If I see anyone else say “well it’s the parents fault they spend it on X/Y/Z”… I will scream…
Well done for spectacularly missing the core point, the one fault it isn’t… Is the bloody child, who we should help whatever the cost.
I’d love a fat pig like Boris to eat what a child living under poverty and needing a free meal does for 1 week and see what he thinks then.
We have come full Animal Farm, the pigs are lording it.
Indeed, the foodbanks are in the English press getting a lot of positive attention, which is fair enough. But in reality, so many foodbanks in an advanced western country is a testament of cataclysmic sociopolitical failure.
Whenever I read a story about a foodbank in the UK, I don’t think “oh, it’s good that nice people donate and help less fortunate ones”, I think “wow, people have to go to foodbanks over there, what a disgrace”.
Well that’s the problem. There never is a reckoning and people continually vote them in!!
I might be stupid but I’m not that stupid.
We’ll have to see what happens. Now that the Brexit question has been answered I’ve been confident for some time that we’ll see a move to the left in British politics (and I’ve had that view for many years (one of the reasons I voted Leave) so it’s not just a response to Johnson’s premiership).
I’d be holding my breath till January in a metaphorical sense.
This is very very simple:
Anybody over the age of 11 knows where babies come from
Anybody who decides to then have children is responsible for them
Which of those parts do you disagree with?
When kids are malnourished, ignored, badly treated etc it’s ALWAYS the parent’s fault.
Apart from in war zones, natural disasters, global pandemics causing unprecedented financial hardships etc etc
It will be interesting to see how far that happens. I can certainly see the “Red Wall” voting Labour once again. Those areas are set to be hit hard in the immediate wake of Brexit if local industries fail to transition.
But let’s also not forget that this whole debate on child poverty and food banks is not a new phenomenon. Various governments have simply failed to address it one way or another.
This is why we don’t agree.
Yes the cause is the parents fault (on a base level,
If you ignore austerity, cov19, cuts to social services)
However, It’s irrelevant the cause of a child’s hunger, the people who run the country should never let any child be hungry on their watch.
Especially when they get their own meals subsidised and just voted through a pay rise. Greedy fat Tory pigs.
What if the parent is also malnourished?
Sorry, you’re right.
In the UK.
Shouldn’t be having kids?
Cant go back if the local pit / mine / factory / whatever closes and the work is gone after you’ve started a family.
I’m not going to have a family in case I lose my job in 5 years isn’t really the answer either.
Simple truth is a lot of these families have had to suffer changing circumstances through no control of their own. They are the carnage left behind. Just think of coal mines in North England / South Wales. Or manufacturing plants of Sunderland etc.
What happens to those people near Broughton if Airbus decide to move to France next year?
I question how you can manage to think so categorically and judgmentally on something that is very often quite complicated. And yes, I saw that you clarified meaning UK only, but still.There are often so many factors involved.
I mean, if you just use your imagination and look at it from a human (emotionally) pov, there can be so many reasons why poor people get children. If a woman gets pregnant, it is not that easy to just decide to “ah, no problem, abortion will sort it”, some people have a great difficulty doing that and that is just one example of which there are legion.
Another example would be someone who gets children and then loses their job, making it much more difficult for them to financially take care of their children well enough. Yet another example is the parent that has a bad job/jobs, perhaps they don’t have a single job, but need to take several part time jobs to get through the week. The parent will then often not be there at home enough for the children. I could have written a long essay of examples, they are legion.
So yes, I don’t understand your point of view although of course, many parents are irresponsible, but the categorical “everyone” is anti intellectual and not very imaginative in my opinion. Also, empathy for even those who live their lives, for whatever reason, in a very sub optimal way, is very important. Very often, such people have been dealt bad cards from the beginning.
A different argument but certainly one that I think people will have to consider more seriously as time passes
Again, very simple. Let’s hypothesise that a woman has a baby, is unemployed and dad fucks off. She will be looked after (at the base level) by the government.
Let’s consider another woman who has 5 babies with her husband, neither work (I can FEEL the itchy fingers on the keyboard) and are looked after by the government.
Now situation one is a terrible mistake and we can all feel some sympathy.
Situation 2 is just shit parents.
That’s true for a 2+2 family on hard times. A friend of mine has 10 brothers and sisters. That’s just fucking everybody else off because I can’t keep my dick in my pants.
Far too many people judge other people from a position of comfort.
Your hypothetical woman with ten kids on benefits reactionary Daily Mail shit that is always pulled out in response to any proposal like this takes no account of the context and circumstances that create those crisis families. The abuse, the domestic violence, the hopelessness, the despair, the lack of education - all the multitude of policy failures and let downs that leave someone utterly lost and disengaged from any responsibility.
It’s just very, very easy to pontificate about how you can do this, and you know not to do that. I find it a bit nauseating to be honest. I think the desire to pass judgement on others when you have no idea what is going on in their lives is just a way of abdicating responsibility for something that is obviously wrong.
That case is very much a minority.
I would argue that there are massive numbers of people put into financial difficulty through the massive closure of industry across the UK. Much of that has been driven by political decisions.
Another huge part is the rental market.