Tanners & Bobs

People can "crash out" of seemingly normal lives very rapidly. Food banks have helped many to cope with very difficult situations. State benefits are often slow and meagre in the worst case scenarios. We waste food too which years ago would never have happened, the poem at the beginning misses out some of the poverty families endured and still do.

Agree the social housing issue is a huge problem. But so is the living wage, the fact that some companies pay such appalling wages that some folks have to have their income topped up! Shareholders and companies are circumventing the systems with the connivance of selective governments. There are working people that are in fact homeless. Sleeping on the streets, wherever they can, turning in for slave wages, back to bed on the streets. 

The whole system of governing this country is now a shambles. We need to look back to the days of Nye Bevin, and his colleagues from all parties. If we could come out of the 2nd WW, country almost on its knees and set up the Welfare State, sharing the requirements out a bit more, then how the heck have we managed to get into this state, with a very few having so much they just don’t know what to spend it on, while the rest just muddle along as best they can, some surviving not too badly, others lurching from one catastrophe to the next. It’s like Victorian times with high tech, but hardly a philanthropist in sight!

We’re all doomed! ☹️

 

We do seem to see an increasing disparity in society. Those at the 'bottom of the pile' do need some help but it takes more commitment to enable them to build a more secure future than merely the 'sticking plaster' of chipping in a bit for food banks. I worry that we are becoming so focussed on 'economic progress' that we are losing sight of the bigger picture but I'll stop there as I'm going to stray too far into a political discourse.

Don't they say most folk are just 3 paydays from real trouble?

I really feel for folks and agree with Takethedogalong.

We have lived in our house for 34 years, it was a struggle to 'upgrade', it's only our 2nd 'own' house and it was hard getting the original deposit together. Twice joint or 3 times man's salary then and a mortgage shortage. There is no way we could buy our house today - it would be a minimum of 10, yes TEN times our last joint income 😲😲. In our area a 1 bed flat, usually a house division is between £750 and £1000 a month and that's before you start on bills. Stupid London rates for some but train fare over  £6,000 so what salary do you need to earn to clear just those items?

I understand food banks here can only be assessed with authorisation from benefits/social service and then it's limited. I too try to add some staples and some luxury things as often as I can to the donations. Food waste in this country is appalling. I know at one time a large supermarket poured things over waste food in their bins to stop it being scavenged. 

When our children were little I sometimes raided Peter to pay Paul but I realise we had it soooo much easier in lots of ways.

Mustn't say more for fear of political interpretation 

But so is the living wage, the fact that some companies pay such appalling wages that some folks have to have their income topped up! Shareholders and companies are circumventing the systems with the connivance of selective governments. There are working people that are in fact homeless. Sleeping on the streets, wherever they can, turning in for slave wages, back to bed on the streets. 

a large chain of coffee shops has been claiming back £200 from employees in this area when they leave - training fees 😲.

I went to 13 schools failed my 11+ never blamed my parents, the government or even Brexit.  I got on with my life getting my education after leaving school.  Did well in my chosen career and I put that down to self help with determination.  If I had passed my 11+ I might have ended up wearing a yellow cardigan with elbow patches, god forbid😉

I fear for any society that reveres footballers above doctors and nurses, and makes coffee making into a career. Some of our priorities in this country have become very out of kilter. The long term implications of some seemingly good political decisions are not always fully thought through. Classic example is the selling off of council housing. Great for a good number of hardworking, family orientated households. But not ring fencing the income towards more council housing was a bad decision, and has contributed to where we are now. Letting any Tom, Dick or Harry open up a Care Home is another badly managed instance as well. Peoples lives are a cheap commodity in some cases. Just so long as someone is creaming off big fat profits....

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In winter we used to put holes in a tin can,( everything came in a can) a long wire handle and light a fire in it and swing it around this was our "winter warm" so we could play outside in the cold  and at 9pm copper Faraday would send any kids hanging about home, he would not clip your ears he would just tell our Dads and they would do it for him. Then our Dad won some money so we had our first telly a 9 inch black and white screen just one channel (later it had a switch fitted to the side to get the new commercial channel) we would rush home from school to watch children's hour then at 5pm tv would then close down till 7 pm so off out to play I think we had the whole street in our house for the coronation

I was brought up in Woolwich south east London in the forties and thifties and the thing that sticks in my mind most was this new kid whos family had just moved into one of the prefabs built on the bombsites took us all in to see his bath,we just stood there amazed,a bit different to our old thing hanging up in the back alley in my house and who remembers accumelaters so you could listen to the wireless, when you had no leccie, and gas mantles, and Journey into space with doc jet lemmy and mich, had more nightmares cos of that I can remember.cor the good old days..