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

A System Beyond Reform.

         Got up this morning, sat down at the computer, looked out the window. I’m comfortable, my window looks out across Littlehill Golf Course, a public owned golf course, a beautiful scene of undulating hills of grass and different types of trees, but Scotland’s winter had laid her icy hand across the area, the grass was white with frost. In conditions like this, how can you not think of those unfortunate individuals who find themselves sleeping rough, how do you not feel the frost savagely biting at the marrow of their bones, it is a lonely, slow, cruel death situation. It is difficult to grasp the fact that we, living in the sixth richest country on the planet, still tolerate such a cruel, unnecessary injustice. They suffer this vicious injustice not through lack of resources, but because of ideology.

The Homeless.

Tenebrous spectres, they exist,   out there,

on the crumbling edge of chaos.

A father, a son, a brother,

a daughter, a sister, a mother.

Fragments of some shattered family structure;

waste products

from a society being driven to destruction

by a hurricane of greed

living a life that wears out life,

dying,

the devious death of exhaustion from existence.

        No doubt, like me, you have listened to our political ballerinas spouting their hypocritical mantra, about what they are doing to help the homeless. They do this without shame or conscience, fully aware of the fact, that in the UK, since 2010, homelessness has increased by a staggering 34%. This massive increase can be laid at the feet of the government, through their welfare changes, introduction of Universal Credit, housing benefit cuts, etc.. Though these are not the only reasons for this increase, you can’t solve homelessness without building affordable homes. Our system of profit from houses is much more important than actually housing everybody, it is a system devoid of human compassion. It is much more profitable to have hordes of people chasing an small limited number of homes, this drives the prices up, big bucks for developers and estate agents. It pushes up rents, big bucks for landlords, why would they want to change such a lucrative system? It is a fact that the ideology of our political ballerinas, has driven the building of affordable homes to a 24 year low. It is also a fact that approximately one third of those homeless today will still be homeless a year on.

         It is an indictment on this system of profit before humanity, when we are looking at more than 300,000 people in this country waking up having spent the night, crammed with their families into hostels or dingy temporary rented accommodation, and these are the lucky ones, others will have spent the night on a pavement, doorway, dark lane, and if they wake up, in this weather, that is not guaranteed, it will be to face a cruel world, where their struggle for survival will be dependent of others and charity.

          This is capitalism, this is the system we tolerate, we know its injustices, we are aware of its inequality, we can see the suffering it inflicts on so many. We know within our hearts we can create a better, fairer system, a system built on compassion, mutual aid and co-operation, a system that will see to the needs of all our people, a system freed from the cancerous burden of profit and exploitation and free from the yoke of rich over privileged parasites, that suck the blood from all of our lives.

       Capitalism cannot be reformed, we have had centuries of reforms, the poverty, deprivation and wars are still with us. The only answer is the total destruction of this man made system of greed and exploitation. The next step is up to us.

The Warmth Of A Dream.

He lay in a dark doorway, dreamed of home,

night frost locked his joints

morning rain chilled the marrow of his bone.

In the dream there was a sister,

a pram in a garden, a crowd of youngsters

who called him "mister", a time of little pain.

Are these youngsters the same young men, who

now laugh at hime, throw beer cans,

piss on him as he lies drunk in some dark lane?

When was the first step down this slippery slope,

when was that first step to no forgiveness.

No will to rise to beg for food,

numbness kills the pain.

The dream brings a warmth that feels good,

dark fog shades out consciousness,

an ambulance carries off a body washed in rain. 

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

For Their Sakes, We Must Do Something.

Figures for 2014.

      The never ending downward spiral of poverty continues at an ever increasing rate, and still our political ballerinas spout their crap about a strong economy. Figures from the Office of National Statistics, (ONS) show the extent to which we in this country are sliding down the toilet, though I have no doubt, under the insane capitalist system, the picture is repeated in countries across the globe. According to the ONS figures, in 2015, 7.3% of the UK population, approximately 4.6 million people were living in persistent poverty, (Persistent poverty described as living in relative poverty in the current year and at least two of the three preceding years) this is an increase of 18% on the previous year 2014. In human terms, this means an extra 700,000 individuals joining the ranks of the misery and anxiety of persistent poverty, in the 6th. richest country in the world.

