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politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Henry G Manson looks at the politics of food banks
This week Ed Miliband was campaigning in Oxfordshire and visited a food bank in the Prime Minister’s constituency. I was surprised that the people of Witney needed a food bank, but perhaps it’s a sign of the times. It struck me how ‘food banks’ have become a live political issue now and are not just a response to real hardship.
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Agree - it's great that they are there. It's terrible that they need to be there.
I suspect if you were to dig into the numbers there are a lot of one-time users (e.g. as benefits switch). That's not to undermine the issue, but to make the point that it's not 350,000 using them every day or week.
The fundamental problem is that the cost of living is so darn high in this country. And a massive amount of that is down to government policies over many years:
- VAT
- building restrictions (impacting rents)
- rates
- social costs for employees
- energy policies
All of these add to the cost of living and make it very expensive.
She's an angel. She did a lot to improve the lives of prisoners.
We could ask IDS to sign copies of the Water Babies. This was standard fare in my childhood - I never noticed it was anti-anyone which is why it fell out of favour - but never forgot Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Water-Babies,_A_Fairy_Tale_for_a_Land_Baby
"The protagonist is Tom, a young chimney sweep, who falls into a river after encountering an upper-class girl named Ellie and being chased out of her house. There he drowns and is transformed into a "water baby", as he is told by a caddisfly—an insect that sheds its skin—and begins his moral education. The story is thematically concerned with Christian redemption, though Kingsley also uses the book to argue that England treats its poor badly, and to question child labour, among other themes.
Tom embarks on a series of adventures and lessons, and enjoys the community of other water babies once he proves himself a moral creature. The major spiritual leaders in his new world are the fairies Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby (a reference to the Golden Rule), Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, and Mother Carey. Weekly, Tom is allowed the company of Ellie, who drowned after he did.
Grimes, his old master, drowns as well, and in his final adventure, Tom travels to the end of the world to attempt to help the man where he is being punished for his misdeeds. Tom helps Grimes to find repentance, and Grimes will be given a second chance if he can successfully perform a final penance. By proving his willingness to do things he does not like, if they are the right things to do, Tom earns himself a return to human form, and becomes "a great man of science" who "can plan railways, and steam-engines, and electric telegraphs, and rifled guns, and so forth". He and Ellie are united, although the book claims that they never marry.
Very much off topic - this might amuse, appal- a signal passed at danger (SPAD).
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10382639.Low_loader_carrying_steam_train_demolishes_traffic_lights_in_Keighley/
The most common reasons for using the food banks are:
Benefit Delay: 30
Low Income: 18
Benefit Cut: 15
Debt: 10
Homelessness accounts for 4% - but then looking at the food they provide that's hardly surprising - you'd need a kitchen to use it.
http://www.trusselltrust.org/stats
They are doing good work.
Even if welfare payments were doubled, it would still be worth having food banks as they would still enable the poorest to save on food and spend on other essentials.
And so really its a question of names. 'Food bank' comes from straight out of the 1930s. 'Nourishment resources rebalancing centre' sound more 21 century.
He himself was banned by the FEI from endurance riding competitions for six months in 2009 when two of his horses failed dope tests.
One of his wifes, Princess Haya, is President of the FEI and has been leading a drive to clean up equestrian sports. There is now likely to be polite pressure on her to retire from her position gracefully.
But I don't think anyone connected with the sport believes that the administration of inappropriate drugs to horses is confined to the Godolphin operations. In fact most believe it is widespread.
People already know that times are tough and most people accept that there are people out there really struggling who deserve help. Labour will argue that welfare benefits should not be cut, the Conservatives will argue that further targeted cuts are required to ensure that the deserving get the help that they need and no one will change their minds.
If it were true, then possibly. But since the government's policies have had the opposite impact, no.
More to the point, shouldn't Labour show some humility at the fact that they have campaigned for significant chunks of the welfare budget to be directed towards the well-off, in the forms of child benefit and housing benefit, at a time when there are some people in real need?
Yes she was, but also I think it is good to change our notables from time to time. It is a very good way of teaching history or raising a discussion on that topic.
I'm trying DestroyTwitter which is okay but its stalls if I use it at the same time as a peer2peer app which renders it pointless as the notifications windows doesn't pop up more than once every 40 tweets ...
Any suggestions?
Spain's government has revised down its forecast for the Spanish economy this year, saying the level of contraction will likely be worse than previously predicted.
Madrid now expects the economy to contract by 1.3% in 2013, compared with its earlier estimate of -0.5%.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22305953#TWEET735756
What do you send up chimneys now in Sussex - cats??
I bought my granddaughter a beautiful illustrated edition last Christmas and she loves it and really understands the behavioural morals the book teaches and has taken it to school as it was not in the school library. Such a contrast to the electronic games of destruction played today.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1998863.stm
Pix http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/m2LF2xUMHKdwBJfx2YCmoUQ.jpg
True, but people extolling the virtues of the wealthy victorian philanthropists would do well to remember that the social contract was very different then to what it is now.
