Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Feeding Britain - read the report not the headlines
You'll see a lot of outrage and skewed reporting on this major report in the next few days (like the dogs dinner on Radio 4 Today this morning).
The report itself is very short and readable. There are some biggies in there regarding benefit delays and high cost of energy as well as a lot on food resilience, waste and sustainability.
Much of this is already known to charities and policy advisors but this report should bring this to a wider audience, provided we read it. Political parties will cherry pick. News media will analyse it to death but better to read it your yourself. Here it is
(If you want a quick overview before diving in, Isabel Hardman has written the best article on it)
Feeding Britain [pdf]
Tags for Forum Posts: feeding britain
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by StephenBln on
-
Here - Listen for yourself: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/feeding-britain-lbc-...
-
Permalink Reply by Peggy Savage on
-
An utterly depressing report, although hardly surprising coming from Frank Field. Why would anyone support the creation of 'Food Bank Plus' rather than an adequate welfare state?
We're heading towards the lowest levels of public spending since the 1930s, with all the main political parties intent on sticking to benefit cuts because those members of the public who take part in opinion polls and focus groups say they support them. There is no political stand-off as The Spectator would like it's readers to believe. Successive Governments have presided over growing inequality. Haringey is the exemplar - the most unequal borough in London, with over half its wards being either very rich or very poor. Northumberland Park is the most widely deprived ward in London.
A civil society can never be based on people having to turn to charity for their most basic needs. Inequality is leading us back to a situation in which the Victorian rich gawped as women handed babies they were too malnourished to feed through the grill at Coram's Hospital. Thank goodness some men of the cloth - and in our borough - still believe in loving your neighbour as yourself: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/reverend-paul-nicolson-ready-g.... I only wish more of the public would do the same.
-
Permalink Reply by Liz on
-
Hmmm, Isabel Hardman is good at what she does. Writing in the Spectator doesn't mean she's wrong.
There's some very big issues tackled in the report reflecting a lot of the evidence of charities that work in this area including benefit delays, sanctions, administration, high cost of energy, lack of cooking facilities in rented properties, low pay, provision of free school meals, local assistance funding and so on. Many of these recommendations would be of benefit to claimants.
Food banks may not be part of the solution, as Professor Elizabeth Dowler so correctly stated on the Today programme, don't try and use one problem in food production, namely waste to solve another which is food poverty but there is a lot in this report to embarrass governments and, as with the great sanitation reforms of the 19c, it may be that eventually there will be no choice for any government as to whether they tackle this because the clamour for change and the suffering caused by the status quo will be inescapable even in the cloistered corridors of power.
-
-
I certainly hope it will be taken very seriously Liz.
Btw, I can't get the Isabel Hardman link to work for some reason
-
-
Looks like the Speccie site is down - try this one from Ekklesia , which points out that we're all being distracted by quite minor and not wholly connected points in the report re food waste and the culinary skills of the poor.
Of the 77 recommendations, over 50 of them relate to fundamental problems in the system precipitated by welfare reform or to the high cost of energy and credit to the poorest. These are the big stories, the problems can be solved by the same governments that began them or have allowed them to mushroom, not outrage at Tory peers talking about eating porridge.
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
