I haven't done one of these in a while. It isn't the fault of one government. This is the fault of many. This is systemic and abhorrent. To those who claim there is no austerity, that people are just lazy - and they know damn well who they are - you don't understand because you won't understand. You refuse to. And you obviously don't care. Because if you did, you wouldn't be allowing this to happen. This is a real and terrifying struggle for far too many people ... and we're the good guys? One of the most powerful, economically stable and rich countries in the world? And we treat our vulnerable, needy, poor and struggling citizens in the manner we do?
This is just one facet of the greed based society in which we live, where the trickle down economic principle is so obviously so wrong, where the strong tease the weak without actually, genuinely, having the strength to help. A system that champions banking bonuses over child poverty, that champions tax cuts over education, is hideously flawed.
I'm not saying that we have to pander to everyone regardless of how engaged they may be. This isn't a call to allow everyone to sit in their pants in front of a 50 inch screen watching Jeremy Kyle eating food they didn't work for in a house they don't have to pay for in a community they do nothing for! This isn't a call to let anyone and everyone do whatever they like regardless of their abilities, status, dreams and market orientated gullibility.
I am saying that our priorities as individuals, as communities, as a society, as a nation have to change. Teachers buying clothes and food for their students because the parents have nothing; food banks becoming a normal way of life for some; the despicable, unthinking, uncaring policy amendments which force those who are desperate to do better into worse conditions (welfare, benefits, social care, individual allowances) are not the way forward. They are a massive step backwards towards greater division, anger, hatred, fear, wealthy antipathy and poverty driven anarchy. And we promote and propagate this by continuing to allow our various governments to follow a path of greed-based, growth orientated, high profit driven policies that marginalise society solely in terms of haves and have nots.
Whatever your political persuasion, you cannot fail to see that, as a nation, we are failing our people. Across all walks of life. We cannot put profit over promise anymore. Those who have more have a responsibility to those who have less. Those who have less also have a responsibility within their own communities, but they can only fulfil that with opportunity to do so. How can you expect those who are now seen as being at the very bottom of society to strive for anything when they have nothing to start with? No hopes, no dreams, no education, no food, no clothes, no comfort at all. Everyone has a right to the same opportunities. How individuals use those opportunities is up to them. But we are failing the basic needs of our most vulnerable people.
This isn't to say that people should not be responsible for themselves. Of course we should. But we all need help sometimes and that's often dependent on where you sit in a society's hierarchy; whether that's filling in a tax form, completing a job application, submitting immigration status documentation, applying for benefits or whatever.
You'll have to forgive my anger when companies profit billions of pounds and complain that the tax burden is restricting their growth and limiting their ability to pay their shareholder dividends. Surely the very fact that they make such huge profits is testament to their strength and the promise of benefits to their communities and society in general. Please excuse my utter disgust when yet another sustainable development in energy production is shelved in favour of something damaging, short sighted and "cheap" ( not for future generations it bloody isn't!). And do forgive my sometimes expletive ridden polemics on the injustices of our system of governance where poverty and division are rife, rage is on the increase and we systematically rip funding from the public. Austerity is real. It's just not everyone is living it.
But God help you if you're poor, disabled, vulnerable, unwell, ill-educated, unskilled and unseen, regardless of how hard you try to work, or how much a part of your community you wish to be, because governments won't.
We need a real change. Not one of anarchy and division, but one of sense and understanding; a social outlook with liberal views in a conservative (as in not profligate) society. It's not a pipe dream. We just need more people to understand the global reality rather than our personal selfishness.
I am not a saint and I am not an evangelist. You can call me a hypocrite if you like but we should all have a look at ourselves before we start throwing stones at glass houses. And sometimes, just sometimes, I think we all need a nudge to remind us that we all have more to do, that we can all do a little bit more and that it matters that we do.
Thank you for reading this. It's a bit longer than I had intended.
Now read what inspired this post:
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/may/01/teachers-buy-children-food-clothes-mattress-funerals-child-poverty?CMP=share_btn_fb
