Dire statistics show state of the country

THE statistics keep coming. Fourteen years of Tory rule leaves us with 8 per cent of pensioners failing to eat regularly because of heating costs and other bills. Nine kids in any state school class of 30 are living in poverty (defined as family income below 60 per of the national average).

The Government has allocated money for 826 major repairs in state schools this year to make them “safe and in working order”; this stat is down by 60 per cent in a year because our Government can’t afford to make any other repairs while buckets on desks to catch the rain are so common they go unreported. Teachers state that in some classrooms hands are too cold to write.

Some 70 per cent of families needing help with the cost of uniform and food have at least one parent in work, the food problem best illustrated by the kid flapping his sandwich box lid pretending to eat when in fact the box is completely empty. Meanwhile the average cost of a year at a private school is now £35,300 a year.

The wealthiest five families in the UK have more than £23bn each, the richest 10 per cent in our country have 43 per cent of “our” wealth and the poorest 50 per cent have 9 per cent.

Some 1.9 million on the waiting list for mental health treatment with 40,000 kids on that list untreated after more than two years. Antidepressant drugs now being given to kids aged below ten.

At present 66 Tory MPS intend to quit their jobs (and many more to come) at the next election perhaps feeling Government incompetence is such that they can no longer serve the Party that prides itself on being the “Party of Opportunity”. Opportunity for whom?

Our leaders, irrespective of their age, show little honesty and moral strength. Ms Badenoch states that the UK car industry is “worldleading” because an EV battery factory will be constructed in Somerset while the EU has over 30. Not so long ago Mr Rees-mogg famously said that food banks were a “good thing” and Mr Farage, insisting that he is a good Christian, praises Mr Trump as “the bravest person he has ever met ... with unbelievable resilience”.

Do we have any pride in our country, the sixth richest in the world?

Can we not show that Britishness is more than disrespect for those differing in ethnicity and culture?

Must we continue to put on the “back burner” the crying need for united inspirational action on the climate crisis.

If we give up, we load it all onto the shoulders of our grandchildren.

Jeremy Hall.