Poverty In The UK

Child poverty on the increase in the UK

‘Family breakdown, drug addiction, debt and education results are among the factors that could be used to measure child poverty in future, UK Government ministers say’ BBC News.

This reality check comes after the findings of The Institute for Fiscal Studies released their two year projection for how child poverty in the UK will rise by 400,000.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith responded by saying that the current income-based method of measuring poverty is too simple, therefore new indicators have to be agreed upon to measure this thoroughly.

Wow, is all I can say; and it took a UK Government how long exactly to realise that the measures relied upon to indicate poverty were failing? Where have they been hiding all these decades? Oh, of course, behind the curtain of their lives of privilege. Doesn’t this highlight just how out of touch these ‘leaders’ are with their own electorate?

Salary alone means nothing to poverty indicators; nothing is so ‘cut and dry’. I have mentioned this before; Poverty In The 21st Century

People can be working full time, and still drop below the poverty line because of; general household bills, unemployment, benefit reliance, family breakdown, increase in food prices, increase in travel prices and fuel, debt, house repayments, childcare, how large the family is, so on and so on.

At the moment a child in the UK is considered to be living in poverty if the household income is £251 per week or less. This then equates to 2.3 million children living in poverty. Now considering that as a fact which stands alone, too many children are in poverty; but now add that to the other indicators above, which are currently not being included in the poverty measures. Now I’d say that 2.3 million is looking severely under estimated as a figure; so low in fact I doubt any Government would like to consider the reality of the poverty that blights the UK!

All in all it is a nice figure to dwell upon, considering the UK is supposed to be a ‘developed’ country, wealthy and upwardly mobile! Seems to me that propaganda has never been so alive and well in Politics. It is just a question of whose faith Government ministers are trying to maintain; their electorates or their own?

Children in Poverty

Many decisions have been criticised as increasing child poverty, but one factor has been blamed as highly significant; freezing child benefit. The Labour Party have now warned that by 2020 the UK would return to “sky-high levels of child poverty” unless the Government made changes to this and other areas. Yet, with or without child benefit people would be poor. Child benefit is hardly enough to compensate for dire wages, high levels of debt, rising living costs and all the other things that make a person/family poor!!!!! Benefits are not the answer to the root of the problems.

So, I wonder what has finally brought the issue of poverty to the table of plenty. Well, the Labour Party’s ‘picking’ at the current Conservative/Liberal Democrat Government no doubt has provided some encouragement. Shadow Employment minister Stephen Timms has been also blowing the trumpet of his own Labour Party Government; reminding the electorate of what a mistake they made in not re-electing them, laugh out loud!

Mr Timms has said that there had been a; “Big reduction of over a million in the number of children below the poverty line” when Labour held Government, and since the new Government gained power; “that number is now going up”.

Yet, what has any Government really done to improve the people’s lives? What one policy really has impacted on decreasing poverty in all its formats; from homelessness to child poverty? Answer, nothing substantial. They are good at bickering amongst themselves, blaming one another and scoring points; but facing the facts and dealing with then once in power, well, that is another story altogether! It doesn’t matter what Government is in power, things don’t significantly change for the people.
The major changes which are now creating significant impacts in policies, and reflecting poorly upon the UK Government is the economic crisis and austerity measures. Who knew this could be a positive thing?! This ‘series of unfortunate events’ has been a real kick in their rear; yet, people are still suffering, and not even the economic crisis has motivated the Government enough, well, yet anyway.
What will it take to make the Government change things??? How dire must it become for people, their people??

OK, so the Government has plans to carry out a consultation to consider what other factors need to be included to measure poverty. Yet, this is merely more time and money wasted, while people still live in poverty!

Even ‘The Child Poverty Action Group’ have raised concerns over this consultation, and proposed additions to the current salary measurement. They have questioned whether further indicators to mark poverty would only make defining it too broad and non specific (we all know the Government don’t deal with complicated very well). This too broad and non specific could only grant a free pass to any Government; they would then not be held accountable for any failings which could occur in this area. It would then be merely life in general to blame, not Government polices and taxation. A Government can’t interfere with life, the ‘free market’, capitalism or whatever else they can use as an excuse.

Anyway, while the Government bicker and decide to decide, poverty continues as it always has. A grim reminder that life isn’t all peaches and cream.

