Hunger at Home

I was born and bred in the UK and although I now benefit from residing in sunnier climes, I still maintain a watching brief on good old Blighty.  The political scene is rather sad and boring suffering from, in my opinion, poor calibre leadership and government as well as a confused society having difficulty accepting a much reduced role in the world compared with its imperial past.  That said, it is the seventh largest economy in the world, when measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and number three in Europe by the same GDP measure.  It's current 'austerity' programme is understandably unpopular with UK citizens but the 'live now, pay later' culture prevalent throughout several decades has inevitably created a national financial deficit that has to be addressed and there are no pain-free solutions.

I do believe that the noun 'austerity' has different connotations depending on personal circumstances. Not being able to run two cars or having to forego an overseas holiday, is a different kettle of fish to being unable to heat the house or having insufficient disposable income to be able to afford decent meals.  In this respect, a feature in the UK's 'The Independent' newspaper earlier this week, with the headline "Hungry Britain: welfare cuts leave more than 500,000 people forced to use food banks, warns Oxfam", really was a chilling wake up call on the state of the nation.  Half a million people, which roughly equates to the population of Bristol, cannot afford to eat properly.  The newspaper refers to this group as the "hidden hungry" and makes the point that the number has trebled in the past year.

The article included extracts from a joint report by Oxfam and Church Action on Poverty, which stated that the hunger crisis had been exacerbated by the falling living standards of people in employment who have seen no increase in wages or have had their working hours cut in recent years.  Whereas over the past five years food costs have risen by 35 per cent and home heating costs by 63 per cent.  The report also points the finger at the government's changes to welfare payments a primary reason for the demand for food banks.  But whilst I am sure the changes don't ease the problem, I am not convinced there is a strong causal link between state benefits and poverty.  The economic malaise within the UK and many other countries is a multi-dimensional problem, for which there is not going to be a one-dimensional solution.

Any system has emergent properties, which, in my opinion, within the global economic system, include the fact that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  This appears to be true in every country in the world including the richest, the United States of America.  At the rich end of the spectrum, capital attracts capital and results in exponential, limitless growth without any work being done by the owners of the capital.  At the poor end of the spectrum, poor individuals, who are poor through no fault of their own, are deprived of opportunity and breed offspring who suffer the same miserable existences, and so the cycle goes on.  Add to this the fact that we are taking more out of the planet than we are putting back in, particularly in respect of energy and food, and the prognosis doesn't look good.

What's the solution?  There are no easy answers my friend.  But however the problems are tackled, let's make sure everyone, regardless of where they were fortunate or unfortunate to have been born, is not deprived of their basic needs.  If food banks are part of the solution in the UK, they should be accepted and not used for political point scoring.