13m will spend £1.2bn on 'Panic Saturday', but 13m others across the country will spend this Christmas in poverty
In the first quarter of
the 21st Century, it is a scandal and a disgrace that 13 million
people are, no matter what measurement you choose to employ in
establishing that figure, living in poverty in this country today.
Over 1 million families reliant on Food-banks and other charities, 1
million in child poverty, hundreds of thousands of people homeless,
or in inadequate accommodation, many people actually in work who earn
less than the minimum wage or are on zero hour contracts, having to
claim benefits, which are being further reduced by government cuts,
are indicative of a fractured nation.
This is a situation which
has been created and exacerbated by successive administrations, and
is an indictment of a political philosophy, where the “Markets”,
the city and the interests of business are infinitely more important
than the concept of society and the social welfare of the country. It
is the collective shame of a nation where greed and self interest,
fuelled and encouraged by career politicians in Westminster and
reprehensible reporting from some parts of the media and television,
have become a “norm” and an acceptable aspect of many sections
of British society.In the first part of the
21st Century we, as a nation, have progressed little since the
traumas of the last 100 years and are in many aspects of life,
returning to squalor and deprivation not seen since the 1930's
Comments
Post a Comment