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© Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

We Will Never Forget – Remembrance Day (Poppy Day or Armistice Day)

Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Britain since the end of World War 1.

The day remembers the members of the armed forces who have died in the line of duty. Remembrance Day is observed on the 11th of November to recall the end of hostilities of World War 1, on that date in 1918. Hostilities formally ended ‘at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month’, in accordance with the Armistice which was signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente that morning.

The red remembrance poppy has become an official emblem of Remembrance Day in Britain, partly due to the poem “In Flanders Fields”. The reason the poppy is so synonymous is because these flowers bloomed across the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War 1. Their hauntingly beautiful presence all too appropriate a symbol for the blood that was shed in these fields, and many others during the war. World War 1 was referred to as; ‘a war to end all wars’, such was the death toll and violence involved.

As British we honour our military dead from not only World War 1 & 2, but every other conflict where British troops have fought and fallen.

Two minutes of silence is held on Remembrance Day at the eleventh hour (11:00 a.m., 11 November). This time marks the moment (in the UK) when the armistice became effective. This two minutes is a mark of respect for the dead.

The First Two Minute Silence in London (11 November 1919) was reported in the Manchester Guardian on 12 November 1919:

‘The first stroke of eleven produced a magical effect. The tram cars glided into stillness, motors ceased to cough and fume, and stopped dead, and the mighty-limbed dray horses hunched back upon their loads and stopped also, seeming to do it of their own volition. Someone took off his hat, and with a nervous hesitancy the rest of the men bowed their heads also. Here and there an old soldier could be detected slipping unconsciously into the posture of ‘attention’. An elderly woman, not far away, wiped her eyes, and the man beside her looked white and stern. Everyone stood very still … The hush deepened. It had spread over the whole city and become so pronounced as to impress one with a sense of audibility. It was a silence which was almost pain … And the spirit of memory brooded over it all’.

The above extract still accurately portrays even to this day, how powerful the sentiment of the silence is, what is means to the country, and the effect is has over the people.

There is also traditionally a Service of Remembrance. The service includes the sounding of the “Last Post”, followed by the period of silence, followed by the sounding of “The Rouse”; ‘The Last Post’ is played as it was the common bugle call at the close of the military day, and the ‘Rouse’ was the first call of the morning. The service is ended by a recitation of the “Ode of Remembrance”, there are religious blessings given, and the playing of the national anthem also.

The central part of these services revolve around the many Cenotaphs (Greek for empty tomb) around the British Isles. Here during services wreaths are laid signalling the high honour bestowed on the fallen troops.

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae, May 1915

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

We Will Never Forget

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Some content thanks to wikipedia

Mr Fawkes – Hero or Thug?

Not quite Guy Fawkes, but still his effigy is adopted, to signify what though?

I have been reading some posts, which don’t exactly celebrate the gunpowder plot that led to Guy Fawkes being captured on 5th November 1605. In them, Mr Fawkes isn’t deemed the ‘hero’ that some might believe him to be.

Yet, when I learnt about him in History, at school, I remember being in awe. I was about 12 at the time though!

Anyway, this post isn’t strictly about Guy Fawkes or a specific moment in History, but it is about how people perceive violent acts. What is it that still makes anarchist or revolutionary tactics appear to be ‘heroic’?

I want to play Devil’s advocate, if you will allow me too?

How often has peace changed something profoundly in the world?

Looking back, just over the UK’s history (above example included), it has been violence that has made an impact not peace.

Violent acts have stood out above and beyond. Violence is how change has been achieved over the centuries; whether good or bad. I suppose some might consider it as making the ultimate statement to those who think they have the control; in other words, no they don’t.

Could it be sheer desperation and frustration that leads people to violence in the name of a political or religious cause? Or, is it merely blind faith and indoctrination that leads people to believe strange things, and commit acts of violence that others see as abhorrent?

Does resorting to violence ever help anyone achieve an intended goal? Can it solve anything? If it doesn’t, then why are we still so fascinated with violence, and the history that is littered with such acts?

Hopefully, the world will recognise freedom through peaceful means one day, but at this moment in time, I’m not sure they want to.

‘All we are saying…..is give peace a chance’

Just a thought!

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© Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Bex Houghagen and The Savvy Senorita with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.