As the
cold spell continues to bite, we have to admit that we can't do a lot
about the weather. It is not the decisions of politicians or
financiers that causes the cold spell. However, what we should
realise is that in this very rich country there are families living
in fuel poverty and children living in severe poverty. Here in
Scotland the percentage of children living in severe poverty is 20%
with lots of areas where the percentage is over 30%, Springburn in
the north of Glasgow being the worst with a staggering 52% of
children living in severe poverty. These figures are not an accident
of nature, a natural phenomenon. These figures are the result of
politicians choices, of politicians following the dictate of the
financial Mafia. It is human beings sitting in the comfort and luxury
of marble halls that are the cause of children living in severe
poverty in the middle of winter in a very rich country, no accident.
In a sane society where the purpose was to see to the needs of all
our people, we would not have kids pulling on a scarf and hat,
keeping their jackets, on while huddling over a two bar fire in an
attempt to keep warm in their home. It is not an unavoidable natural
event, it is an engineered situation. A situation brought about by
the desire by the millionaire class to protect their ill gotten
gains. While children and the elderly freeze in their homes, and in
some cases die from cold related disease, we are awash with money. We
have billions to spend on subsidising the corporate world, billions
to spend on armaments, billions to spend on nuclear submarines and
billions to spend killing the people of Libya and Afghanistan, but we
can't afford to heat the homes of our elderly or our kids. If that
isn't an insane, unjust, immoral corrupt system, then Lord Archer is
a saint.
