No tears were shed for those left in poverty
Glorious Gloucestershire Esmond Lane took this picture of thatched cottages in Gretton
✒ AMONG the achievements” Theresa May mentioned in her tearful farewell speech, it was noticeable she did not draw attention to the recently published report of the United Nations Human Rights Council on extreme poverty in the UK,.
Perhaps she perhaps found it too shaming to mention, highlighting as it does that despite the UK being the world’s fifth largest economy:
» 20 per cent of the population (14 million) are living in poverty.
» 1.5 million experienced destitution in 2017.
» Close to 40 per cent of children are predicted to be living in poverty by 2021.
» Food banks and their use have proliferated.
» Homelessness and rough sleeping have increased greatly with a growing number of homeless families – 24,000 between April and June last year – dispatched to live in accommodation far away from their schools, jobs and community supports
» Life expectancy is falling for some groups
» The social safety net has been badly damaged by cuts even as we have a booming economy, high levels of employment and a budget surplus.
» Many social services have been withdrawn, policing has been reduced, libraries have closed in record numbers, youth services withdrawn etc. etc.
The report concludes that “much of the glue that has held British society together since the Second World War has been deliberately removed” for harsh ideological reasons.
Great Britain? – perhaps not so great after all. United Kingdom? – I don’t think so. Time for tears? – definitely.
And maybe, just maybe, one or two of Theresa May’s were shed for the people who have been so ill-served by her uncaring government - the Just About Managing who have been transformed into the Carelessly Discarded. Derek Lockhart Cheltenham