PUBLIC SERVICE CUTS

[Stanley]

That rang a bell Tiz and I remembered 'Kumis', fermented mare's milk. (LINK)

[Tizer]

Yes, that's the stuff. It makes sense too that it was mare's milk. It also reminded me that fermentation of the Cossack's milk in the constantly shaking bags not only removed the offending lactose but it had a relatively high sugar content and so alcohol was another product. The Cossack's were probably fierce because they consumed a carbonated, alcoholic, living yoghurt! Red Bull eat your heart out!

[Tripps]

I'm taking it as a mark of the uniqueness (uniquity?) of this site that a thread called Public Service Cuts has glided into the subject of fermented mares' milk.

[Stanley]

Mission Creep David..... I love it when we go off piste.
I have a theory that you have to have a planet sized brain to fully appreciate the content. This may be what restricts membership and discourages lightweights. Unwittingly we have become quite elitist. For an example, look at Kev's Mystery Object......
(Speaking of big brains, come back Bruff and give us an update!)

[Stanley]

Disturbing news on two fronts this morning. See THIS BBC report on the failure of Four Seasons, one of the largest care home operators in the country. It has gone into administration. They have 20,000 clients and hundreds of care homes. The cause is a £500million debt and falling revenues compared to rising costs due to the low fees paid by its biggest client, local authorities.
See THIS account of a Parliamentary Report on Children's care services which are said to be at breaking point. The government responds with the usual anodyne "We are putting £x in this year'. Completely ignoring that whatever they are putting in is evidently not enough and after all, that's the point.

[Stanley]

See THIS Telegraph report on the dire state of privatised Forensic Science services. Let's see, who was the genius who oversaw the privatisation in the search for more efficiency......? (It was James Brokenshire)
If the answer to failing services really is privatisation why not privatise politics? On reflection, with the prevalence of lobbying by vast capital holdings perhaps it has already happened and that's why it is in a state of collapse.....
Later.... See THIS BBC report on yet more evidence of the erosion of the police services by the cuts. The criminals must think it's Xmas as crimes are 'screened' and no significant action taken beyond giving the complainant a Crime Number.

[Stanley]

I see that our local MP is trumpeting the £1.5million the government has promised to Lancashire police he makes no mention of the fact that since 2010 £1.5billion has been cut from police budgets. Statistics can be slippery little things....

[Whyperion]

I can never understand if political parties (generally - LibDems and Tuition Fees except) has some kind of teflon coating on them When Grayling gets Probation Service privatisation expensively and operationally wrong, brexit ferry contracts expensively wrong, and rail privatisation, contracts and now pensions, wrong again, does none of the incompetence stick where it belongs ? Funny folk, british electors.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on a link between rising knife crime and local government cuts to youth services. A significant factor in what I have always seen as an inevitable erosion of the fabric of society by policies of Austerity. Immense damage has been done since 2010 and this will not be repaired in my lifetime.....

[Stanley]

There's a good editorial by Chris Daggett in today's BET. He draws attention to the fact that this area has some of the highest Child Poverty statistics in Britain. "A staggering 8,829 children in Burnley are classified as living in poverty after housing costs are applied, almost half the population of children. In Pendle it is even worse with the number standing at 10,293." He could have added the statistics for infant mortality as well which are equally as bad.
I have drawn attention to these figures before and asked why we don't hear more about them. We have a hidden epidemic of poverty and much of this can be placed at the door of Austerity and Local Government Cuts.

[PanBiker]

This goes some way to show the scale of the problem.



This graphic does not include the statistics from all the independent food banks operating across the country. West Craven Food Bank being one of the many.

[Stanley]

And not a word on the subject from Moonface......

[PanBiker]

Of course not, this problem is totally down to Tory policy and the choice of austerity. Food Banks didn't exist until the Tories came into power, it's a national disgrace.

[Tizer]

Food Banks didn't exist until the Tories came into power..

That's stretching the argument a bit too far! The `poverty' problem may have existed before the Tory policy but has only become more widely noticed with the advent of the food banks. In other words, it might have been there before but we didn't have such an easy way to measure it. It's not easy to prove cause & effect in such cases.

[plaques]

Soup kitchens where the poor could get a hot meal usually free have existed a long time. Food Banks is a more modern development meant to meet the increased numbers of poor who even when working cannot manage within the current financial regimes. Most Food Banks operate a system to minimise abuse and are not seen as an easy way to gain extra benefits. Proving causation is always difficult but with the start of austerity under the Tories ten years ago the increase in Food Bank numbers and the amount that they hand out is consistent with the financial effect on the poor over this ten year period. If anyone can give a better reason I'm sure we would have heard about in long ago.

