may-might-be-dancing-but-the-un-has-implicated-her-government-in-war-crimes/
4. #ToryIslamaphobia
And finally, in this Blog but of course I could go on, there’s this:
A recently released (6th Sept) Conservative Cabinet League
Table includes the following commentary:
… there
are two particularly large losses in the table, which appear to be linked.
Brandon Lewis, who was as high as +46.6 in June, loses a further 31.2 points
this month, falling from -2.7 to -33.9. That is a brutal verdict from Party
members on their chairman, and seems to be directly linked to his handling of
the Boris Johnson burka row and the ensuing investigation. Similarly, Ruth
Davidson’s normally quite unassailable rating has suffered, dropping from +54.4
to +33.8, I suspect due to her intervention in the same dispute, when she
compared wearing a burkha to wearing a cross.
https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2018/09/lewis-and-davidson-both-suffer-a-boris-burka-backlash-in-our-cabinet-league-table.html
https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2018/09/lewis-and-davidson-both-suffer-a-boris-burka-backlash-in-our-cabinet-league-table.html
In response the Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi (who has frequently and
continually called out, and asked for an investigation into, Islamaphobia
within the Conservative Party has tweeted today (read from bottom up):
@SayeedaWarsi: What does this say about my Party @Conservatives? Muslim
bashing will tragically continue to be an attractive political option as long
as there is political mileage in Muslim bashing.
|
@SayeedaWarsi: This poll @ConHome is interesting and disturbing. Attack Muslim women to see an increase in approval ratings but if you defend Muslim women then poll ratings fall “Lewis & Davidson both suffer a Boris burka backlash
in our Cabinet League Table”
|
****
More soon in:
Just a FEW things you might not know if you rely on mainstream media (MSM) PART TWO: #ChangeTheMedia
AND in:
Just a FEW things you might not know if you rely on mainstream media (MSM) PART TWO: #ChangeTheMedia
AND in:
Just a
FEW things you might not know if you rely on mainstream media (MSM) PART THREE:
political business as usual #LaboursVisionsforBritain (and the world)
No comments:
Post a Comment