       With this insane capitalist system, of those in poverty some groups are hit harder than others, women are showing a more rapid increase in persistent poverty than men. Women in persistent poverty, 2015, registered 8.2%, as compared to men which was 6.3%, the biggest gender gap since this data was first gather in 2008. Everywhere we look, we see inequality, and policies that divide. 

       We the ordinary people continue to generate wealth on a massive scale, keeping the UK ahead in the league of wealthy nations, but we never see any of that wealth. By sleight of hand, and a loaded system, the largest slice, by far, of that wealth ends up in the hands of a small powerful cabal of parasites. While we the real wealth creators, continue our grinding path down the dark corridors of poverty and deprivation.

         Does anybody honestly believe that this system of capitalism will ever remedy this mass poverty in the midst of opulence? History tells us, the system has failed miserably to come even close to eradicating poverty and deprivation, but has produced an over abundance of wealth for the small band of parasites who control the system. How much longer will we condemn our children and grandchildren to a life of wrestling with poverty in the midst of abundance? For their sakes and for justice and equality, we must destroy capitalism, the system that creates mass poverty, deprivation and wars. 

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

I Daniel Blake.

       Last night Stasia and I went to see the Ken Loach film, "I Daniel Blake", we both found it the most powerful and moving film we had seen. We left the cinema traumatised, not because we didn't know the facts and all the statistics of the system before hand. In my case I felt that I wasn't watching a film, I was looking through a window at the real life of real people. Real, honest decent people, being slowly destroyed through an inhuman bureaucratic system designed to attempt to fit people, through a confusing and humiliating process, into non-existent jobs, fit for work or not. A system of slowly breaking down the self respect of the individual. A system callously set up by faceless bureaucrats, devoid of human empathy, knowing that it would fail in its stated aims. If anybody sees this film, and leaves the cinema without a gut wrenching desire to pull down and destroy this vicious inhumane system, they have lost their empathy with humanity.

       Some of the figures to back up the film. In this extremely rich country of approximately 65 million, 13.5 million live in poverty. This breaks down as 7.9 million working age adults, 3.9 million children, and 1.6 million pensioners. There are over 1 million individuals in work in the low paid industries who live in poverty. This breaks down as, residential care workers, 130,00, accommodation and catering workers, 360,000, and in that back bone of the consumer society, the retail trade, 460,000 of these workers live in poverty.

     There were 2,380 individuals who died shortly after their Employment Support Allowance was stopped. Between December 2011 and February 2014, a staggering 50,850 individuals claiming ESA died, of those 7,200 had been judged, by this bureaucratic killing machine, as fit and able to return to work.

      This is the traumatic reality that crushes so many honest decent people, who through no fault of their own, find themselves, entangled in the vicious claws of this inhuman, callous and  destructive bureaucracy, operated by robotic rule obeying, automatons. A system designed to silence them through frustration, humiliation and the destruction of their self worth, and at the same time save money by getting rid of social spending.

     As one commentator said, "I Daniel Blake" is a rallying call for the dispossessed, I wouldn't be surprised if you wake up one morning and find your local job Centre with large graffiti saying, "I Daniel Blake".  "I'm Spartacus", solidarity is the weapon to defeat this festering nightmare of injustice and inequality called capitalism.

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

Corporate Murder!!!

     A recent study based on the UK government's own figures found that approximately two-thirds of children living in poverty were in households where at least one parent was working. The study also found that that there was an increase in the number of children living in working families who were faced with absolute poverty as opposed to relative poverty. 

     The acceptable face of economic growth capitalist style. We produce an abundance of wealth, and more working families sink deeper into the mire of poverty. This is the reward the system hands you if you are one of Cameron's “hard working families”. All of this is no accident, it is the expected result of policies based on ideology that glorifies the greed of the corporate world, at the expense of the people who create all that wealth. 

      Poverty, especially child poverty, has a devastating effect on the health and development of the individual. It brutally destroys the potential of every individual that it touches. We also know that in this system there are a considerable number of people who have died as a result of benefit cuts. People proclaimed to be fit for work by a bunch of bureaucrats, had their benefits cut, and died shortly afterwards. Others have committed suicide after such callous inhumane treatment. 

       All of this is the result of deliberate policies thought up and implemented by people with names and addresses. They must be held to account, the evidence is there, they are responsible for what is nothing less than murder. 

      Despite almost a quarter of a million people signing a petition demanding that the government release the figures showing the number of people who have died after being stated to be fit for work, and had their benefit cut, this bunch of Bullingdon boys refuse to do so. Despite the judicial system of the land stating these figures showed be released, they still refuse, stating that they will appeal the decision. Their excuse is that those demanding the release of the figures are scaremongering. The answer is simple, release the figures and prove your point.

      How much longer will we accept the cull of our poorest and most vulnerable? How much longer will we accept our people being sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed? How much longer will we allow ourselves to be duped by a bunch of millionaire parasites who are working hard for the benefit of their rich cronies in the corporate world? Are we waiting for the rich and powerful to become more compassionate, waiting for them to look at our plight and say, “Oh dear, we must do more for those poor people”? You'll have a helluva wait.

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

"Walking Tall".

       So according to Chancellor Osborne, that aristocratic millionaire product of the Oxbridge sausage factory, Britain is “Walking Tall” again. What a wonderful sound-bite, what a load of crap. Britain is certainly a very rich country, Britain is certainly awash with wealth, Britain is the seventh richest country in the world, but sadly it is all stuffed in the bank accounts, off-shore and elsewhere, of his corrupt cabal of parasites.

      Britain, continues to produce a mass of wealth, yet it is one of the most unequal countries in the developed world. That wealth, that we the ordinary people create, is soon looted and plundered and syphoned up to feed an army of over fed, greedy parasites. The result being that in this very rich country, according to a recent report by Oxfam and Church Action On Poverty, for the year 2013/14, a staggering 20,247,042, meals were given out to people in food poverty, an increase of 54% on the previous year. “Walking Tall” Britain has millions living on the breadline. Most non-government organisations that deal with poverty in this country, agree that the increase in food poverty, among other results of poverty, are changes to the social security system, a punitive sanction regime, an increase in part-time work, zero hours contracts, years of stagnant incomes, and ever increasing living costs. All these factors make it increasingly difficult for families to put food on the table.

      In “Walking Tall” Britain, one in five people live below the poverty line, and in some of our many poorer areas, life expectancy is lower than in some developing countries. In the Calton district of Glasgow it is 59 years. While this struggle to pry a decent living out of this exploitative system goes on for the majority of us, the rich keep getting richer and the gap between the real people who create the wealth, and those rich parasites that plunder it, keeps getting wider.

      In 21st century Britain, where we are again “Walking Tall” many people, on a daily basis face, rising prices, unfair working conditions, benefit cuts, and reduced buying power, making food banks the only option open to them. With this standard of living in the 7th richest country in the world, aristocratic Osborne and his cabal of millionaire plunderers, are planning even more severe cuts in the coming years. Cuts that will of course, drastically affect you and I, but will add more swag to his band of millionaire parasites, who will, as they clink their champagne glasses, congratulate him on getting Britain, “Walking Tall” again.

Relaxing before a plundering raid.

     There are two Britains, there is the one that you and I, the real wealth creators inhabit, in poverty and struggle. Then there is the other Britain, inhabited by a band of worthless parasites, who by duplicity and deceit, rob us stinking, and they live in unimaginable wealth and splendour. It doesn't have to be that way. We could really be "Walking Tall", by ridding ourselves of this corrupt, unjust, exploitative system, and getting that band of plundering parasites off our backs for once and for all. Taking the abundant wealth of this country, that we created, and sharing it to see to the needs of all our people.

Completing their course in plundering.

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

The Smoke And Mirrors Of "The Recovery".

       The Cameron-Osborne Bullingdon Club duo, are patting each other on the back and congratulating themselves on the UK recovery. Of course from where them live, in the millionaire bubble, it is certainly all very bright and rosy, with more millionaires joining the club. However, from where you and I live, it is a very different story. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, the number of impoverished households has more than doubled since the days of Maggie Thatcher. Research also shows that due to the increase in the cost of living, a full-time job is longer likely to prevent you from falling into poverty. The result being that one in six of those adults who are in paid work, can now be classified as poor.

 

From The Independent:

      The Poverty and Social Exclusion project, based on interviews with more than 14,500 people in Britain and Northern Ireland carried out by eight universities and two research agencies, reported:

• More than 500,000 children live in families who cannot afford to feed them properly
• 18 million people cannot afford adequate housing conditions
• 12 million people are too poor to engage in common social activities
• About 5.5 million adults go without essential clothing
  

     The survey showed that the percentage of UK households which lacked “three or more of the basic necessities of life” has increased from 14 per cent in 1983, the year that Margaret Thatcher was re-elected (around 3 million), to 33 per cent (around 8.7 million) in 2012, despite the size of the economy doubling in that period. Researchers used the “three or more” formula as it is directly comparable with methods used to study poverty and deprivation in 1983. Academics said the findings dispelled the myth that poverty is caused by a lack of work or by people shirking work. Almost half the “employed poor” were clocking up 40 hours a week in work or more.

    Another interesting fact from The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, regarding the Cameron -Osborne "recovery", is that approximately 50% of the 13 million people in poverty in the UK, live in household where someone works. It is also said that between 2008-2014, cost of essentials had risen by almost a third, and you and I know that in the same period, incomes have fallen by approximately 10%.

     These are the cruel facts of the Oxbridge millionaires recovery, wealth flowing rapidly up to those who already have far too much, while those who create that wealth are getting an ever shrinking share. Ah the wonders of capitalism.

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

No Way To Spend Your Nights.

      It has been a lousy, cold, wet and windy winter so far, and though we are one of the richest countries in the world, we still have people sleeping rough in our towns and cities. There are two methods local authorities assess the number of rough sleepers in their area. One is by a count, the other is to estimate, most local authorities estimate, rather than count, so it is obvious that the figures can't be 100% accurate.

 

Photo from Google.

      What we can be sure of is that there are far to many people having to face the winter on the streets of our country. The 2012 autumn figures for England, gathered by these methods was 2,309, an increase of 6% on the previous year, which was a massive increase 23% on 2010 figures. London, that city where the streets are "paved in gold", has the highest number of rough sleepers in the country, and there, like the rest of the country the figure is climbing. The figure for London Autumn 2012 was 24% of the total rough sleepers in England, 557.

      Scotland is no different, according to figures from the report, Operation of The Homeless Persons legislation in Scotland, we have 1,737 people sleeping rough. The Glasgow Winter Night Shelter has been running through the winter months since 2010, It was the severe winter of 2010 that prompted some of the leading charities and voluntary organisations to set up the shelter. During that vicious winter it provided accommodation on approximately 2,000 occasion.

Edinburgh is the Scottish city with most rough sleepers, last year's figure was 363, while Dundee had 97.

       In a country, that as a norm, suffers dreadful winters, with long dark nights, and weather from bitterly cold to extremely wet and cold, sleeping rough just shouldn't happen, no matter the circumstances that brought the individual to that position. Sufficient facilities should be in place and well publicised to make sure nobody faces the winter trying to find shelter. Just another aspect of a system that has bankers and accounts shaping our society.

How to get help on the streets 

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

The Return Of The Hungry 30's!!

     We all know the extent to which the Troika has heaped deprivation on the people of Greece, but not everybody is aware of the extent of the poverty in which our millionaire cabal have mired the people of the UK. While the past five years have seen the costs of basic foodstuffs rocket by 35% and heating costs leap by a massive 63%, incomes over the same period have hardly moved at all. A recent statement by Mark Goldring, Chief executive of Oxfam puts it quite clearly: "The shocking reality is that hundreds of thousands of of people in the UK are turning to food aid. Cuts to social safety-nets have gone too far, leading to destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale. It is unacceptable this is happening in the seventh wealthiest nation on the planet."

     When people start turning up at food banks you know there is hunger, and for a country which is among the top ten wealthiest nations on Earth to have over 500,000 people relying of food handouts, you know there is injustice.

     The Trussell Trust is the UK's largest organisers of food banks and has stated that last year they handed out at least three days' emergency food to almost 350,000 people, up from 130,000 the previous year. They added that due to the number of organisations handing out food aid the true figure of people receiving that aid is well over half a million.

      Though according to the Cameron/Osborne Oxbridge mentality, these people are not the nation's strivers, they are the nations skivers. When in fact they are the nations ordinary people pushed to the point of desperation and deprivation by this Old Boys network of pampered millionaire parasites, carrying out the dictate of the financial mafia.

     This food aid is going to single parents, retired workers, paid off workers, families on low income, people like you and I, your neighbours and your friends. At what figure do we stand up and say enough is enough? There is no food shortage in the UK, but there are hungry children and pensioners, there are malnurished adults trying to bring up families, why? Simply because of the deliberate ideology of a handful of well fed exceedingly rich parasites. Why watch your neighbours go hungry in the midst of plenty?

ann archy's home.

Bedroom-tax - Poll-tax!!

      We in the UK are heading for some real battles and should be preparing now. Come April there will be the implementation of the "bedroom tax"  on top of increasing food poverty and fuel poverty. This "bedroom tax" will put three options before all those in social housing, if they are deemed to have an extra bedroom. As an "under-occupier" you can pay extra, take in a lodger or get out, non-compliance will trigger eviction notices. This is probably the most vicious attack in decades on the ordinary people of this country. The legislation comes into force and they are well aware that there isn't enough right sized accommodation to fulfil that legislation, but that won't stop them going for evictions. Even if there were enough right-sized apartments for everybody, but there isn't, the monumental upheaval to people's lives, sick, disabled, elderly, young families, as they are shunted around to the satisfaction of some millionaire cabal's bullshit economics, is inhumane, unjust and downright vindictive. This is "poll-tax model two.
       While our millionaire parasites that lord it in those Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption are spewing out crap about it all being necessary and "for our own good" a UN official, Mr De Schutter, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, has stated that the explosion of people in the UK, depending on food handouts could represent a human rights abuse. He points to the dramatic rise in the number of food banks as evidence that governments had "failed in their responsibility not to leave the poorest behind". Here in the UK the number of food banks as exploded tenfold  since the start of the recession.
       This is the UK today, massive fuel poverty with energy prices still rising. Food poverty with food banks the only growth industry in town. A third of children living in poverty. Unacceptable unemployment among our young people. Being forced through "workfare", to work for free in some tax dodging corporate greed machine. Now the threat of evictions being heaped on the shoulders of the already struggling public.
        These are drastic times and drastic action by the organised public is the only answer. We may not yet be where the people of Greece are as far as deprivation is concerned, but we are moving inexorably in that direction, it is only a matter of time. It is inevitable, unless we the public, by mass organised resistance, come together and drive our society in a different direction. Another world is possible. 

POWER CUTS, a daily reality in Greece by docupraxi

ann arky's home.

GET OLDER, SUFFER POVERTY.

            One way to measure a civilised country is to look at how it cares for its most vulnerable citizens. First we should remember that in spite of all the crap poured out by our millionaire lords and masters, this country is a very rich country. As we get older we take our place among the vulnerable, so how does Britain, a modern rich country, care for its elderly? Well British pensioners are among the poorest in Europe, in this country more than two million older people are at risk of poverty. In 2010 21.4% of elderly British were classed as being at risk of poverty, dwarfing the European average of 15.9%. The only nations in Europe who treated their elderly worse were Cyprus with 45.2%, followed by Bulgaria at 32.3%, then Spain at 21.7%. We are shamed by such figures as Hungary 4.1%, the Netherlands, 5.9% and Luxembourg, 5.9%. Of course it is not just the elderly that are at risk of poverty in this country. In 2010, 10.7 million people, 17.1% of the population, were at the risk of poverty, where as the European average is 16.4%. So all the nonsense pumped out by the media and the establishment, that we in this country are better off than everybody else is bullshit. What these figures show is that almost a sixth of the entire population of Europe is living with the risk of poverty and that risk rises as we get older. This is the best that capitalism can do, from this dismal position, thanks to the “austerity”, “deficit reduction” plans, we are heading in a downward direction. The system can only deliver poverty for millions while the financial Mafia grow fatter on salaries that have shown a 51% increase in the last couple of years. I find it strange that we tolerate a system that hands astronomical bonuses to parasitical fat-cats and sinks the rest of the population into Victorian deprivation. It doesn't take much imagination to come up with a system that would see to the needs of all our people, but first we have to get the fat-cats and the parasitical financial Mafia off our backs. Shed that burden and we are almost there.

ann arky's home.

TIME FOR RIGHTEOUS ANGER!!!

         As the Greek government tries to push through more "austerity" measures to appease the IMF and bond markets, the people of Greece are saying NO, enough is enough. The riots, strikes and now camps on Syntagma Square are proof of their determination. Here in the UK, we are also being hit with “austerity” measures for the same reasons, to protect the bond markets, the banks and to appease the IMF. However, to date, we in the UK seem to be taking it on the chin with the mythical stiff upper lip. There are those who might say that the reason for that is because we are not being hit as hard as the Greeks. Perhaps not, but we still have unacceptable poverty in this country and our “austerity” cuts have still to bite.

         Save the Children state that there are over 1.6 million children in the UK living in extreme poverty. No matter the illusions they try to weave, no country can claim to be civilised where over 1.6 million children live in extreme poverty. This is an increase on last years figure, the main contributing factor to this increase being because of huge increases in the cost of energy, petrol and food. According to the British Retail Consortium, families have seen the average food bill of £100 increase by £5 since last year. This continuing rising cost of living, has thousands more families struggling to to pay for the very basics in the home. What people have to cope with in the face of wage cuts, wage freezes and benefit cuts are such things as Petrol £1.37 a litre, diesel £1.42 a litre, and according to the Office of National Statistics, the last 5 years have seen the price of bread increase by 50%, butter by 57.7% and milk up 33%, on top of this gas is expected to rise by 19% and electricity by 12% before the end of this year. Obviously if you are on a low income, benefit or a wage freeze, then these factors are going to hit you hard, as you are obliged to spend a larger proportion of your income on the basic necessities. Last year over 61,000 people across the UK approached Foodbanks for help. Poverty is wide spread here in the UK but our millionaire, friends of the IMF and bank Mafia's hatchet job, has still to do its real damage. Will the UK people still continue with their orderly strikes, marches and banner waving, or will they vent the very real anger that they are already feeling? "Enjoy the ecstasy of your righteous anger", goes an old Korean saying!!!

 

 

TIME FOR RIGHTEOUS ANGER.

We talk of justice, we ooze compassion

you and I. Our comfort sure

with a gracious smile a token give

those “SO deserving poor”.

Where is compassion when children lose

carefree innocent play,

where is justice when children meet

hunger along the way?

Children who, in this world of excess

create a newsreel scene

cradled in a starving mother’s arms

expiring on your TV screen.

Forget the famine rationale

in a sickly syrup word,

mouthed by those crazy apes

until the truth is blurred.

Feel the anguish of the other

hear their pitiful cry

see hunger steal their future;

loudly cry out, why?

Then act out your righteous anger

fan the passions flame,

create a world of social justice

end this human shame.

ann arky's home.

POVERTY IN THE UK!!

      It is odd that so many people believe that capitalism is a system that brings prosperity to all. Even as the evidence stacks up against it with poverty increasing across the world, it is still accepted by too many as the only game in town.

       Poverty in the UK tends to be invisible when it comes to the mainstream media. They are more likely to focus on poverty elsewhere. Yet poverty in the UK is considerable by any standard. Some figures compiled by Oxfam give an indication of just how poverty blights the lives of so many across the UK.

      In the UK 13 million people, more than 1 in 5, live in poverty, with the majority of both children and working age adults in poverty living in working households, 55.3% of children and 52.9% of adults. Bang goes that excuse that they are poor because they wont work!!. How does poverty translate in to real life? One example would be that a child born in the poor district of Calton in Glasgow has a life expectancy of 54, where as a child born in the more affluent area of Lenzie on the outskirts of Glasgow has a life expectancy of 82. They are separated by about 10 miles.

       In the supposed affluent UK, 1 in 8 men and 1 in 4 women earn less than £7 hour and almost 50% of home owners earn less than the minimum wage. In this land of advanced capitalism a staggering 3.9 million children live in poverty with more than half of these in working households. The reality of this is that children born into poverty are more likely to have lower birth weight, higher infant mortality, and poorer health than their counter parts born into better off homes.

       Another feature of this advanced capitalist society is the fact that the number of households in which no-one has ever worked has almost doubled since 1997. According to the Office of National Statistics, 1.7% of all households were permanently jobless by the second quarter of 2010, up from 1% in the second quarter of 1997. Of course as we know, capitalism is an unfair system so these figures are not spread evenly across the country. For example in the more affluent East England it is just 0.5% jobless households, compared with inner London which stands at 6.5%.

Everything seems to working fine!!

 

      As the gap between rich and poor gets wider by the year and the number of poor increases, surely we will reach that point where we say enough is enough. After all capitalism is just a man made system, one that benefits the few at the expense of the many, it is not created from tablets of stone or ordained by a supreme being. Men created it, men can destroy it, and create a more fair and just system that benefits all our people, not just a handful of parasites.

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