Proud but desperate families pushed to the brink are relying on all of us to vote for change
The working-class founders of the Fans Supporting Foodbanks (FSF) initiative spoke to the SKWAWKBOX at length yesterday about why they are asking voters to shut them down next week – by voting Labour and making Foodbanks a footnote in the shameful history of Tory Britain.
They also told the SKWAWKBOX about some of the horrific hardship and shame they routinely see inflicted on the poor and vulnerable – including millions of our kids – by the political choices of Tory governments.
Political choices that were described by famous film director Ken Loach as ‘conscious cruelty’ – and which UN Special Rapporteur Philip Alston said were a punitive breach of basic human rights that the Tories could have fixed overnight if they had ever wanted to do so.
The number of people needing to seek help from foodbanks each year has rocketed under the Tories and is approaching two million.
The FSF lads told the SKWAWKBOX harrowing stories of proud mothers lying to hide the extent of their desperation, even as they were forced to ask for food to feed kids who hadn’t eaten for days – and of nurses forced to seek help from foodbanks because fleeing domestic violence had left them in terrible straits.
The three salt-of-the-earth Scousers were clearly moved and troubled by what they see on a daily basis – and they are asking the country to vote out the Tories so Labour can restore it to a decent place for all to live:
The men identified the Tories’ cruel Universal Credit scheme as the rotten heart of the miseries inflicted on millions of our most vulnerable – including over four million children.
Labour will scrap Universal Credit and make food a human right in this country to end the shame of hunger in one of the richest nations in the world.
Vote Labour.
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Back up system for the poor ,Social security for the targets of UC.Its really has become a national disgrace.We feed the poor or they starve 202O round the corner and the Abomination of the poor and helpless is growing….. I really don’t know how we can take anything other than a victory for morality over pure evil of the establishment.and the Tory party…..
Sorry going off the immediate topic but I have just read this article about the Tory manifesto, and everybody needs to know about it. It’s the first time that an article has actually frightened the life out of me. People need to know this.
https://voxpoliticalonline.com/2019/12/05/page48-we-need-to-talk-about-the-tory-plan-to-impose-a-dictatorship-on-us/
Bit late for that; and pointless anyway, seeing as the toerags have already changed laws ‘retrospectively’.
Well highlighted, Aidey.
The Fixed Term Parliament Act is the only thing not to be an immediate concern. It was a Tory measure in the first place. But even that leaves open the question of what is substituted.
But, yes, you can smell proto-fascism in the rest. But, as with the unholy precedent, there is the backing of big money and an electorate that has a high proportion of the gullible sheep faction.
Note the pay-off to the plutocrat press – not going further with Leveson. And the pay-off to the ‘guardians’ who cclaim that human rights inhibits ‘security’. All very familiar and smelly.
… and note the retention of all the features of the current constitutional arrangements that strangle real democratic politics.
Highly dangerous. But the SunMail brotherhood will look at you blankly and witter about the ‘freedom’ promised by Brexit as they sign up for handcuffs.
Also note the article from The Canary re. hobbling legal checks and balances :
https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/12/04/the-hidden-passage-in-the-tory-manifesto-that-puts-boris-johnson-above-the-rule-of-law/
Toffee – you ain’t seen ‘too late’ yet if you think things are already bad.
Mind you, there are some on the ‘left’ dim enough to cheer the idea of limiting judicial restraint on politicians. Doh! Talk about innocents abroad.
”Toffee – you ain’t seen ‘too late’ yet if you think things are already bad.”
Oh, please DO forgive me rh – I thought retrospectively changing laws was nothing like being on the same road as an autocracy or dictatorship.
*sighs*
Toffee – The simple point is that you ain’t seen nothin’ yet in terms of changing both laws and the ability to hold actions to account – assuming you mean the same ‘toerags’.
*Sighs*.
I posted this a few days ago from Paul Spicker’s Blog. I thought it worth a repeat for those who may have missed it.
