Victorian England Brings Back Food Banks

In tandem with the thread on Osborne's new threats to the unemployed and poor, I was horrified to discover that here in Yorkshire, food banks have returned and are in very high demand, with some actually running out of space to store the huge amount of food needed to feed the poor and people having to turn to churches and the Salvation Army for help the two places traditionally used by only the poorest of the poor and homeless beggars.

BBC NEWS

York shire Evening Post

It disgusts me to the core that here in this so called wealthy country, people are being forced to beg for food. Two of my local churches have been requesting donations and the local vicar has stated he is amazed at the number of people asking for help. These are not homeless people, beggars or tramps but normal everyday folk who simply cannot afford the price of decent food. Who on earth would have thought in the 21st century we would be taking a step back to Victorian England and such poverty? The humiliation at having to beg for food which should be a human right is just dreadful, its demeaning, it eats away at pride confidence and self esteem. I know..I've had to do it!!

The poor and the disabled are easy targets, "unemployed" is now a dirty word. Media hysteria and witch hunting of occasional scroungers much publicised has now stigmatised the rest of us, with the disabled coming off worst of all with new demeaning and mostly pointless tests and assessments by for profit private companies such as Capita and Atos.

Doctor Resigns From Unfair Testing

I am personally in this position now, having become ill some time ago after years of working as a Solicitor. I found the second I became unemployed or "unemployable" I became practically a pariah.The general public are being brainwashed into believing that everyone on benefits is a scrounger when in fact those alleged scroungers are few and far between. The attitude in this country towards the unemployed couldn't be further from the likes of Scandanavia where the unemployed are treated with respect and it is seen as the fault of the Government not the individual that they are unemployed. After working all my life, I had to jump through hoops to get a penny and now bit by bit the little I do get is being chipped away at and every 6 months I run the risk of not receiving anything at all if deemed fit for work by a private health sector nurse employed under contract by the Government, whose aim is of course to reduce figures.

Jobs don't grow on trees...don't magically appear just because Governments want figures down...companies have been laying off staff for years, many many firms have gone bankrupt, textile trade is dead in Yorkshire as is mining. New technology leads to less staff...even my local Tesco is cutting staff as they have now introduce a new scan your own items system which doesn't need checkout staff!! My 2 eldest children have thankfully left this country but I worry daily for my youngest. They have no chance of ever owning their own house, chances of a good job after their degrees with so many people with good degrees is remote, there are now more graduates unemployed than at any other time. Stopping benefits...hmmm good plan...just how are these people supposed to live during that time?

What next? Send my youngest up a chimney?

Uh..... What is "solicitor" slang for? It is such a vague term to describe an employment title. For all I know a solicitor is a Jehovah's Witness or a Mormon....

Maybe you should move out of the country and into a third world country.... Don't tell the gov't and keep getting your money but live dang good on what scraps they feed you.

I am sorry, it's the survivalist nature in me to think outside of the box when it comes to looking at economic collapse and making the best of it. I am sure I'd get bashed for even voicing this idea but it was fun and theoretical

reply to post by agentblue


Lol lawyer in US terms

phyllida
reply to post by agentblue

 

Lol lawyer in US terms

holy cow, i would NEVER have thought a solicitor would be out of work!!

that is shocking!

reply to post by phyllida


You are a lawyer and you are broke...... That just doesn't sound right. I may have misread your OP but I thought you had no real skills but then again.... Silver tongued solicitors should be reaping money rt now working for debt collection companies

reply to post by okamitengu

It happens. Many firms amalgamated and became huge corporate solicitor companies about ten years ago it started. Many lost their jobs. Some turned to Crown Prosecution Service some I know became lecturers others retired on their fat savings...unfortunately I wasn't one of them I retrained as a law costdraftsman but then the legal aid rules changes and I was out of work again. Then I became ill quite possibly due to the immense stress caused

reply to post by phyllida


Yup i`m in inner city manchester and the soup kitchens/food banks are popping up all over the place at the moment. Times are tough for us at this end of the scale but not so bad for the MP`s etc. People, including myself were queing for cheap petrol at a main supermarket chain 2 days ago but the pumps were empty. I think its disgusting. And yes i`ve had to use one of these `food banks` in the last couple of years. I think its about time we realised were in a false "depression" era, orchestrated by a greedy, corrupt elitist group who in part make up TPTB. IMHO.

reply to post by fenian8


I simply can't wrap my head around why food prices are rocketing up weekly. I went to Tesco a few weeks ago and I bought a cooked chicken for £4.29 a special treat as I had a guest coming over. I made it last a couple of days too for sandwiches then a curry lol. Two weeks later I went again the same chicken £4.65 then couple of weeks later £4.99 and again two weeks later £5.25. Last week I noticed as I'd been keeping an eye on this item, a straight £6. Now there's no way on earth I can justify paying that kind of money anyway, but even if I could and would, what could possibly have caused a chicken to rise in price every two weeks? Don't tell me fuel costs and transportation etc that's bull in my opinion. Its pure greed and profits for the shareholders. Tea bags are now as much as coffee bread is £1.50...just the basics are wiping me out each week for the two of us. If it wasn't for my good old stepfather helping me out now and again I couldn't manage at all.

Quite how some people manage to run cars have holidays plasma tv's etc I just don't know. I don't even own a tv or a car!!

Tristram Stuart: The global food waste scandal
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWC_zDdF74s


Waste not, Want not!

We have a government of uncaring idiots who are tied to big business who are barely restrained by the Lib Dems. Simple.

I've known people stand for Goverment who were great people, well meaning, wanted to make a difference, the second they got into office....my christmas card list got much shorter! enough said!