THEY PAID NO TAX. That's how all those fabulous english country houses got there.
Others on PB may wish to interpret the rising number of foodbanks on the basis of David Ricardo's original theory, refuted by Keynes, that "supply creates demand".
I have to say I am completely at odds knowing which theory to prefer. We urgently need Mick O'Nachos to return to PB to shine the light.
It was the best fairy tale book I ever saw - the perfect present for a girl from about 8-12yrs old.
PS Cats like hiding in chimneys when the hoover is out...
PPS There seems to be resurgence in TV shows about fairy tales with Grimm and Once Upon A Time - they're PG/12 stuff but very watchable.
LOL
You're avin a laugh Mr Manson.
We all know what the PBtories response will be.
Thank you for an unusual topic. Do you know the statistical source used by LFF for their chart?
There is still a lot of food that is either overstocked or just past sell-by-date that retailers have destroyed rather than give away due to previous experience of litigation from no-win, no-fee solicitors.
Also the EU forces a lot of produce to be dumped that is the wrong shape/size etc. Last time I was at a French market, I was encouraged to see such regulations ignored and small and imperfectly shaped produce was sold and quickly bought at very competitive prices - they did not require a maze of packaging either.
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/10344310.Yorkshire_stone_stolen_from_Bradford_street/?ref=ar
Any attempt at using the graph as a sign of increasing poverty rates is either data-illiterate or partisan. (Depending on how you measure it, poverty has increased pretty sharply since the financial crisis, but this graph isn't showing the relevant data.)
The rules are very strict. I did a commercial recently for which we effectively bought up an entire market but we weren't allowed to give it away. I did a similar one in Germany a while ago and we had no such problem. I don't think it's an EU issue
The fabulous houses got there because the UK was at the cutting edge of economic development of the time and entrepreneurs made huge amounts of money.
They believe that the Privy Council cannot possibly ask the Queen to grant the charter because of the rules that it is obliged to follow.
According to the council's guidance: "Any proposal which is rendered controversial by a counter-petition is unlikely to succeed."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2013/apr/26/press-regulation-judicial-committee-of-the-privy-council?CMP=twt_fd
And they don't just do food - nappies, toiletries etc are all provided.
In my view their growth is the inevitable outcome of the insane pace of change within the DWP, quite simply the bureaucracy cannot cope, particularly as so many experienced staff have been "let go".
Also the massive increase in "sanctioning" since 22 October 2011 means that many claimants have effectively been left with nothing, at all.
Really looking forward to introduction of PIP as that is also bound to go wrong.
It certainly has similar characteristics to the OBR March deficit reduction forecasts.
I am convinced the inspiration is walking down Berwick Street after the vegetable market has finished and misidentifying the empty cardboard boxes as a Thatcherite city,
Absolutely.
It was introduced at thruppence in the pound (when there were presumably 240 pence to a pound).
In other words, a rate of just over one per cent - as vast wealth was cascading in from the colonies and Britain was the workshop of the world...
With rates like that, who needs accountants.
Jack Tindale @JackTindale
For obvious reasons, we must put Harold Wilson on the pound coin.
Particularly when you contrast the plight of those forced to use them with Cameron and Osborne's attitude and largesse towards the richest and most powerful in society, millionaires, bankers and so on.
Though like Henry, I'm glad they exist, otherwise those thrown on the scrap heap by this Government would be helpless.
So the focus of our resident Labour supporting writer Mr Manson this week is this piece on foodbanks.... Shurelyshome mishtake. But lets not mention any of Labour's problems eh Mr Manson? Almost a "lets not mention the war" moment?
EDIT: One additional point. I also think that people getting their food from food banks will be appreciative that other people are donating it to them, and try not to take the piss, whereas when it comes from government, people think it's coming from some bottomless pit.
I wonder how much of the rise is simply due to a combination of the charity getting bigger and to the increasing publicity food banks have recently got (Labour love banging on about them). They've increased the number of people using them by around 50% or more every single year.
It's also worth mentioning that when people know there's effectively free food, more people will ask for it. Times are difficult, but even from 2005/6 to 2006/7 (the last 'good' years) the numbers (in terms of percentage) being served still rose significantly.
You mean by making them pay more tax than they did for the vast majority of the time under Labour? Remind me what the top-rate of income tax was from 1997 to 2010, and what is it now?
Leaving aside income tax, ISTR (and I daresay someone will come along with the figures) that when you take the tax take as a whole, the top income strata are paying more both in monetary terms and as a percentage than they were under Labour.
You can argue that not enough is being done for those in need, and I have not a little sympathy for that view. But to point at a tax rate that was at 40% for the majority of time under Labour, and saying that at 45% now it is too low, is not being wholly truthful.
Like you, I'm unsure how I feel about this. Unlike you, I know very little about the subject, and would like to know more.
"An unusual auction is coming up next month with a change to acquire some rather unique — and based on the estimate prices — curiously cheap bits of London memorabilia.
