As we approach winter, the shops are hoping for a seasonal retail spree and begin the ultimate display of commercialization. Whether people are celebrating a religious festival or a more secular affair, or perhaps just a get-together with the family, some will look to the Christmas period with excited anticipation.
There will be others with a dread of the loneliness and others with fear of cold and hunger, not just being unable to afford the fripperies, those oh-so-unwanted wasteful things, often manufactured in their millions by workers who work for a pittance, while those hidden and tax-evading profiteers’ obscene piles of plenty grow and grow forever tall like skyscrapers high above the real world.
No, beyond all that, many look to Christmas without a sustaining meal, adequate heating or a decent home. Deprived of these by government cuts to welfare payments, by escalating prices by energy companies, wages frozen, jobs lost, it is no exaggeration to predict unprecedented suicides this winter – and next.
Dickensian pictures emerge in our minds. Thoughts of the Victorian poor, a glimpse into history, denying today’s reality.
These pictures will continue to haunt us until we break the self-perpetuating neoliberalism. It is in our hands to change. Brave politicians must rid us of the neoliberalism has destroyed society, and finally reject this flawed argument, and reclaim democracy.
Welcomed in the eighties as Thatcher’s bribe to the workers, neoliberalism, many now realize the dangers of policies which have led to:
HOMELESSNESS : There’s no place like home
George Young, recently appointed government chief whip famously once said “The homeless are what you step over when you come out of the opera.” I wonder if he is aware of the drastic reduction in life expectancy of people living with no home? Has he considered which policies add to the crisis?
Homelessness Kills is an analysis by the University of Sheffield of the mortality of homeless people in 21st Century England
Homeless people under 45 have four times the chance of dying than their housed contemporaries, the under 55s three and a half times, and the under 65s two and three-quarter times.
Homeless people are three and a half times more likely to commit suicide than the general population.
Shelter’s examination of the reasons for homelessness cites personal causes, structural causes and the reasons given by homeless people. Personal causes for homelessness could be tackled by intervention, counselling services and support from Local Authorities. Statistics look to rise further due to cuts to these services by the Coalition government.
Structural causes for homelessness can be directly traced back to previous conservative governments. In contrast to the policies of the post-war Labour government which built tens of thousands of homes, Margaret Thatcher began to deplete the housing stock by selling off council houses. Councils were not permitted to replace the homes sold, so there was no return. Householders took on the debts of mortgages and bankers are the winners. New house-owners now, with mortgages around their necks, dared not strike against workplace injustices, so Thatcher’s grasp on trade unionists tightened further.
Today we see land destined for homes,and with plans in place, unworked for years because the market won’t deliver a profit, regardless of people’s needs. There are people in need of homes, yet houses are unaffordable. The construction industry is profit-driven. Houses were built and bought, not for homes for people but for profits for building companies, or as a source of investment, people living lives without meaningful jobs, just buying and selling houses, so forcing house prices out of people’s reach. As a result, a working person’s wage is insufficient and Housing benefit is claimed, but it is landlords who benefit. A sensible policy would be to build the homes people need.The immorality of buy-to-let mortgages is clear. TV programmes focus on how to make a killing out of house speculation, never quite realising the stark and haunting truth.
ENERGY: Privatisation – Pumps up the Power ?
The power which was derived from privatised companies was more than could be generated from coal or oil, it is their ultimate power by which they seek to control us – a plutocracy over governments and nations alike, and this is not power which will be easily relinquished.
The Big Six reap profits from immoral earnings as many people cannot afford to pay their ever bills.
Caroline Flint , Labour
“Since this Government came to power, energy bills have gone up by more than £200, and last week three of the big energy companies announced another round of price hikes, adding a further £100 to people’s energy bills this winter. People worried about how they will afford to keep the lights on, heat their homes or have a hot meal deserve a Government who understand their challenges and have the ideas to provide the change that Britain needs and the strength to see them through.”
Last winter the Independent reported that fuel poverty deaths were three times the government estimates.
Some 7,800 people die during winter because they can’t afford to heat their homes properly, says fuel poverty expert Professor Christine Liddell of the University of Ulster. That works out at 65 deaths a day.
Fuel poverty is defined as when someone needs to spend 10 per cent or more on heating their home.
The new total – calculated using World Health Organisation guidance and official excess winter death figures – is four times as many fatalities as happen in road accidents each year.
The previous government estimate put the total of deaths relating to fuel poverty at just 2,700 a year. That was included in a report last year by Professor John Hills, who is expected to produce his final recommendations on fuel poverty next month.
Yet the latest Office of National Statistics figures show that there were 25,700 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in winter 2010.
Meanwhile the latest WHO research suggests that 30 to 40 per cent of the excess winter deaths can be attributed to fuel poverty.
Cuts to welfare benefits for the vulnerable and disabled have already been attributed to be responsible for 73 deaths per week.
Reclaiming our energy sources and a renationalisation of Energy and utility companies must be on Labour’s agenda. Ed MIliband is acutely aware that the Energy companies’ political grasp in global power can be loosened. His policy of introduction of Feed-in-Tarriffs for micro-generation projects such as solar energy has already made a difference to fuel bills for many. Even this wet summer, solar panels can meet 80% of energy needs on some homes. Community projects can generate electricity to benefit local communities, and more research directed to renewable energy sources. Public buildings such as schools and hospitals could be self sufficient.
But the Coalition are tied-in to the lobbyists’ agendas, and their own self-interest. Rather than pursuing green policies, investment in jobs and lower energy costs for all, they opt for the short-sighted to “invest” public money into fossil fuels, fracking and nuclear energy. As many shiver this winter, it is the Big Six Energy Companies and their backers who benefit, yet again.
