Poverty? It’s so last month
IN the Westminster bubble it seems that poverty is sooooo last month.
The only issue in town is Brexit followed by more Brexit to be discussed until your backstop is full and to deviate from this is to invite scorn.
That happened to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn after Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions.
The preceding day had seen a tsunami of Brexit votes and coverage in which Theresa May’s government was defeated three times and found to be in contempt of Parliament, another unwanted place in history for Calamity May’s administration.
So when Corbyn stood up at the despatch box for his allotted six questions, everyone expected a further Brexit kicking.
Instead he chose to base them on poverty, austerity, Universal Credit and growing food bank usage. Many media commentators and MPS portrayed it as a political own goal.
One of the most shameful reactions to my mind was that of the BBC’S Nick Robinson who tweeted: “Given the chance of a head to head debate with the PM on Brexit a day after a historic series of defeats for the government @jeremycorbyn chooses to use his 6 questions at #PMQS to ask about something else”.
The ‘something else’ he refers to is, in effect, the horrendous levels of poverty that are driving people to food bank use and in some cases, suicide, which Corbyn had chosen to flag up.
Robinson’s voice was not alone with many portraying it as further proof Corbyn isn’t up to the job of Labour party leader.
The irony is of course that one of the reasons the UK voted for Brexit was the alienation of the public from the politicians and those who inhabit the Westminster bubble as they feel they are either unaware of or just don’t care about the issues that affect them ... like poverty, austerity, Universal Credit and food bank usage.
Speaking of food banks, I was struck last week by the amount of Tory MPS turning up at them and tweeting about the fact on social media, including the man behind Universal Credit, Iain Duncan Smith.
Maybe they all read the Sunday Sun, I thought. A fortnight ago I contacted the Department for Work and Pensions to see how many of its Ministers had visited a food bank as it is responsible for implementing the Universal Credit policy which is one of the main drivers of their use.
There have been five since 2010 and the DWP said present minister Amber Rudd, had visited food banks ‘multiple times,’ and added a bit vaguely that previous Secretaries of State will also have visited a food bank, but it didn’t keep a record of visits by former post-holders.
In a phone conversation prior to the statement, the DWP press office suggested MPS like to keep such visits low key, shunning publicity, a notion I expressed surprise at.
What has changed? Is there a general election in the offing?