Food banks are a mistake article in The Sun

This whole social warfare thing is actually sort of funny. The rich shaft the middle completely, hand enough benefits to survive to the poor (which is apparently high enough to piss off the middle)...then point the finger at the poor so the middle (distracted) have something to aim their anger at while the rich continue to make more money. In a sick way it's pretty ****ing brilliant. And I say this as someone who is part of the poor working class.

"Food banks are a mistake... They are a hand-out not a hand-up" a quote from the Sun about food banks.

I saw this on my facebook page, my friend also feeling as disgusted as me, had posted this. I was completely disgusted by this, food banks are more important now than ever seeing as food prices have been rising and so many families are struggling to make ends meet. I've decided to start volunteering in my local food bank during my holidays and just when I was researching today some of the stories I found were heartbreaking.

"This week foodbank mum Donna was almost in tears as she told me that she couldn't afford birthday presents to give to her twins who will be 13 on Sunday. She said that her sons had asked to have a friend come to stay to celebrate their birthday but she hasn't said yes because she's not sure they can afford the extra food. Donna used to work in a school for children with Aspergers and Autism but is currently off work due to depression - which has been exacerbated by the family's financial worries. Her partner was recently made redundant and they are currently living on £38 per week due to mistakes with their benefits. This is the reality behind the statistics. Donna says she will be 'eternally grateful' for their foodbox. Without it she says she would have gone without food and had to try to scrape together enough money to give the children something, even just bread and butter. The family are keen to get back into work, that's the hope that keeps them going."

I tried to find the article online but seeing as that means giving money to the Sun, this is all I could find without funding Rupert Murdoch so I just thought I'd post this to show how disgusted I am by the Sun.

Food banks are not sustainable and the money going into it would be better spent towards the local economies so we can create jobs for the populations out of work.

People using food banks develop a heavy reliance on the free service so they forget they have to work for basic needs. It's not good and turns genuine people into lazy, scrounging benefit cheats.

Food banks are terrible and we need a mass removal of them. People need to know that having a job pays for food and it's not just handed out freely.

So what do you suggest people do for food when they're struggling to feed their families and can't work and are actually trying to find work? This is the 21st century, have some compassion.

Well the article is written by that harridan Edwina Currie.

We can't hand out what we don't have. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Businesses and large companies are suffering profit losses, this leads to job loss which eventually affects our welfare bill.

Economic growth should be the main focus if we want to prosper. Sometimes a few sacrifices need to be made for the greater good. Scroungers chose to scrounge and this is the reward they get for the many years of giving nothing back. Plus it's pathetic that idiots who know they can't support children have guess what children and even more children. If you can barely support yourself then deliberately have children to claim, you should get nothing. You can pour your taxes into it but if I had the choice I would never give anything

This kind of thing is so disappointing - she once had a reputation for being fearless against powerful interests on behalf of the public good, but on this she's just playing the Daily Mail / Murdoch game and serving her masters in the Tory Party.

It would be so nice to hear some Tories admit that in fact food banks are a necessary response to the Duncan Smith 'reforms' to the welfare system, which featured incentive payments to job centre staff to sanction people (something they keep denying yet time and again is found to have happened on a large scale) and the horrible DLA/PIP reforms which have left hundreds of thousands of people destitute.

We are literally returning to a Dickensian situation, inspired by Victorian England before the great reformers managed to get the government to side with the poor.

"Food banks are a mistake... They are a hand-out not a hand-up" a quote from the Sun about food banks.

I saw this on my facebook page, my friend also feeling as disgusted as me, had posted this. I was completely disgusted by this, food banks are more important now than ever seeing as food prices have been rising and so many families are struggling to make ends meet. I've decided to start volunteering in my local food bank during my holidays and just when I was researching today some of the stories I found were heartbreaking.

"This week foodbank mum Donna was almost in tears as she told me that she couldn't afford birthday presents to give to her twins who will be 13 on Sunday. She said that her sons had asked to have a friend come to stay to celebrate their birthday but she hasn't said yes because she's not sure they can afford the extra food. Donna used to work in a school for children with Aspergers and Autism but is currently off work due to depression - which has been exacerbated by the family's financial worries. Her partner was recently made redundant and they are currently living on £38 per week due to mistakes with their benefits. This is the reality behind the statistics. Donna says she will be 'eternally grateful' for their foodbox. Without it she says she would have gone without food and had to try to scrape together enough money to give the children something, even just bread and butter. The family are keen to get back into work, that's the hope that keeps them going."

