I donate £15 a month to our local food bank. Also wanted to take them some food as well (they had a shopping list of things they needed) but the site said "email us first before you come down" - so I did, a month ago and haven't heard back.
I think lots of people want to help, the number people now dependent on food banks is an absolute disgrace.
I donate £15 a month to our local food bank. Also wanted to take them some food as well (they had a shopping list of things they needed) but the site said "email us first before you come down" - so I did, a month ago and haven't heard back.
I think lots of people want to help, the number people now dependent on food banks is an absolute disgrace.
And we have mp's sitting in their big houses driving big cars claiming 50k a year for a 2nd house that's where it's wrong
And like the man said in his interview, people paying 3 pound or whatever to vote to keep someone in the X factor or in the jungle when stuff like this is going on.
I donate £15 a month to our local food bank. Also wanted to take them some food as well (they had a shopping list of things they needed) but the site said "email us first before you come down" - so I did, a month ago and haven't heard back.
I think lots of people want to help, the number people now dependent on food banks is an absolute disgrace.
And we have mp's sitting in their big houses driving big cars claiming 50k a year for a 2nd house that's where it's wrong
These things are morally wrong, but in terms of cost to the country they are a drop in the ocean. Even benefit fraud is not as costly as it is made out to be by some. Not defending those actions, they are wrong and certainly send out a very poor message from the MPs who are supposed to lead us. However, corporate tax avoidance/evasion, low minimum wages jobs having to be (often inadequately) subsidised by the government through tax credits, illegal wars fighting abstract concepts - these have/are having a much larger effect on the UKs budget, but the wealthy elite in the media and the self serving politicians would rather we're outraged about the small stuff so we don't end revolting on the streets.
I have to be careful going too far down this path because I come of sounding like a rambling maniac conspiracy theorist, but all I know is an awful lot of us are being shat on from a great height and the further down you are the faster the shit is going when it hits you.
I always buy a copy of The Big Issue. However, the bloke selling it in Hayes is East European and I must admit that has stopped me. Not sure we need to import homelessness.?
Given that you have heard this, and witnessed poverty close-up, should the Government divert the overseas aid budget to address this problem at home ?
Discuss.
Yes. Our overseas aid budget is huge. I'm not saying scrap it but reduce it and sort out issues such as this at home.
IIRC our overseas aid budget is in the region of £11b per annum. A lot of money to you or I but in governmental terms a relative small part of the overall picture. To put it in perspective, scam mail frauds cost the UK economy somewhere between £5-10b per annum alone leaving aside all the other types of long distance crime perpetrated on the vulnerable or unsuspecting. This government has slashed funding to those services designed to combat this type of fraud or educate the public but none of the parties ever talk about an issue they could actually do something about for relatively little outlay. Preferring instead to focus on the cost of aid or how much we pay to europe or tackling the (much, much lower) cost of benefit fraud.
Anyway, I've gone off on one, but my point is that there are a host of other things that could be done to ensure that this guy and the 100,000's of others like him get half a chance before we start taking money away from our overseas aid budget imo.
I think I read the 3 biggest reasons for homelessness are family issues, trauma (which might well be linked I guess but includes ex Forces) and drug dependency.
There is a guy I walk past every day near my office and in September 2012 he was bright, chatty and seemed just down on his luck.
These days he's fucked and must be on gear, invariably asleep and out of it at 8 in the morning.
Brilliant report commissioned by Archbishop Welby and supported across all political parties. The Sanctioning policy this government has brought in for welfare payments has made the matter a lot worse, awful policy, badly handed out by poorly trained job centre staff.
I always buy a copy of The Big Issue. However, the bloke selling it in Hayes is East European and I must admit that has stopped me. Not sure we need to import homelessness.?
I know from previous posts you don't like Farage for your own reasons but he has a point when he talks about unfettered, uncontrolled immigration.
That said it is not the fault of individual immigrants who find themselves in poverty 'here' having come from poverty 'there,' they have come here looking for a better life because our non-existent border controls and EU / ECHR dominated immigration laws allow it.
Nothing to do with some poor individual foreign bloke in Hayes so keep buying the Big Issue it helps.
