The UK, Abject Poverty In The Midst Of Obscene Wealth.

      A recent report states that the UK government is presiding over “significant and growing” hunger, the report warns that one in five children in the UK live in homes that are severely food insecure, this is the worst level of child hunger in the EU. The same report states that 2.2 million people in the UK are classed as severely food insecure, this translates into the fact that the UK is responsible for one fifth of all severely food insecure people in the EU.

        So the rich UK has an army of adults and children who are classed as severely food insecure. It has another army luring in the shadows of this corrupt exploitative system, the army of homeless. According to Shelter at least 320,000 people in the UK are homeless. The report also states that this is a year-on-year increase of 13,000, up 4%. It puts the national figure at around 1 in 200 people in the UK as homeless. It also states that these figures are probably an under estimate as it doesn't take into account, the sofa-surfers, those sleeping in sheds and cars etc. 

       Another hallmark of this rich UK society is poverty. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation's recent 2018 report states:

 This research reveals that, in our society: 

• Child poverty has been rising since 2011/12; 
• 4.1 million children are living in poverty, a rise of 500,000 in the last five years; 
• Four million workers are living in poverty –a rise of more than half a million over five years; and 
• In-work poverty has been rising even faster than employment, driven almost entirely by increasing poverty among working parents.

        Then there is that other army of those on benefit being driven to destitution by never ending cuts in social services, a rapidly crumbling health service, and an education system that has vacancies that can't be filled, and a vast number of teachers off with stress.
     All the signs of a poor country, debilitating social conditions that blight the lives of millions, but in this case it is a very rich country and the conditions in the country are created by deliberate choices made by those in power. There is more than sufficient wealth and resources in this country to see to the needs of all our people, the choices are ideologically chosen.
     In the midst of this swamp of poverty and deprivation, our "lords and masters" are spending billions on weaponry. We have had the usual chest thumping and flag waving at the UK's recent acquisition of two monster aircraft carriers, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. The cost of building these monstrous imperialist weapons of mass destruction is in excess of £6 billion. Of course this is a drop in the bucket to the final cost when completed and fitted out with its fancy super expensive F-35B stealth fighter jets. Each jet comes with an eye-watering price tag of £78 million. The UK with its army of hungry and homeless, is buying 48 of these imperialist testosterone pills to kit out its two mammoth carriers, but is planning to buy a total of 138 to complete its battle group. That would come in somewhere around the £14+ billion, then add a cool  £6+ billion building costs. Thanks Loam for the link. Details of this mad imperialist chest thumping extravaganza here: 
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50903.htm
         Of course the billions spent on these two brutes of indiscriminate killing machines is just a small fraction the UK spends on weaponry just to be the side-kick of the imperialist USA.
          This shows where the privileged parasites that control this country put their priorities, certainly not in the well being of the people, but in the defence of their power and wealth at the expense of the people.
           In the words of the song, "When will we ever learn---"

Visit ann arky's home at radicalglasgow.me.uk

Capitalism's Phoney Christmas.

    So that was Christmas, a period of abundance, an avalanche of gifts, a gorging of food, a tsunami of merriment. Well that's the picture our babbling brook of bullshit would have you believe is the norm, but capitalism doesn't work like that. No doubt in this crazy unjust system there were those who gave diamonds, cars and other expensive gifts, while feasting on an array of exotic foods all washed down with buckets of “the best Champagne”.
      However, there is the other side, the brutal side of capitalism, where kids go hungry and live in a gift free zone. This Christmas saw record levels of our fellow Scots being forced to seek sustenance from foodbanks. This year, according to the Trussell Trust, the week that contained Christmas saw more than 7,000 families and individuals forced to seek help from foodbanks. December was their busiest month, with the week before Christmas being the busiest of the month.

The Trussell Trust said people had been driven to rely on charity due to financial poverty, increased winter fuel bills and the absence of free school meals during the holidays. Many families have been plunged into “financial famine” over the festive period, the charity said.
One foodbank in Glasgow said it had received referrals for nearly a dozen clients in need of help on Christmas Eve.
Last year just over 14,000 people were helped by the foodbanks throughout the entire month of December – an increase of 53% on the previous year's figure of 9,263.
The total included 5,818 people who were helped in the week running up to Christmas Day - a rise of 51% on the figure of 3,842 in 2013. This year's figures dwarfted those for both 2014 and 2013.

       For many, Christmas is not only a period of hunger, but a period of homelessness. According to Alison Watson, deputy director of Shelter Scotland, "It's completely unacceptable that in the 21st Century 100,000 children across Britain will spend Christmas homeless, with nearly 5,000 of them in Scotland. "It's even more damning that in Scotland this represents a 15 per cent increase on the same statistics last year - so the problem seems to be getting worse, not better. 

         Glasgow fares worst in Scotland, with approximately one-fifth of the total, with more than 1,000 children in the city who opened their eyes on Christmas morning to a homeless world. The total of children living in temporary accommodation in Scotland, is up 13 per cent on last year. 

        So this is part of the ugly face of capitalism, poverty and homelessness, with children having their life's potential stunted at an early age, their health and physical development permanently undermined, while others gorge on abundance, they never earned. If you see this injustice and are aware of the suffering involved, then surely you must stand up and work for the destruction of this cancer that is capitalism.

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk