State Crime.

Image courtesy of The Telegraph.

          So here we are in Great Britain, a country that can afford to throw £millions into prolonging a blood bath in Ukraine but spouts no money to afford to eradicate child poverty at home. During 2021-22 in the UK there were 4.2 million children living in poverty, that's a staggering 29% of all UK children. Of course statistics vary as you move among the population. In lone parent families,44% of children are living in poverty. Again, if we move to Black and minority groups, then the % of children living in poverty jumps to 48%
        Of course the ever preached mantra from our lords and masters that work will lift you out of poverty, proves to be the usual bullshit we expect from our political ballerinas. Here in the very rich UK 71% of those children living in poverty are in a family where at least one person works. Again the dice is loaded against you if you come from a larger family. 42% of children living in families of 3 or more children are living in poverty. Of course we shouldn't forget, the adult poverty that lives along side this tsunami of child poverty.

Image courtesy of West Wales Chronicle.

 

        These figures certainly don't paint a picture of a very rich country, but we are living in a very rich country. The problem is the distribution of that wealth, the capitalist system is a system that favours the few who can horde that wealth and with it live a life of opulence steeped in privileges and power. Until we sort that problem we will bequeath a future of continuing poverty and stunted lives for the coming generation of our kids. The choice is ours, the solution will not come from those hoarding parasites who live a privileged life and hold the reins of power.

 

Visit ann arky at https://spiritofrevolt.info   

Time To Tighten The Screw On Pensioners.

 

      Anyone who lives in the world of ordinary people is well aware that the vast majority of pensioners are not rich, a considerable number of them live in poverty, some in dire poverty. However, that does not stop the well heeled parasitic politicians with their grand salaries and lush pensions from putting pensioners in the line of attack in their pseudo science of economics. They have devised a method of stripping the unemployed of their benefits through workfare and sanctions, they have implemented a system to deprive the sick of their benefits by means of assessments and sanctions, so now it is time to attack the pensioners. They started by raising the age at which you can receive your pension, now, their latest manoeuvre to comply with the ideology of their pseudo economics, it is time to destroy the "triple lock" system, by which pensioners are guaranteed an increase in their meagre pensions each year. All this at a time when inflation is predicted to shoot up.

     Piece by piece our communities are attacked, section by section they are dealt an economic blow, all done under the financial Mafia's, "austerity" banner, wafted by the breeze of illusion called "balancing the books". If by some weird twist of the mind, our lords and masters were trying to "balance the books", there is no problem, our country is awash with money. We have billions for nuclear weapons, billions for bombing Libya, billions for war in Syria, billions to subsidise the corporate greed machine, but by their reckoning, not enough to see the the welfare of the needy in this country. 

       This "triple lock" attached to pensions has, since its inception, stuck in the throat of many of those well-heeled politicians, their twisted minds were mulling over the point, "why should pensioners get some sort of guaranteed increase each year, while we are screwing the rest of the population". So it is time to start turning the screw tighter on the pensioners. 

       By any measure, this system is insane, but worse, it is vicious, savage and brutal, to those who create all the wealth there is in this land. Are we to believe the blurb put out by the billionaire owned media, that this is the only way we can function as a society? It is simply a man made system of exploitation that creates wars, spreads poverty and spawns misery, for the benefit the few, at the expense of the many. I know we have the imagination, the ability and the resources to create a better world that cares for all, that takes care of the needs of all our people. All it lacks is the will of the people to take that step and demolish this insane creator of wars, misery and poverty. As long as we tolerate capitalism we will suffer poverty and deprivation, we will endure wars, and destroy the environment. Why?  

Visit ann arky's home at www.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

A Time Of Celebration And Good Cheer!!!

      While the babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media, spews out images of throngs of people fighting their way into shops to spend hundreds of pounds in an attempt to buy happiness in a colourful box, let's not forget the reality of modern day Britain. The Britain where millions of us live, the Britain of the daily struggle, of trying to keep our heads above water. A world where we are surrounded by unimaginable wealth, but are witness to beggars, rough sleepers, homeless, food-banks, child poverty and fuel poverty. the question is why?

      Behind the veneer of designer names and brightly coloured shopping malls, there is another world. A world where hopes and dream die, and opportunity never knocks.

      Zero hours contracts and the minimum wage are the establishments method of guaranteeing poverty. Don't expect them to try to alleviate the problem, it suits them the way it is. It creates a pool of cheap labour.

      Poverty kills both the young and old, and those it doesn't kill, it scars for life. So who is responsible for those scars and those deaths?

      Poverty, a preventable phenomenon,  turns good people into bad parents, but not by their own desire.

      Fuel poverty in one of the richest countries in the world, is a crime, who is responsible?

     Don't expect the top layer of parasites to do anything about poverty, they need it to keep getting fat bank accounts. If we want to be rid of poverty, we will have to do the fixing ourselves.

      No matter how they do the numbers, no matter the illusion they try to weave, the truth is that the UK has millions living in poverty, Why?

     Food banks, a necessity in modern capitalist Britain, while the Oxbridge millionaires talk of a growing economy, Why?

      Employers will gladly pay you the minimum wage or less, if they could get away with it, and some do.

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