Saturday, 18 June 2011

Poor Kids; child poverty

There something on TV that all those interested in politics, or people, should see. Poor Kids on BBC1.

We are so used to hearing from our media and mainstream politicians about welfare cheats. This program was a reminder for us, what welfare is all about. Families so poor they struggle to feed the children. Parents unable to get work though they keep applying. Parents not eating in order to feed their kids.

Its a failure of the government to adress this, focusing insteead on cutting benefits to those who need them most. And the last government who claimed to have tackeled poverty, but have not. All need to adress the inequality, the equality trust have answers.

More info available on the Poor Kids webpage
Documentary telling the stories of some of the 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK. It is one of the worst child poverty rates in the industrialised world.

6 comments:

howard thomas said...

Poverty......Hmmmm!....Lets look at this idea of paying out high feed in tariffs to those that can afford to generate electricity.
To make it worthwhile financially you need to have £10-15,000 to invest in panels.
The question is who pays for those high value tariffs ? The answer is those that have the least money because the cost goes onto everyones electricity bills , therefore adding to those in 'fuel poverty'

This is fact. please explain how this 'green' scheme is not raising the numbers of people in 'fuel poverty '

GIDEON MACK said...

Hello Adrian

What does "living in poverty in the UK" actually mean please?

Kind REgards - Gideon

Adrian Windisch said...

Howard, you seemeed a little confused. Feed in tariffs encourage the production of renewable energy, which prepares us for a future of high oil prices as supplies shrink. As well as reducing the carbon footprint. Greens are all for insulating houses, reducing fuel poverty, reducing fuel bills, creating green jobs. See http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/interview/2079193/caroline-lucas-ill-tell-hate-question

Gideon, one boy was wearing torn ragged trousers and his sisters hand me down blouse to school, and was bullied. I would suggest this is poverty.

Read the work of the equality trust http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/ to learn more

howard thomas said...

Adrian.....I'm not at all confused !
The feed in tariff rates mean that the electricity companies pay about four times what each unit is worth on the open market. Clearly this costs money and to get this money back the general price of electricity has to rise. Either that or the company won't make any profit, or worst case scenario , go bust.
Therefore those that can afford to buy a system and generate electricity will do well (because the tariff has been set so high to make sure that they do) and those that can't afford to invest £10-15,000 will have to pay more for their power. The fact that the cost of power rises in order to encourage people to put their money in simply has to lead to more people being in 'fuel poverty'.
Clearly wind farms have the same effect..........dearer electricity!
Thats why I raise this issue, because although I realise that the Greens mean well, this is a side effect that is real.

Adrian Windisch said...

Howard you have ignored everything I have said, this is why you are confused. Greens are not yet in power so current policies are the fault of liblabcons.

Put greens in power and you will see the end of fuel poverty as all homes will be insulated, save power and create green jobs.

The myths of the mini ice age are well known, ignore those headlines and look for the peer reviewed science. Click on the link i gave and learn a little more.

It suis the tabloids, who are mostly right wing, to sensationalise any story. Turn some speculation into a shock horror storey. The real science is not at all confused.

Read what the ipcc actually said and dont repeat such myths, orbprove with a link. Misinformation doesnt help anyone.

howard thomas said...

Adrian.........Can you please tell me therefore which newspaper is not 'right wing' as they all use these type of headlines.
I already said that I ignored the rubbish about a coming ice age , in the same way as I ignore the rubbish about the seas rising by 6 metres in this century. Ten and a half years in and the levels have increased by ?????
Back to poverty........you have ignored my point about feed in tariffs being paid for by the 'poor' (ie anyone without £10-15,000 they care to invest in solar panels) It is a fact that this is pushing up the cost of electricity and will continue to do so. Its all very well to insulate properties , but that is not the be all and end all solution, just a help. What about heat pumps which use what always available as a heat source.......the ground and the air!
The point is that if fuel bills are being artificially inflated then more people will fall into fuel poverty , I struggle to see how you can fail to see that,its obvious. Other than insulation , what would the Greens do to stop that ?
And green jobs .......Large numbers of the 'green jobs ' that have been created by major wind farm projects have gone abroad. Germany,Norway and others have done very nicely thankyou at the expense of the British jobs and the British taxpayer, producing electricity to be sold to UK consumers via French owned suppliers.
Do you know where the solar panels and feed in equipment are made? I haven't even looked yet, but unless most of it is made here there is going to be little benefit in green jobs.
If Britain really wants to benefit from green jobs , we need to manufacture this equipment here and preferably export it as well.