[Tizer]

Unfortunately we don't have a control experiment to show how things would have gone after the credit crunch if a different party had been in power. Party supporters will always say their lot would have done better but we never really know, every situation is different, no two crises are the same and `Events, Dear Boy, Events' can add to the complexity.

[Stanley]

You are quite right, all of you. GBS once made a speech to the Fabian Society saying he hated the poor and they should all be abolished. Shock effect of course, he was advocating distribution of national wealth. I am partisan on these matters of course being at heart a social democrat but allowing for this and trying to be an honest historian I know 'the poor have always been with us'. Like many over the years I do not judge them and argue the toss about why they are like that using specious concepts like the deserving and undeserving poor. I just want to alleviate the misery especially the effects on the young and even the unborn. For that reason I have argued consistently since I first became fully aware of the problem over 40 years ago that the biggest factor is the distribution of wealth. I may be wrong of course but I am in very good company!
The problem is getting worse and future prospects with the shrinkage in the availability of jobs that pay a proper living wage due to technological advance are dire. There will never be a 'final solution' but we are seeing hungry people sleeping rough on the streets and the norm now for many people is accumulation of debt simply to feed themselves and keep a roof over their heads. We know this but do nothing concrete about it. It has to stop somewhere!

[Tizer]

Agreed. All that poverty isn't going to be solved by Brexit and we've wasted 3 years in the meantime.

[Stanley]

Seebhom Rowntree recognised the problem in the 19th century and founded the Trust that still reports on the same problems to this day.

[Stanley]

See THIS for a BBC report on the effects on Care in The Community for youngsters in care. We are letting them done so badly that they have become targets for criminal gangs such as the 'county line' drug suppliers looking for carries. Largely due to cuts in local authority funding but exacerbated by lack of inspection of standards in private accommodation. Wage levels for all staff running the schemes is a disgrace. I know that because my son in law is a carer in the sector working with the most severely affected young people. Despite that some private providers are charging very high rates.

[Whyperion]

Children in Care services vary by local authority. Mum's authority gives full support up to age 18, and additional if required to 21 in education or training, and I think keeps an eye on those up to 25, in the main I think these are children from families that have , for whatever reason, lost parental control.

[Stanley]

THIS Guardian account of the latest report from the UN Human Rights Watch couldn't be more damning and reflects what I believe to be the truth. The worst thing about the reaction to it as far as I am concerned is that the first reaction isn't to agree with it but to complain to the UN about its 'tone'. This reinforces the conclusions drawn by the rapporteur, that the poor are being ignored.
Well worth looking at.

[plaques]

Quote “Standing aside and relying on charities to pick up the pieces of its cruel and harmful policies is unacceptable".
Its obvious that the lower orders do not understand that in diplomatic language you don't use words like 'Cruel' and Harmful. What is possibly more acceptable is ' the pragmatic efficiency regimes may require refinement to meet extreme conditions'. That's why we are stopping handing out benefits and encouraging people into work,albeit underpaid, which can be supplemented by Benefits where required. This approach is cheaper and helps to bring the overall wage level down and therefore, in total, more efficient. QED.

[Stanley]

I agree with what you are saying (after it has been processed by my irony filter. You are so good at it!).
I am struck (and have been for the last 10 years) by the fact that exactly the same arguments were used in the 19th century when the Poor Law was rebuilt on the basis of the difference between the 'deserving' and 'undeserving' poor and Philip Alston has made exactly that point. The damage already done to society is enormous and will be with us for decades. It's all so sad and we must support well argued and compassionate views such as this.

[Stanley]

I've been thinking about Philip Alston's report for Human Rights Watch. I didn't realise that this is the full report of the same 24 page summary he published a few months ago. I did a bit of a furtle and there is a massive body of support on line for his conclusions in inflammatory rags like the Manchester Guardian.
Add to this the horrific revelations about the 'care' home yesterday (I didn't watch the Panorama programme because the clips I have already seen distressed me so much) I remembered the testimony of the mother whose daughter committed took he own life in similar circumstances. Cynical statements by the government about how much money is being put into the system have long outlived their usefulness, indeed, they have become a species of obfuscation and even lies. The lady I heard was correct, this is torture and cruelty.
The Tories boast about how well they have succeeded in reducing expenditure but never go on to admit what the cost has been to anyone who is poor or disadvantaged, even those in work!
It is a disgrace in a system where tens of billions are thrown at large projects. The future of society is more important!