HUNGER
Like property, and energy, even food is now a commodity for financiers to gamble with. Shameful Food speculation has led to hunger around the world.
There is sufficient food to feed a world, yet so many go hungry, children born with no chance in life.
In the UK today, the number of people going hungry is escalating, the demand for food banks escalating. In Coventry out of 306,000 people, according to the city council, 59,000 are living on the breadline. (BBC Report) And with the UK economy in double-dip recession, the word breadline is starting to mean something literal. The callous withdrawal of welfare support by this government, removal of the safety net intended to provide help for the vulnerable is literally leaving people with a choice of starvation or suicide.
Welfare cuts will mean 350,000 children will lose free school meals. In desperation, many are driven to steal to feed their children.
Meanwhile, globalisation is putting an end to our high streets. As with the Big Six energy firms, supermarket giants are increasing their power, diversifying into non-food such as banking and insurance. Supermarkets control food prices and exert buying power, closing down local shops, and are then able to maximise profits on own brands.
I wonder, where are initiatives for home-grown food? Land, left idle unused and fertile should be made available for allotments, for community groups and co-operatives.
The stranglehold of neoliberalism sees no limits, yet the inevitable end to the insatiable greed of unbridled capitalism, is a disastrous chaos.
Dickens’ Oliver said, Please Sir, “Can I have some more?” We demand it.
http://www.crisis.org.uk/data/files/publications/Homelessness%20kills%20-%20Executive%20Summary.pdf
Download pdf Homelessness kills – Executive Summary
Shelter: The causes of Homelessness
Independent: ( February 2012) Fuel poverty three times government estimates
Morning Star: How the Big Six Energy Firms are holding us to ransom
Tribune Magazine: The Families on their knees in Breadline Britain
BBC: The growing demand for food banks in breadline Britain.
Think Left:
Why Barclays and Co “can’t get no satisfaction from food speculation”
Think Left 
Clear, Simple & Correct – Brilliant Post Pam xx
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You are BRILLIANT. Theoretically if schools and large buildings and every home in our own community were allowed to put solar panels up – we could have a community based electrical ‘bank’ and we could bring down the cost so much and the old would not go cold and the people who need it wouldnt be ripped off by elec companies.
We need to TAKE BACK the power. Somehow to show these people that THIS SMALL COMMUNITY can bve bigger by getting out of this lets steal from everyone and let the poor and disabled die.
Scameron doesnt care – But we need to find a way OUT of this rip off britain economy as the govt wont help us as they are all in a world of not understanding because of their riches and not having truly LIVED!
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Thanks Sarah, you are quite right in that reclaiming the energy – and tax justice – is fundamental to solving social, economic and environmental issues.
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Not sure governments are remotely interested in social justice anymore.
The present government are rail roading their big business backed agenda and ideology across the country, on the back of a weak democratic mandate.
Yet still people listen to press and mainstream propaganda and believe the coalition spin and rhetoric?
Labour have picked up a lot of ground in opinion polls, but the jury is still out on the state of mind of many voters.
Roads are still busy, people are still working, shopping and spending.
To may casual observers, what’s the problem is a phrase I often hear.
The press and political narrative is a constant stream of attack on benefit scroungers, cheats, chavs, malingerers and criminals.
The working class have been divided by over priced housing and a decline in entry level, and blue collar jobs.
The economy relies on a few people spinning a coin for a healthy profit for the market and themselves.
The Dickensian conditions are clear for me to see.
But so are the bourgeoisie.
Its one thing to talk the talk of striving and aspiring, it’s another to walk the walk of debt, expensive housing, high unemployment, escalating fuel, transport and living costs, and stagnant or falling incomes.
The UK has been sold off, carved up and divided up to satisfy short term profits of a few shareholders.
The very people who criticize Communism, Europe and ” Johnny foreigner” on the right of the Tories & UKIP are happy to take their money when selling British infrastructure, brands and utilities to China, Russia, Japan and Europe?
We are following American business models for healthcare, police and security whilst our welfare and education budget is being spent on foreign companies who are set to make a tidy profit for a small return?
Wages have been falling behind GDP for 40 years and inflation is about to explode.
People are adapting, sinking or swimming, despite this government and their corporate masters and tidy profits made on the side.
Until the streets are alive with pick pockets, prostitutes and drug pushers, beggers, hustlers and highwaymen once more, I doubt there is enough sincere, community spiritedness and will to reform in the houses of parliament.
It’s just a gravy train.
Either we chase after it or get run over by it.
The Labour party only lives in the heats of those who know or have read of Nye Bevan.
Thatchers children will soon become Thatcherisms Orphans.
Either the banks and markets will collapse, or we decend into civil war.
Greece, Spain and Italy are in a debt crisis and power vacuum, whilst people take to the streets.
Ireland, Portugal and Uk are close behind.
rather than occupation of the city, perhaps its time to occupy the land.
Build community co operations to build dwellings, farms and local economics, cutting out big businesses altogether?
Perhaps the time has come to look after one another, introduce our own currency and simply renounce sovereign debt?
Put our efforts and values into labour and value in, tools, skills and means of production.
build houses and small businesses.
The UK has sleep walked into hell, at the mercy of imports and unable to trade or manufacture its own goods, energy or materials.
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Real community local ism ..would be a National Citizens bank ..credit co ops ..Food co ops ..solar and wind turbine son homes ..Workfare paid to do community work that benefits local people ..not big business.
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Fantastic blog and post. Even today on BBC Any Questions we heard “businesses need to create more jobs…” People don’t seem to get the reality: business don’t want to create jobs, they want to increase profit. Jobs are inconvenient costs incurred that should be rationalised and economised at the first opportunity. Why should energy companies want us to use less fuel, when that means less profits? I could continue…..
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