Off Topic Political Debate

Some shocking homeless stats released today. Let there be no mistake the withdrawal of funding and lack of funding for council accommodation by central Govt is directly responsible for this...... and then they have the cheek to blame the councils from whom they have reduced founded. All of us who will be sitting and stuffing ourselves with family at Christmas let us be 100% of our responsibility. N o hiding place , no excuses....

The article from Metro:



There will be 131,269 homeless children in the UK this Christmas
Wednesday 5 Dec 2018 6:29 am
The UK’s housing crisis will be ‘felt across a generation’ as the latest figures reveal the scale of children living in homelessness, a charity has warned. Shelter urged the public to support its Christmas appeal which aims to provide families with ‘the vital helpline advice and services they need in order to keep their homes over the festive period’. A spokeswoman said: ‘The impact of the housing crisis will be felt across a generation as one in every 103 children in Britain is now homeless.’ Embargoed to 0001 Wednesday December 05 File photo dated 07/02/17 of a person sleeping rough in a doorway. Shelter has warned the UK's housing crisis will be "felt across a generation" as the latest figures reveal the scale of children living in homelessness PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Issue date: Wednesday December 5, 2018. The charity urged the public to support its Christmas appeal which aims to provide families with "the vital helpline advice and services they need in order to keep their homes over the festive period". See PA story SOCIAL Homeless. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire One in 103 children in Britain is now classed as being homeless, according to Shelter (Picture: PA) The charity estimates there will be 131,269 homeless children in the UK this Christmas, of whom 9,500 will spend their Christmas in a hostel or B&B. Greg Beales, director of campaigns at Shelter, said: ‘The number of children hidden away in hostels and B&Bs is enough to make anyone’s heart sink. These are not places for children. Drunk Santa Claus near New Year Tree after Party. Christmas Tree in Office. Celebrating of New Year. Red Costume. Man in Red Cap. Drank Man. Red Pants. Alkoholic near Christmas Tree.; Shutterstock ID 1212981466; Purchase Order: -One in 10 people fired or disciplined for Christmas party mayhem ‘We hear about cold, damp – even rats. Young children are sharing beds with multiple family members, trying to play in dirty public corridors, and having to leave their block in the middle of the night to use the bathroom.’ Local authorities in London ranked the highest for the number of homeless children, which have nearly doubled in the last five years, Shelter’s analysis of the latest figures showed. The borough of Westminster was listed as the worst-affected area in the UK, where one in 11 children are homeless, the charity said. The figures for England and Scotland were calculated using the most recent official Government statistics on homelessness, from January to March, which showed 129,745 children in temporary accommodation. The most recent figures for Wales were from April to June and totalled 1,524 children. The figure was calculated by multiplying the number of families in temporary accommodation, by the average number of children per family in Wales – Welsh authorities do not count the number of homeless children, unlike England and Scotland. James Murray, deputy mayor for housing and residential development in London, said: ‘It is shameful that the Government has allowed homelessness to rise to these levels and it is heart-breaking that so many children are suffering the consequences.’ He said the mayor was helping local authorities to build 10,000 council homes over the next four years, as well as supporting boroughs provide temporary accommodation. ‘But the truth is that councils desperately need far more help from the Government to help homeless families now and to build the council housing Londoners need,’ Mr Murray added. ‘Crucially, ministers must stop ignoring the root causes of rising homelessness and commit honestly to tackling them.


Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/12/05/will-131269-homeless-children-uk-christmas-8210009/?ito=cbshare

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

 

I know a lady who is next-door neighbour of a friend, who is due to be evicted on Christmas Eve, due to her having no money - at all - because she has been “moved onto Universal Credit”.
A single mum, two young kids. The idea of presents for Christmas raises an ironic and desperate smile. “I have no money to feed my children or keep a roof over their heads - ‘Christmas’ is cancelled.”

 

The Winter of Discontent had nothing on this.

 

I was reading some comments about PMQs and someone posed the question, " How did the country get landed with a PM and leader of the Opposition that are so useless."
Someone stated that it was apathy. What I know about many people is that it is true, because no matter how serious an issue is they do not engage. It is not for them to form opinions, it should be left to others. Potter down to the polling station every few years, cast their vote as they always do for the same party, and that is their total involvement with politics. But how can this change? You cannot insist on people taking an informed point of view if they don't want to. You cannot insist that people join a party if they don't want to. All I can suggest is that schools do more to teach that democracy is something you should participate in, but I can see that it will not actually make people interested who don't want to be.
But maybe this is looking at it from the wrong place. Should we be more interested teaching around the issues that because we doing well enough we can ignore others who are struggling? If you can get over that we all rely on others, then the political choices come to life.

