As I predicted on March 24, people in the UK are beginning to go hungry as a result of the coronavirus crisis. As Felicity Lawrence has noted in the Guardian:
A hunger crisis is rapidly developing among British people in lockdown, as millions report having to go without meals, food charities and local government have warned.
Just three weeks into the lockdown, the Food Foundation said that 1.5 million Britons reported not eating for a whole day because they had no money or access to food. Some 3 million people in total were in households where someone had been forced to skip some meals. More than 1 million people reported losing all their income because of the pandemic, with over a third of them believing they would not be entitled to any government help.
As I said on March 24:
It is known that 40% of UK non-pensioner households have too little saved to pay even a month's worth of household bill. But they're going to be asked, in many cases, to last for at least two months.
They cannot do that. It is not possible. And if the government does not appreciate that fact then the reality of it will hit home very soon. That is because mothers (in particular) who cannot feed their children first of all steal and then they riot.
Unless the UK government can get cash to people — employed, self-employed and unemployed — very, very soon then social order in this country is going to break down. I give us a fortnight at most, and literally nothing the government is doing right now is even close to preventing this happening.
And if it happens there are no resources to deal with it, including beds for the casualties.
The time for emergency cash injections has arrived. They may not need to be big — but something has to happen, and very, very soon because no one in their right minds should let this breakdown happen, and yet the chance if it occurring is growing by the day.
All that has happened since then is ... nothing.
The crisis is coming.
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What is desperately needed from these daily briefings is pure honesty, no matter how unpalatable that honesty may be.
What is being done to help those who are or have run out of food or cash, when or how is help going to get to them.
How many have died OF Coronavirus rather than with (not just in hospitals)
Why are post mortems not being carried out on ALL deaths (something that could be open to all sorts of abuse)
Comparison of death rates in previous years and months to show just how serious this virus is.
How feasible are walk in test centres that are open to all.
A guarantee that when things return to normal, the emergency Coronavirus laws will be repealed.
Ideas and thoughts of an exit strategy.
Review of funding for The NHS, Social Care, Local Councils and Mental Health.
Universal Basic Income and/or Job Guarantee Schemes advantages/disadvantages.
All of which have been exposed during this pandemic.
There are many more.
Further thoughts appreciated.
I could list many more.
No . I said on this blog two weeks ago what’s needed is a cheque in the post . It was easy. They have your NI number . The income tax section of HMRC still send you a cheque if you are due a rebate . Just roll out the cheques. So what if some get lost, or some go to rich people or any other ‘ issues’ just get them out there . If you don’t get this you are in denial. The virus doesn’t care . It’s going to do what it’s going to do and it’s up to us to sort it out right here, right now.
Not quite that easy, I am afraid
HMRC have no clue where vast numbers of people are
I am sure the government will soon suggest that we all draw a rainbow and clap for the poor, enforced by the self righteous mainstream media…
Real financial support is currently reserved for certain corporations with direct government access.
2016 – London – taxi. Talking to the driver. His wife worked (works?) in a London hospital. Increase in people, mostly women, collapsing at work and being admitted to hospital. Turns out they were malnourished. Not earning enough to feed kids and adults – kids get the food – adults starve. Welcome to the working poor. Or would that be the starving poor.?
Taxi driver said that he told his first hand story to a Tory MP and was greeted with point black denial. Tories have a tin ear on this one. Standby for rioting & civil disorder. Personally? I hope they rip the tories apart. It’s been a long time coming. Marx always predicted revolution in the UK. Perhaps he was only 140 years out.
I drove a taxi for 7 years in the east end of Glasgow, a lot of people are struggling by on £14,000 per year, median UK wage of £28,000 a year is only a dream for a lot of people. Little wonder that half of Scotland is seeking independence and the UK is falling apart at the seams. The UK has been sucked dry by tory and new labour rule for decades.
Mike, Tories getting ripped apart? This particular bunch of creeps deserves everything that happens to them. Blair may not have been great, but he was nowhere near as terrible as this bunch. I can not think of a single one, though they may exist, not guilty of a great social or similar crime.
I am one of many hundreds of thousands of public sector workers who had their final salary pensions interfered with under a New Labour Government – the so-called party of working people – for no good reason whatsoever. My own Labour Council took pension contribution holidays organised by Tory Central Government and now we have to fill the huge hole in our pension fund by supressing real wage growth for workers (so, the workforce pays again for our own losses)!!
Blair’s Labour copied a lot from Clinton’s democrats. There is a body of opinion in America that thinks that the Democratic Party simply absorbs progressive thinking and movements and then nullifies them, smothers them – if the Republicans are the party of bad ideas, the Democrats are the party of no ideas. They both get their funding from the same extreme capitalists. Oh Dear.
By all means support Labour if you have to. Retain hope if you like. But be assured that they are thick, stupid, unprincipled, divided husk of a party who actually do not know what they stand for any more. They have become the hand maidens of Neo-liberalism – unwitting or not.