I tried to find the article online but seeing as that means giving money to the Sun, this is all I could find without funding Rupert Murdoch so I just thought I'd post this to show how disgusted I am by the Sun.

So it's completely your fault if you've been made redundant or have severe depression and can't work? If you can predict who's going to be made be forced to go on benefits at some point in their life are you going to force people never to have kids? Good luck with that... I understand that the government can't magic money up from thin air so cuts do have to be made though but at the moment there's not much help going to the people how really need it. Finally, the foodbank is funded through donations, it's people doing what they can to help.

Your bit about the greater good reminded me of this...

What stupid reasoning. There's this thing called inflation that causes that to happen.

Besides, wages are outstripping inflation.

Foodbanks create a level of dependence; they're not good.

based on your picture, they managed to win best town/village in the country for a good number of consecutive years. It had zero crime accept few live statues and geese but nonetheless the town was peacefully and prospered economically, socially and demographically.

Doesn't it sound too good to be true if we live in a society where everyone has help, has good wages, has easy life where we live our version of "the American dream". In America you have these kardashians and Jersey shore folk but you also got 10s of millions homeless and over 50 million living in poverty. Your vision of everyone living the good life is a dream and in reality can not be achieved because of money. When some live the rich life many live the poor life. They are directly linked so these poverty stricken families will always exist.

I accept that for the first time in I'm not quite sure how long, wages are finally going up but people don't want to have to use them, it's out of desperation



But through corruption? The poverty gap should be be MUCH smaller, on a worldwide scale half the population had the combined wealth of the 85 richest people - that's not fair, resources need to be shared out more equally, not just here but around the world.

Hey I completely agree with you, I wish we had he perfect world where equality was good and money was shared out and at one time I believed it. However I looked into the economics more and the politics on a smaller scale where I concluded it is not possible. 1 you can't tell a businessman to share his wealth, it's his basic human right to do as he pleases. 2 if being very very rich was less likely for entrepreneurs, they would have less motivation to work hard and eventually build a successful business or dynasty. 3 basic economics shows we need a greater proportion of poorer populations than higher earning populations. You need your rich CEOs, directors, bosses to create jobs and invest. Business are more likely to succeed with lower payed wages. I hate the idea yes but the unions back in the day were having none of it and it lead eventually to the collapse of enterprises because to compete and drive investment it's not always possible to pay good wages.

we live in a world where money keeps he clocks ticking and as long as that is the case you will have your super rich, moderately rich, middle class, lower class, poverty stricken class. It would be lovely if everyone was earning 30k year but that is completely impossible.

Your ideological values are similar to communist values. Promotion of equality and social status. Look at china and Russia now, they have really rich billionaires and very poor factory workers who will never have a day off or retire. It's a cruel cruel world but what can we do?

Hey I completely agree with you, I wish we had he perfect world where equality was good and money was shared out and at one time I believed it. However I looked into the economics more and the politics on a smaller scale where I concluded it is not possible. 1 you can't tell a businessman to share his wealth, it's his basic human right to do as he pleases. 2 if being very very rich was less likely for entrepreneurs, they would have less motivation to work hard and eventually build a successful business or dynasty. 3 basic economics shows we need a greater proportion of poorer populations than higher earning populations. You need your rich CEOs, directors, bosses to create jobs and invest. Business are more likely to succeed with lower payed wages. I hate the idea yes but the unions back in the day were having none of it and it lead eventually to the collapse of enterprises because to compete and drive investment it's not always possible to pay good wages.

we live in a world where money keeps he clocks ticking and as long as that is the case you will have your super rich, moderately rich, middle class, lower class, poverty stricken class. It would be lovely if everyone was earning 30k year but that is completely impossible.

Your ideological values are similar to communist values. Promotion of equality and social status. Look at china and Russia now, they have really rich billionaires and very poor factory workers who will never have a day off or retire. It's a cruel cruel world but what can we do?