I know that I am
biased because I want to live in a country where there is social justice and
greater equality, where everyone is treated with respect, and where the rich
don’t become obscenely wealthy on the backs of the rest of us and particularly
the poorest.
A country where families and the most vulnerable don’t have
to rely on the charity of others to survive and where food banks are not the
fastest growing industry.
A country where health care is still available to everyone free
at the point of need, and is well enough staffed with compassionate, well paid
and well treated professionals so that the quality of service matches or surpasses
the service that those rich enough to afford private health care get.
A country which values the public services that we all use
and that some of us provide, and recognises their significant importance for
all of us who use them but also for the economy as a whole. After all, public
servants pay their taxes, shop and buy in their local communities, and use
their local trades people, keeping their businesses in work.
But biased or not, I am sick of hearing the lies that pop
out of the mouths of certain politicians as easily as breathing. Ruth Davidson,
Leader of the Scottish Tories, has
particularly irritated me over recent days. So, there are fewer children
growing up in workless households are there Ruth? And she
says it as if it is a great thing that her government has achieved. Well, maybe
it is from her perspective. But, how does it fit with the increasing numbers of
children growing up in poverty WHO LIVE IN WORKING HOUSEHOLDS? With parents for
whom work DOESN’T pay – low waged and dependent
on government top ups and the charity of food banks.
But wait a minute
though. According to Ruth, under the Tory led government there are fewer
children growing up in poverty. Really Ruth? Despite the massive increases in
the use of food banks and the Child Poverty Action Group’s prediction, based on
IFS figures, that under current government
policies, child poverty is projected to rise with an expected 600,000 more
children living in poverty by 2015/16. An upward trend that is expected
to continue with 4.7 million children projected to be living in poverty by
2020.
2020 – the year in which,
under the Child Poverty Act 2010, child poverty should be eradicated.
Really Ruth?
Nelson Mandela’s wise words
are well known now. But they were never truer. And they are not based on mere
statistics but on compassion and humanity – a humanity that we should all
share. He said, “Poverty is not
an accident. Like slavery and apartheid it is man-made and can be removed by
the actions of human beings”
Child poverty could
be ended tomorrow if the political will was there. But just saying that it’s
reducing doesn’t make it so, Ruth!
And under a Tory
government – your party’s government Ruth - child
poverty in this country will always grow, because at the end of the day they
just don’t care really. Poor people don’t vote for them and it is in the
interests of their rich business chums to have a low wage economy at their
disposal for them to exploit and make their big bucks.
So, all you caring
and compassionate people out there please, don’t listen to the lies and the
creative (or perhaps manipulative would be nearer the truth) use of statistics
by the Tories. Propped up by the Lib Dems they have presided over the biggest
mass transfer of wealth from the rest of us to an elite few that I have known
in my lifetime.
Whatever you vote
in this election please kick the Tories out and let’s try and meet that target
of ending child poverty in what is supposedly the fourth richest country in the
world.
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