To my mind, progressives in this country are on their own. Labour? Blair? Nah!
Looking at the new shadow cabinet, I would suggest that Starmer will be presiding over, if not the end, then the beginning of the end of the Labour Party as the major alternative to Conservative rule.
Without naming names, many of them are devoted to the continuation of the system they are operating in, and are committed to damping down voices that offer viable alternatives – especially if it goes against Treasury orthodoxy.
McDonnell was deeply wedded to austerity and balancing the books
I hope this lot less so
“To my mind, progressives in this country are on their own. Labour? Blair? Nah!”
Perhaps not on their own. I have no doubt that there are many Labour people are unhappy with the lurch to Tory-lite which labour seem to have taken.
I any case they are not in gov/apparently supporting the current gov rabble.
How to organise progressives & how to organise the millions of people that are hungary/starving?
That is the question to be answered. Hunger is a wonderful motivator in terms of taking action.
In the main, The 1m you talk about are already claiming benefits, so their money is coming through. Those that are being furloughed should get their money basically on time. There will be a few hiccups.
The notion there will be trouble on the streets won’t come from the people you describe, but the anarchists who’ve being waiting for this moment.
Your comment is ridiculous.
Most people with children are in benefits.
So?
You are ignoring the reality of the complete collapse in support for millions
Most tory politicians and voters have simply no idea of what it means to live week to week on a giro, using foodbanks and basically grinding out an existence with no security. Almost 2 million claims for Universal Credit have been made in the last month. People are becoming desperate. Troops will be on the streets to keep order. If the Govt doesn’t provide, trouble on the streets is likely.
It’s not sustainable for our top decision makers to be so remote from the most vulnerable. Big changes afoot, I hope.
The FT reports that Ferry companies and the haulage industry are in trouble and need some assistance. Since a lot of our food comes across the channel and is delivered by lorries this could exacerbate the problem of hunger.
The hauliers association says the emergency loan scheme means taking on extra debt which has no long-term sustainability for many firms which are now short of cash. (https://www.ft.com/content/40a0a566-c470-4aa3-84b7-7ad538124e95 – paywall)
The problem as I see it is that the ‘decision makers’ are on at least £80K a year plus expenses and increasingly come from the sort of backgrounds where such hunger would be unknown.
Parliament gave itself a pay rise and increased its pension provision for itself whilst dealing out pauperisation for everyone else via austerity.
Many politicians on all sides of the house could do with a reality wake up call – at the end of a gun or a pitchfork may have to be what does it in order shake them out this ‘culture of contentment’.
Agree completely with the need for KPI’s and transparent reporting. Unlikely to happen with government that has lied and cheated their way to power. It works. I read with complete disbelief that approval ratings for HMG are in the low 60’s, and Trump approval is still in the low 40’s. We have to accept that there are a lot of stupid people out there.
Meanwhile, in Spain the government moves towards establishing permanent Basic Income (‘minimum living income’), spurred on by coronavirus crisis.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pascaledavies/2020/04/06/spain-aims-to-roll-out-universal-basic-income-to-fix-coronavirus-economic-crisis/
There are only two options left
1. A Coalition Government of National Unity with a working plan based on the Scandinavian Model.
(I was going to be facetious and advocate for a Norwegian PM – well it works in football and rugby).
2. Anarchy and Rioting and the inevitability of Army and Police Control of Power.
How have we come to this?
They are not the only options left
Our government could react
It hasn’t
And it is no one’s task to bail it out
I’m surprised there is no revolution in the streets. Here in Canada, the prime minister has shovelled billions to people who have lost their job — 75% of everyone’s former income. And the cheque is in the mail. Also he’s bailing out small business with loans of about 30,000 pounds to start, 10% is forgivable. It may not be enough but it’s enough to keep the wolf away. Everyone is eating. Indeed some people earn more than when they were working. This is true of low paid work which abounds in this country.
The Coronavirus has shown how fragile the system is and I fear the system will tumble like a house of cards very soon.
Here is the thing…there have been massive cracks in the system for well over a decade now, one could argue even longer.
Zero hour contracts. Food banks. Stagnant wages. The cost of living rising. Over a third of UK households are one paycheck from financial ruin (from a 2019 study). The system is not sustainable and it has been held up with duct tape for a very long time.
It’s the very reason I became a prepper 6 years ago. I never prepared for a virus or world war, I prepared for a disruption within the system because I knew once that happens, millions of people in the UK will be done for.
Food shortages and major civil unrest are imminent in the UK now. Once was that happens, I don’t think the government will be able to put that genie back in the bottle. One just has to look back at the devastation caused with the 2011 London riots.
I’m going to start reporting your blog to Full Fact. Hopefully then you’ll start to get the sort of criticism you deserve. What a numpty you have become over the years. Such a shame as you have some good skills.
Feel free…..