What is it about power that can change even the nicest of folks?

phyllida


What is it about power that can change even the nicest of folks?

That's why you were never meant to be a solicitor

Rainbows
Jane

reply to post by angelchemuel


Aye my problem which often got me into trouble was morals..a sense of right and wrong. When I went into the law in the early 80's I wanted to help people, alas that didn't last as firms became specialised and profit driven and then the new compensation culture arose.

Ahh well I might be poorer than a church mouse but I'm happier than I was back then strangely! And if not...I'm certainly thinner!

Tesco have become horrendous. A lot of their products have doubled in price over the last year, either simply through price increases, or the stealth reduction of packet sizes. (As in, something that used to contain 200g, now contains 150g, and the price has gone up a bit.)


Sympathies by the way, I'd heard lawyers in the UK were under an extreme squeeze with all the changes the Tories have made to legal aid budget, essentially trying to make sure poor people can no longer afford legal representation.

reply to post by Painterz


Yup to my knowledge and I admit I'm out of touch a tad, Legal Aid is now very rare indeed. As for feeling the squeeze whilst there are some mega rich solicitors, earning oodles per hour, the vast majority of us were simply making a good living for a lot of hours and stress and as we all know regardless of how much you earn, you live up to your means.

When all the small firms were taken over or went bust, I know 2 solicitors who topped themselves, then a year later my own senior partner drowned himself. It was a bad time with a lot of change but I never thought I'd see myself going to the church for food or food banks becoming the norm together with pawn shops on the rise again

reply to post by phyllida



I saw a report on the news the other day talking about how for the average solicitor, they'd seen their average income drop from ~£40k to ~£20k in the last few years. And how many other public employees would have been expected to see a 50% pay cut?

(And likewise, why go into the legal profession and run up all that debt to qualify, when your chances of landing a well paid job any time soon were minimal.)


Oh, and yes, the change in the high streets is shocking. If it's not a pawn shop opening up, it's a dozen of those godawful payday loan shark companies.

reply to post by Painterz

I know...I made the mistake of getting one of those short term loans when i was desperate...1400% apr!!
It says a lot about the problems in society when pawn shops and loand sharking are the up and coming jobs of the future!!

I remember in the 70's and 80's pawn shops were a thing of the past, there was only 1 that I knew of in Bradford and that had been going since the 1800's and mainly dealt with rare jewellery. Now there are 2 or 3 in every major city. I live in a very small town of 2 main streets and there are 7 charity shops 2 loan shark companies..in fact we are famous for having so many charity shops, and its not because there's a huge need here, its because the cost of opening a shop and the ludicrous local authority rates are just way too high to make it viable but the charities get discounts.

Talking of charity shops I can honestly say I haven't had new clothes in about 8-9 years....I was shocked when I went into TopShop with a friend and saw the prices! One dress is like a whole week's money for me!

reply to post by phyllida


It is the end of the game. All games must start over. But that means all players must reset at the start, hand in all tokens or prizes..

Like in monopoly, the guy at the end with everything loves playing. He would LOVE to restart, if he could keep part of last rounds winnings. But since he cant keep the whole gams wealth, he doesn't want to restart. and starts putting the rest of the players further in debt because they can no longer pay..

If we all took off the PARASITES!!..

Rich people are parasites~ entitling themselves to the rewards of work they did NOT do.

reply to post by phyllida

You have my sympathy. As far as the government is concerned I think you will find that a lot of the activity around welfare is a distraction. They have managed to con working voters into seeing all on welfare as scroungers which makes those voters angry at themselves basically! Since most folks at some point in their life will tap into the welfare state. I did whilst unemployed for 13 months and yet paid more in tax in the preceding 3 months !! The vast vast majority of people who in their lifetime depend on welfare for a short while will pay considerbly more tax than they will ever receive in welfare.

Why is this a distraction ? Because the very rich are getting away with tax avoidance on scale that dwarfs benefit scrounging......hmmmmm....... It was the very rich bankers that have created this situation (unless you believe the monologue from the tories and lib dems about it was all Gordon Browns fault) and there is still not one single British banker in Jail. And don't start me on Libor.......Or corporate avoidance by the likes of Starbucks, Amazon, etc and what about Vodaphone who have been allowed to not pay overdue taxes because they apparently don't have the funds....sheesh!!!

The country is NOT in economic meltdown, the economy is working just as intended. The problem is people are too blind (or stupid) to see that all the wealth is sucked out by the very rich and moved offshore. This is why we have companies in charge of "getting people back to work" since they take their millions of "costs" out of the welfare budget !!!! Honestly what a brilliant way of siphoning off welfare to the rich that the ordinary working PAYE tax payer supports! Checkmate!

Think this is a leftist rant? Well ask yourself this when analysing any financial situation: "If there really was a plan to bleed every last penny out of the country what would be the best method". Try it it's a real eye opener.....

Completely agree. The Inequality was imposed on this word by the negatives, and those serving demonic forces, for lack of a better word, though I don't like the idea of saying this as those who group together on that side are in a pit and need a helping hand out of it.

Pyramids, rank and file, forced slavery for your shelter, when its not possible to think you can deprive natural born citizens of their rights to land, environment and resources. Domination, and abuse, murder and trauma, divisions and lies/corruption. All the while these dark gnostic magician politicians, bankers and the like, actually code their documents so they are trying to make soul contracts with people not just material in the world contracts. And we need to hand it all back to them and renounce it.

It takes Love/Equality and Freedom hand in hand, by grass roots people, not ISMS and corrupted political means, to equalize. But all people need their own incomes, providing we're in a monied world, not handouts.