Westminster City Council and Transport for London are upgrading all of their signposting in the Capital as part of the Legible’ London campaign… and are flogging off the family silver the old signs they are taking down.
Some of them are frankly about as obscure as it is possible to get — who’s even heard of the Planning Inquiry Chamber? Hardly anyone, which is why the estimate is just £10-£20 for the sign."
http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2013/04/26/westminster-council-is-selling-off-its-street-signs/
I'm also wanting David Tennant on some notes as well.
"I think the graph was created on the back of a paper napkin in the Soho Patisserie Valerie by Roger and Robert."
As I intimated despite teaching him everything he knows I think he's gone native. The graph looks too well executed.
'Expect a lot of lingering on Ed and Co's privileged background during the run up to the election. Nothing overt, but I think the mileage in the "toffs and fops" meme is limited,'
I'm hoping we can get some tips on the best IHT avoidance trusts and how to cope with a £400,000 mortgage.
Should rump/Carry on UK have a referendum on whether they'd like to be part of a currency union with an Independent Scotland?
Think of the PB threads and betting opportunities.
http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2013/04/26/le-ps-denonce-l-intransigeance-egoiste-de-la-chanceliere-merkel_3167068_823448.html
Edit - even they go on about Thatcher......
I don't know if the odds are as favourable now.
Galloway no longer likes him.
How ironic that you are criticising the application of inherited wealth on a thread about food banks.
Surely you are aware that the vast majority of food banks in the UK are adminstered by the Trussell Trust.
Perhaps you should also be aware of the basis on which the Trussell Trust was founded:
Carol and Paddy Henderson founded The Trussell Trust in 1997 based on a legacy left by Carol’s mother, Betty Trussell. Moved to help forgotten people, The Trussell Trust’s initial Bulgaria projects focussed on improving conditions for the 60+ children sleeping at Central Railway Station in Bulgaria. The Trust’s work soon expanded not only in Bulgaria, but in the UK too..
Founded from inherited wealth with operations which migrated from Bulgaria! Enough to turn a leftie bipolar.
None whatsoever. Just Tory priorities. Obviously another poster too young to remember the nightmare that was Thatcherism. Benefits get taken away the unfortunates get intimidated and it's either starve or be humiliated at food banks.
'“Miliband’s claim that he repeatedly pursued me for a one hour meeting about “boundary changes” is, quite simply, a lie. I realise now that I showed poor judgement in finally agreeing to meet Miliband. An unprincipled coward with the backbone of an amoeba.”
It's a tricky one but on balance I think Eric Pickles just edges it over Nicholas Soames
Bring it on.
Food banks are only supposed to provide help in a crisis, not in the longer term.
"I did a commercial recently for which we effectively bought up an entire market "
Were they shitakes?
He sounds confident.
LOL
"Were they shitakes?"
Most of my takes are shit.
I can't see how that will be a problem for the tories at the locals.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/26/south-shields-voters-ukip?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
MrsAwesome
26 April 2013 2:27pm
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@kirkstall - Libertarian? AAAHAAHAHAHA are you still swallowing that old canard? UKIP is about as libertarian as pol pot!
The "libertarian" UKIP favours:
- banning gay marriage
- banning burqas
- doubling defence spending
- shutting down borders
- building more and more prisons
- hang 'em and flog 'em sentencing
I wonder what would happen if they started a chain of free booze and fags ??
Looking at Southwark Cllrs (and it's all Dora's fault), I noted that Peter John lists under "State the nature of any employment / self employment or business (including any trade or profession) carried out by you or your partner":
Self-employed Barrister
Self-employed Hairdresser
is he a barrister or the partner an hairdresser? or is he a hairdressing barrister?
If he gets a key extension to go with his diet he'll have the ladies swooning
"is he a barrister or the partner an hairdresser? or is he a hairdressing barrister?"
He needs to powder his barristers wig ?!?
yes, it can be problematic with the Muslim voters in Dewsbury who are not happy with the AWS. And maby Burnley too (because I don't know their feelings towards the AWS there).
Regardless of that Farage should be looking at more policies to appeal to disaffected lib dems and labour. That's just common sense if he wants to fully harness the protest vote. He has very little problem getting disenchanted tory voters so finding some kind of positive economic break for those other voters would be a wise priority.
You have indicted that you are a pretty wealthy chap, second home in France and all that, jetset lifestyle etc, if you are so concerned , you could flog your second home and give the money to the foodbanks.
I dont know where I (obviously wrongly) picked this up but I always thought that his partner was a prominent newspaper columnist.
A hairdresser is obviously more useful.
If voters tell her they are toying with Ukip, she has some attack lines ready. "Often people don't actually know too much about them, so I tell them that Nigel Farage has spoken out in favour of decriminalising crack cocaine and heroin and prostitution, and that if we were to come out of Europe, 3,000 jobs would go in the area," said Lewell-Buck
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/26/south-shields-voters-ukip?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I prefer Labour's plans to lend rather than give food to the needy.
It is an idea based on Gordon's fiscal policy.
Only central bankers give haircuts.