 

I don't know the answers to these questions Frenchie. There was a time when joining a party was also fun - there was a whole social life built around it, social clubs, cultural events - you could even take language courses with them. All that has gone - joining a party now involves a young man going to a meeting surrounded by old fogies like us talking for 3 hours about what went on in the last council meeting. Not surprisingly they disappear quickly from the scene. Younger people of today are quite happy to join organisations like Friends of the Earth, or other movements outside of politics but actual party membership is dry and boring by comparison. I agree about egotism - that has become the mantra of our age, and if you can work against that then its a beginning.

Another aspect is that schoolchildren of today are no longer encouraged to take an interest in their local surroundings as in former times, which is, surely, where the interest in politics begins - simply an extension of community. Another point is mobility - most people in the past built up roots in one area and the interest in local politics began from there. Live in an area where nobody was actually born there, and nobody has any intention of dying there and there will be a lack of initiative in wanting to actually change the area - and many parts of London come in this catagory.

Worth while considering that Friends of the Earth have 226,000 members in England and Wales, but the Green Party only 39,400.

 

Interesting article about the Koch brothers

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...spiked-magazine-charles-david-koch-foundation

Unbelievably rich but that's not enough for them, they want to play around with the world. Absolute scum.

 

Nothing we didn't already know about them. Scum, indeed. Absolutely.

 

A lengthy article today in the Mail which finishes with this.

The brutal truth is that there is no common ground any more between Europhile and Eurosceptic Tory MPs.

And so the moment looms when the two factions will find themselves incapable of living alongside each other in the same political party.

Thus the choice faced by Conservative MPs on Tuesday is not simply whether to accept Mrs May’s deal.

It is about the survival or destruction of the Conservative Party.

 

True Frenchie, but this has been the case for a long time and not just over Europe. In a PR. system they would have split off into separate parties years ago. Theoretically there are also many in the Labour Party - eg. the Blairites, whose spiritual home could well be somewhere else. But our political system keeps these misfunctioning dinosaurs together.

 

Interesting that a PR system would also allow for 'healthier' political parties.... as well as a more consensual govt

 

It really is difficult Yorkie. On so many of these online surveys where you have to choose which party you should vote for based on a whole list of questions the result (in about 25%+ cases) comes out that they should vote for the Green Party. Yet when it comes down to an election their vote normally goes to the nearest challenger to the Tories in their constituency. So many votes are wasted in the UK. because people do not vote on issues, or according to their conscience, but vote tactically ie. through fear of letting in either the Tories or Labour. The other problem is lack of decentralization in the UK. - so much power comes directly from Westminster, so that if you have a disfunctioning party with a majority in power then you have no effective balance to it. I read recently that in the UK. over 75% of public spending in the UK. is directly from Westminster - the equivalent in Germany is that only 30% is from central government. Also if you have federal states such as NRW, Bavaria, Schleswig Holstein etc. with their own governments then it allows experimental coalitions to be tested at the local level before they could ever be attempted at the national level eg. the Conservative/Green coalition in Hamburg.

 

Firstly, not a good idea to take as gospel every article in the Mail

Secondly the Tories are unlike the Labour Party that has a massive fissure running through the middle of the party. There are only about a dozen Tory MPs, all remainers, with an arrogant democracy defying attitude. They would be better joining the Lib Dems to help them fill at least half a coach load on their way to their annual conference at a chosen motorway service stop. The Tory Party membership and general voters clearly prefer Brexit, Brexiteers running the Party is the obvious solution to the present impasse.

After hailing the Toy Boy Macron as the new messiah and predicting a new centrist party in the UK I would have thought your crystal ball would have been put back in the loft by now.

 

To misquote the line from Yes, Minister or Yes, Prime Minister: "No Government is going to kick away the ladder they've climbed to the top of", so there will never be PR in the UK.

 

Agreed, those wishing for a new political voting system are wasting their time and effort.

 

yes..... of course........

 

As long as you do not have PR in the UK. then you have a source of political instability there, which is particularly true during times of falling party membership and entryism. With a PR. system the raping of British manufacturing in the 1980s, Britain's participation in the Iraq war, and this latest fiasco of Brexit, all would not have happened if Britain had had a more representative voting system - because all of these were done by parties with under 40% of the vote. Things can only change with a Labour minority government which needs the support of parties which favour PR. meaning the Lib Dems, SNP and the Greens. Failing that Britain is sorely in need of a radical decentralization, with strong regional assemblies, which is on the cards with Labour.

 

What a sad response to what should have been a thought provoking article. It actually defines the leavers as the thing that could be the end of the party.

 

Well..... the repercussions for the country post-whatever will not be fun....

It will be clearly seen how the economy slumps and so many other potential issues...

How The Tories can reunite for years to come will be very 'interesting'......

 

It might be sad for you that the Tories remain the dominant force in British politics but you should be getting used to it by now. You really should not believe all you read in the press.

What next martians landing just in time to start a new UK centrist political party with Soubry and Grieve?

 

Which is all that this entire sorry s**tshow was ever about and sweet Fannie Adams to do with the national interest.