I did the same in Leicester Square saw a homeless bloke walking round eating food off the tables so I bought him a burger from McDonald's gave it to him and gave him £5 he snatched bought no thanks or anything I saw him later on with a can of beer shouting at people.
I don't blame him. You could have got him some fries as well.
I did the same in Leicester Square saw a homeless bloke walking round eating food off the tables so I bought him a burger from McDonald's gave it to him and gave him £5 he snatched bought no thanks or anything I saw him later on with a can of beer shouting at people.
7th richest country in the world and we have over 14 million of our residents living in food poverty.....you couldnt make it up. Utter disgrace, why is everything so expensive and wages so poor.
Last week while doing shopping at Tesco Gillingham they were collecting for the food bank so I brought a big bag of stuff for them which is so unlike me as I'm usually as tight as a badgers arse but do admit it made smile and made me feel better about myself that day.
Welcome to Britain today .. Hundreds of millions being sent in foreign aid and we've got a bloke, with a degree, rooting through supermarket bins for food.
Welcome to Britain today .. Hundreds of millions being sent in foreign aid and we've got a bloke, with a degree, rooting through supermarket bins for food.
Absolutely spot on how about bob re doing band aid for our country rather than a country that has had our help from back in the day I know that may sound cold but we need to look after our country before we look after another imo
Welcome to Britain today .. Hundreds of millions being sent in foreign aid and we've got a bloke, with a degree, rooting through supermarket bins for food.
Absolutely spot on how about bob re doing band aid for our country rather than a country that has had our help from back in the day I know that may sound cold but we need to look after our country before we look after another imo
Welcome to Britain today .. Hundreds of millions being sent in foreign aid and we've got a bloke, with a degree, rooting through supermarket bins for food.
The war in Afghanistan cost £37 billion and achieved fuck-all, whilst Afghanistan and Iraq cost the US almost $6 trillion, which is a waste of money almost beyond comprehension - although the fact that it works out at about $75,000 per household might help. Maybe it would help if we stopped getting involved in foreign conflicts that we don't understand for a start.
The point about foreign aid is a red herring. You might as well say we should divert all public spending to ensuring every man, woman and child in the UK has a guaranteed bed to sleep in and 3 meals a day, and only then can we consider things like foreign aid, infrastructure, education, emergency services etc.
Homelessness and hunger are the national scandals that hardly anyone wants to address except those directly affected by it, who are usually ignored by the media or, worse, demonised by the likes of Benefits Street. The fact is there is more than enough money to go around to ensure every person has food and a roof over their head but if you walk past a homeless person when you're out and about and don't stop to help their problems you're as guilty as politicians are if you're accusing politicians of ignoring the problem.
Is the politician's indifference to this issue bad? Yes, but then it is as much their fault as it is the likes of private companies who could hire 1000 out-of-work people at the cost of a director's or executive's salary. Furthermore when it comes to issues people care about, I'm sure 'homelessness' is pretty low on that list amongst those who actually vote, therefore politicians are hardly going to make it a flagship manifesto commitment if it is unlikely to attract voters. If people got as worked up over homelessness as they did immigration, then the problem would be fixed in no time.
Unfortunately, homelessness has long been an issue and I can't blame the long-term homeless for lashing out at members of the public who try to help them, given they've spent years, possibly decades being ignored or yelled at or spat on by tens of thousands of members of the public, it's bound to make even the strongest-willed person paranoid and bitter.
Welcome to Britain today .. Hundreds of millions being sent in foreign aid and we've got a bloke, with a degree, rooting through supermarket bins for food.
The war in Afghanistan cost £37 billion and achieved fuck-all, whilst Afghanistan and Iraq cost the US almost $6 trillion, which is a waste of money almost beyond comprehension - although the fact that it works out at about $75,000 per household might help. Maybe it would help if we stopped getting involved in foreign conflicts that we don't understand for a start.
And to think that the Iraq conflict was pretty much pursued because of the oil out there. Energy supply is a major factor to world wide poverty IMO. If oil executives would stop lobbying governments hard on energy policy and actually focus on renewables (particularly fusion http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/) we could really make some inroads into reversing a lot of the problems we face globally.
