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One third of our people suffer "below-par" living standards, and it is a scandal.



http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/19/poverty-hits-twice-as-many-british-households




Poverty hits twice as many British households as 30 years ago

 





33% of households endure below-par living standards – defined as going without three or more "basic necessities of life", such as being able to adequately feed and clothe themselves and their children, and to heat and insure their homes. In the early 1980s, the comparable figure was 14%.



 
Poverty has doubled in the past 30 years. Since 1984 in fact. A date which holds sinister connotations in the minds of many.
Since 1984, a succession of Prime Ministers, have presided over a visible decline in living standards for people in this country, whilst at the same time the fortunes, profits and power of a number of corporations and a few individuals have increased beyond levels only imaginable 30 years ago.
This transformation of society in the United kingdom has been brought about and propagated by the governments of Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and perpetuated by the ConDem coalition of Cameron and Clegg, now with the added ingredient of "austerity" to ensure that divisions in society are preserved and widened to maintain "control" of the country.
The so called "recovery" of the economy is no more than a reference to rising house prices, and the distortion of the falling un-employment figures which involves the manipulation of statistics by moving people onto zero hour contracts or minimal part time employment, then loudly declaring that "more people are in work". The "recovery" has had little effect on wages and salaries for the vast majority of the population.
Households are still faced with rising prices for energy, food, utilities, rents, transport and the all the other costs which effect the daily lives of ordinary families in the country.
The number of people suffering below-minimum living standards has doubled in 30 years. Unless there is a radical and sincere change in the attitudes and priorities of future British governments, the prospects for the next 30 years are indeed bleak.
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