British democracy faces an existential crisis.
The government of the United Kingdom has always had an unwritten constitution, and that position has been defended on the basis that it allows governments a degree of flexibility in dealing with complex situations. That position has been tested to breaking point in recent months. Here are a few concerns.
1. The Conservative Party is standing on a manifesto which commits them to change the basis on which laws are made and reviewed. The Manifesto states:
After Brexit we also need to look at the broader aspects of our constitution: the relationship between the Government, Parliament and the courts; the functioning of the Royal Prerogative; the role of the House of Lords …
2. At the same time as Britain withdraws from the governance safeguards imposed by the European Union, it is proposing to weaken other safeguards (such as human rights and judicial review) which derive from other sources. The Manifesto again:
We will update the Human Rights Act and administrative law to ensure that there is a proper balance between the rights of individuals, our vital national security and effective government. We will ensure that judicial review … is not abused to conduct politics by another means or to create needless delays.
3. The present government is firmly committed to legislation on Europe that will give Ministers extensive ‘Henry VIII powers’ – the power to change laws without scrutiny or the prior approval of parliament. The election was called, not because Parliament had failed to agree the EU Withdrawal agreement, but because it had demanded the rights to scrutinise the bill that enacted those powers.
4. The government has responded to criticisms in the media, the courts and in Parliament by threatening to close them down – most recently threatening Channel 4’s licence to operate.
5. Members of the government have no scruples about lying about its aims, objectives, situation, process or outcomes. There is a depressing catalogue of falsehoods listed by Peter Oborne. It is probably no less dangerous, however, that so many government ministers don’t do detail, and say things that are false simply because they don’t know any better. Recent examples are the confusion between the EU and the European Court of Human Rights, the mistaken statements about state aid and the EU, or the ill-informed statements made by Johnson and Patel, in the wake of the recent terrorist attack, about the release of prisoners on licence.
These things threaten three key elements of any democracy. They are the rule of law, public accountability, and open discourse and deliberation. The threat to democracy is chilling.
http://blog.spicker.uk/british-democracy-faces-an-existential-crisis/
Yes, Aidey, fucking frightening, innit?!
Where are our assassins when we need them?
Labour canvassers must make good use of this quote from John Major:
“The NHS is about as safe with them (Boris Johnson and co) as a pet hamster would be with a hungry python.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/05/john-major-nhs-risk-brexit-pythons-johnson-and-gove
God bless those lads. They all deserve some sort of official recognition for their sterling efforts.
Whether that’s from a civil or sporting body or both it makes no odds; they thoroughly deserve our acknowledgement and gratitude .
Those lads are the REAL superstars. (Especially fellow Evertonian, Dave Kelly [centre] 👍😋 )
Perhaps I should’ve been a bit clearer… I’ve just watched the long video on the other thread (Missed it earlier on)
The more recognition they get – The more they can spread the message that what they’re doing should never be necessary in a so-called civilised society.
That said; it’d still be nice to see them get some sort of official recognition from the FA, Premier League, NGO’s , etc.
Ian will get his ‘recognition’ when he’s returned as West Derby’s Labour representative.
But as they say, their ‘reward’ would be for foodbank use to be consigned to a historically damning indictment of Dickensian-style toerag callousness.
The Fixed Term Parliament was proposed by Nick Clegg. Now the only voting choice is a Tory ‘Brino Leave’ or a Lib.Dem/Labour ‘Remain’ Deal that includes a 2nd divisive Referendum. The vast majority of MPs voted to implement Article 50 & then ensured that could never happen. I voted Leave but that was the wrong choice so I must do it again ’til I get it right. Whatever happened to integrity or is that just an illusion? If voting could change anything………………
” … but that was the wrong choice …”
You got that right, Steve. 🙂 Obviously.
But the main point is that it was the choice of a minority.