I know it will never happen, like we will never legalise drugs because those in power don't suddenly want places like Columbia making a shed load of cash (I'm not advocating the legalisation of drugs btw).
i think the Afghan conflict cost us either £80 billion or £18 billion either way a huge amount to "keep us safe here"---total kak.
Wages are low because there is an endless supply of labour. Here because their own countries are either piss poor or worse off than the UK.
early 1990s in Kingway one Saturday from my office i noticed the coffee house across the road put their rubbish bags out for Westminster to pick up. There was a line of homeless etc waiting who opened the bag and took out the food items. The following week i asked the manager what it was all about. He said officially they couldnt hand out the food , but he didnt mind them helping themselves as it would all be thrown away on Saturday afternoon (shop wasnt open Sunday) At least they had sandwiches,roles, salads etc etc. Well done him off his own bat. Things may have changed of late but our waste re food is still a disgrace.
i think the Afghan conflict cost us either £80 billion or £18 billion either way a huge amount to "keep us safe here"---total kak.
Wages are low because there is an endless supply of labour. Here because their own countries are either piss poor or worse off than the UK.
early 1990s in Kingway one Saturday from my office i noticed the coffee house across the road put their rubbish bags out for Westminster to pick up. There was a line of homeless etc waiting who opened the bag and took out the food items. The following week i asked the manager what it was all about. He said officially they couldnt hand out the food , but he didnt mind them helping themselves as it would all be thrown away on Saturday afternoon (shop wasnt open Sunday) At least they had sandwiches,roles, salads etc etc. Well done him off his own bat. Things may have changed of late but our waste re food is still a disgrace.
I think you are right re: establishments that sell food not being able to hand out produce that is being discarded because it is out of date. I don't know why this is? Health & Safety is the only thing I can think of
Just listened to it, got me welling up. The good thing is that's he's surely certain to find work after that. The bad thing is that there must be so many more people in the same boat that won't.
2400 people using food banks in central Norfolk - rural deprivation is very much alive here. I recently contacted our local Conservative M.P. to ask why his information leaflet distributed to his central Norfolk constituency did not make a reference to him as a Tory M.P. His office replied that he wished to make his leaflet non political as many people had become disillusioned with politicians. Next defector to Ukip or maybe a move as an independent M.P ?
The problem surely is how the money is directed to those most in need. The more you have in some respects the more State support there is.
If you have a house you have rent and council tax that is recognised as an expenditure the State can help cover, if you are working you can identify a shortfall in income that the State can help cover, if you are disabled you can identify specific needs that the State can cover, but if you have nothing it's as if the State says you don't need anything because you have nothing to pay for.
I am sure there are emergency funds that can be made available but only if you know the system and make demands. I know of families who work the system and have far less need than the likes of Mike who called LBC, but the likes of Mike fall through the net because they are not looking for handouts. Mike had not even sought to register for a food bank. That is why charities are a necessary part of the support system, to catch those who fail to navigate the State's bureaucracy and why the Archbishop is absolutely wrong, and just covering up the Church's impotence, in saying the Government should take over food banks when the State system has already failed.
I think there are some really silly comparisons on this thread. Overseas aid, as stated earlier by Bourbemouth Addick, is 0.7% of gdp. To make some of the claims here you'd need to know what happens to the other 99.3% of our money. Put it into the proper context, not the go-to Johnny-foreigner bashing kind. Helping the desperate is a moral obligation and, if you want to be selfish about it, a sensible thing to do to avoid being forced to spend even more dealing with conflict and even more immigration.
Helping the desperate at home is equally crucial, but not necessarily at the expense of others who need our help the most. If you guys are really up in arms about it, volunteer at a homeless shelter. Do as others have done and give food to the collectors. Give consistently to a charity that suits your beliefs.
Comments
I think lots of people want to help, the number people now dependent on food banks is an absolute disgrace.
What an eye opener.
I have to be careful going too far down this path because I come of sounding like a rambling maniac conspiracy theorist, but all I know is an awful lot of us are being shat on from a great height and the further down you are the faster the shit is going when it hits you.
