Facts speaker louder than words……………. You will hopefully hear this on the news tonight but the Feeding Britain Food Bank Report has been published today. Funded by the Church of England one of their findings is: Roughly a third of the report’s 77 recommendations involve improvements to the social security system changes to make the administration of benefits more efficient, speedy and humane theguardian/society/2014/dec/08/tory-peer-apologises-poor-hungry-do-not-know-cook You could not make it up but then one of the co-authors, a Conservative Peer, (Remember that all Peers are unelected but can claim up to a £300 a day attendance allowance dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2778497/Liberal-Democrat-peer-claims-entering-House-Lords-unaffordable-normal-people-tax-free-allowance-300-day-isn-t-enough. then decided to make the following crass comment: “We have lost a lot of our cookery skills. Poor people do not know how to cook.”She added: “I had a large bowl of porridge today, which cost 4p. A large bowl of sugary cereals will cost you 25p.” Jenkin suggested at the press conference held to launch the report that low-income people who used food banks did so in part because they were not skilled enough in cooking and food management. And why can’t people on low income cook? I can see the headlines tomorrow in the right wing media, such as because they are too busy watching their Sky Tv’s; too busy having a fag; you all know the stereotypes. How about instead what I consider to be nearer the truth. That many people are working two or three jobs just to keep the landlady or Landlord happy, as well as to try and keep their house/flat warm; and that by the time they get home, often after using public transport because they don’t have a car, the thought of another half hour to feed the kids and themselves by going fresh food shopping and cooking a fresh is just too much. And even if they wanted to learn how to “Cook on a budget;” “Healthy Eating on a Budget;” all those courses that were universally available in 2010 at the National Network of Sure Start Children’s Centres. Funding cuts by your Coalition Government Lady Jenkins mean that these programmes are no longer available. Perhaps Lady Jenkins next time I am in London you can share the maths and method with me as to just how a bowl of porridge in the morning costs you four pence? Are you sure it’s porridge and not gruel? Or have you just plucked the figure out of the air? And that is an open invitation to you Lady Jenkins. I am in London next week with a couple of TV Companies to discuss an idea I have for a new fly on the wall show. It’s a combination of Benefits Street, meets Posh People, meets “I’m a celebrity get me out of here.” The audience gets to vote to put on a train to Clacton, the Peers who they would like to see live for a month in Jaywick Sands on Housing Benefit and Jobseekers Allowance in a chalet by the sea. Called “I’m an unelected Peer get me out of here,” I am sure it will prove to a national audience just how completely out of touch most of your peers are!!
Posted on: Mon, 08 Dec 2014 17:48:48 +0000