Nobody *wants* a second referendum – it’s just the only way out of the dead end that is ‘Duggie Close’ now that people have a slim chance to know what they’re voting for.
i found it fascinating watching this discussion with Prof Richard Wolff and Pro Michael Hudson on Greece and EU from 2010. I see those anti-austerity forces in Europe didn’t manage to get anywhere, even in France where contemporary protests against austerity and neoliberal brutal Macron regime have been ongoing for a year now.
Doing great job comrades in 5th richest country in the World!
Just had comment, based on an adaptation of an Ian Dury & The Blockheads song, blocked on BBC News Have Your Say website; they deemed I was saying Vote For Lab which apparently not allowed, it goes:
‘REASONS TO VOTE LABOUR PART 3.
End need for food banks in 3 years, no more hungry children’s tears, early retirement for you and me.
Sanctions they are crappy, Johnson in a nappy, public pay rise for you and me.
Reasons to Vote Labour Part 3.
More pounds in your pockets, boost the economy’s rocket, more holidays for you and me.
Under 25s, OAPs, free on buses getting, Waspi women no more fretting, better rail for you and me!
Reasons to Vote Labour Part 3.’
BBC Blockheads!
Yes at Leeds Utd ground saw working class man & woman with stall collecting for foodbanks, said hello, donated, and told them Liverpool fans do this too!
JC4PM!
Burger King advert mocking Vote Leave’s Brexit battle bus goes viral
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/burger-king-advert-vote-leave-brexit-bus-whopper-a4304601.html
Boris piffel Johnson said in 1995 “The working class are drunk,criminal, aimles, feckless and aggressive.Single mothers children are ill raised, ignorent, aggressive, ..and illegitimate.Does anyone doubt that he and his elite think any different now.Even the language is of a bygone age that many of us older people had thought had gone,but we are obviously mistaken and dangerously so.Heres another Quote but the language and condemnation just the same.” Its the judgment of God ” “The effective mechanism for reducing population”. ” The real evil we have to contend with,is not the physical evidence of famine but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse, and turbulant character of the people “. Sir Charles Trevelyn famines minister for Ireland and awarded the KCB for service in Ireland by our queens relitive Queen Victoria ..89percent of crops exported to England which could have saved the lives of more than a million people effected by potatoe blight the staple diet of the Irish peasentry.Two million fled the country never to return.The greatest empire the world had ever seen The British Empire.allowed british people to starve to death in a planned murder of working class people because they were de humanised a and were part of the problem,not a solution.Do you really think that anything as changed much in the thinking of the establishment.The same people who were around then have relitives here today controlling us and deciding our fate.One million starved to death under the same people in my Great grandfathers time.in Ireland.The British working class were slaughtered at peterloo for standing up for their rights.History could very well repeat itself because the attitude and contempt for us the working class is educated into the elite and still festers in the hearts and souls of the establishment.We really have not taken into account the type of people who may take control and have been given a mandate by people.I hope and pray that we do not unleash a real Terror of a Tory regime that we cannot remove.!
It is scientifically proven that the lack of nutrition has a direct effect on children’s brain development and their ability to learn. To the Tories it is obvious, if poor children are kept malnourished and their parents stressed out it keeps them in their place.
It is mendacious of the Tories but what better way is there to ensure that generations of the disadvantaged don’t get above their Tory designated station in life than to keep them malnourished through poverty and uneducated by the under-funding of education at all levels. Keeping the poor compliant also has the advantage of saving money to fund tax cuts for the ‘deserving’ few. Tories see this as a virtual circle.
The Tories often proselytise about wanting to create a society based on meritocracy but neglect to mention that this only applies to those who can afford to feed their children properly and have the resources to afford a secure home environment where a family can flourish and grow. Is it any wonder that the Tories have more or less closed down SureStart, slashed the funding for FE Colleges and oppose Labour’s excellent plans for cradle to retirement lifelong learning.
Ooops – Tories see this as a
virtual</strike virtuous circle.Double oops I missed out a “>”- Tories see this as a
virtualvirtuous circle.