Anyway, I've gone off on one, but my point is that there are a host of other things that could be done to ensure that this guy and the 100,000's of others like him get half a chance before we start taking money away from our overseas aid budget imo.
There is a guy I walk past every day near my office and in September 2012 he was bright, chatty and seemed just down on his luck.
These days he's fucked and must be on gear, invariably asleep and out of it at 8 in the morning.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/08/welfare-confront-simple-fact-hunger-stalks-britain-church-report
That said it is not the fault of individual immigrants who find themselves in poverty 'here' having come from poverty 'there,' they have come here looking for a better life because our non-existent border controls and EU / ECHR dominated immigration laws allow it.
Nothing to do with some poor individual foreign bloke in Hayes so keep buying the Big Issue it helps.
http://www.bigissue.org.uk/
Utter disgrace, why is everything so expensive and wages so poor.
Homelessness and hunger are the national scandals that hardly anyone wants to address except those directly affected by it, who are usually ignored by the media or, worse, demonised by the likes of Benefits Street. The fact is there is more than enough money to go around to ensure every person has food and a roof over their head but if you walk past a homeless person when you're out and about and don't stop to help their problems you're as guilty as politicians are if you're accusing politicians of ignoring the problem.
Is the politician's indifference to this issue bad? Yes, but then it is as much their fault as it is the likes of private companies who could hire 1000 out-of-work people at the cost of a director's or executive's salary. Furthermore when it comes to issues people care about, I'm sure 'homelessness' is pretty low on that list amongst those who actually vote, therefore politicians are hardly going to make it a flagship manifesto commitment if it is unlikely to attract voters. If people got as worked up over homelessness as they did immigration, then the problem would be fixed in no time.
Unfortunately, homelessness has long been an issue and I can't blame the long-term homeless for lashing out at members of the public who try to help them, given they've spent years, possibly decades being ignored or yelled at or spat on by tens of thousands of members of the public, it's bound to make even the strongest-willed person paranoid and bitter.
I know it will never happen, like we will never legalise drugs because those in power don't suddenly want places like Columbia making a shed load of cash (I'm not advocating the legalisation of drugs btw).
Wages are low because there is an endless supply of labour. Here because their own countries are either piss poor or worse off than the UK.
early 1990s in Kingway one Saturday from my office i noticed the coffee house across the road put their rubbish bags out for Westminster to pick up. There was a line of homeless etc waiting who opened the bag and took out the food items. The following week i asked the manager what it was all about. He said officially they couldnt hand out the food , but he didnt mind them helping themselves as it would all be thrown away on Saturday afternoon (shop wasnt open Sunday) At least they had sandwiches,roles, salads etc etc. Well done him off his own bat. Things may have changed of late but our waste re food is still a disgrace.
I recently contacted our local Conservative M.P. to ask why his information leaflet distributed to his central Norfolk constituency did not make a reference to him as a Tory M.P.
His office replied that he wished to make his leaflet non political as many people had become disillusioned with politicians.
Next defector to Ukip or maybe a move as an independent M.P ?
If you have a house you have rent and council tax that is recognised as an expenditure the State can help cover, if you are working you can identify a shortfall in income that the State can help cover, if you are disabled you can identify specific needs that the State can cover, but if you have nothing it's as if the State says you don't need anything because you have nothing to pay for.
I am sure there are emergency funds that can be made available but only if you know the system and make demands. I know of families who work the system and have far less need than the likes of Mike who called LBC, but the likes of Mike fall through the net because they are not looking for handouts. Mike had not even sought to register for a food bank. That is why charities are a necessary part of the support system, to catch those who fail to navigate the State's bureaucracy and why the Archbishop is absolutely wrong, and just covering up the Church's impotence, in saying the Government should take over food banks when the State system has already failed.
Helping the desperate at home is equally crucial, but not necessarily at the expense of others who need our help the most. If you guys are really up in arms about it, volunteer at a homeless shelter. Do as others have done and give food to the collectors. Give consistently to a charity that suits your beliefs.
Edited: I was ranting.