Poverty in the UK: 100 “baby banks” spring up to assist parents with basic supplies

According to latest reports, the growing poverty and inequality blighting the lives of millions in the UK is predicted to worsen. Social activist and writer Margot Miller has more on this in an article titled Poverty in the UK: 100 “baby banks” spring up to assist parents with basic supplies.

According to forecasts by the Resolution Foundation think tank, by 2023-24, 37 percent of children in the UK could be living in relative poverty—in excess of the previous high of 34 percent at the beginning of the 1990s. This would mean one million more children living below the poverty line in the next five years.

Research published this month by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), commissioned by the BBC, revealed that over a third of babies in the UK are living below the poverty line.

Many Britons thrust into poverty are familiar with and are regular users of food banks. Such is the growing impoverishment that a new phenomenon has sprung up—“baby banks.” These are funded by charitable donations and provide struggling families with such necessities as cots, baby food and nappies. There are now over 100 baby banks throughout the country, with volunteers reporting that their take-up is on the increase. The JRF, a social policy research and development charity, analyzed the government’s own data for the BBC.

It extrapolated from the government’s latest figures that, in 2016-17, 302,838 children aged under one year old were living in families whose household income was below the poverty line. That translates to 35 percent of children in that age group living, for example, with a single parent earning less than £198 a week (after deducting housing), or £360 a week for a couple and two children.

The JRF latest state of the nation report, “UK Poverty 2018,” reported that poverty is increasing, with 4.1 million children living in poverty now, a 500,000 increase over the last five years. Not only has child poverty been increasing since 2011-12, but so has in-work poverty as the UK has been transformed into a low-wage economy.

The study identified in-work poverty as an increasing causative factor in the rise in child poverty. Between 2010-11 and 2016-17, the number of children living below the poverty line in working families, as well as the child poverty rate, rose sharply—more so than at any other time over the last 20 years.

In response to these reports, and of a piece with Prime Minister’s Theresa May’s fraudulent announcement at the Conservative Party conference that the era of austerity was at an end, the government denied that poverty and inequality saw an increase and is on the rise.

Another study by the Resolution Foundation, “The Living Standards Outlook 2019,” predicts a substantial rise in UK child poverty over the next five years.

The Resolution Foundation was founded in 2005, with the stated purpose of seeking to improve living standards of low- to middle-income families. It’s income forecasts for those at the lower percentile of the population in the next period make grim reading.

Senior economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation (RF), Adam Corlett, said, “UK households have already taken a £1,500-a-year hit to their incomes. There’s now a huge risk that their incomes stagnate over the next few years as the economy’s pay performance struggles to get out of first gear …”

Pointing a finger at government slashing of welfare spending as a factor, Corlett said, “The outlook for low- and middle-income families is particularly tough.”  

The Resolution Foundation says, average earnings have still not recovered from the global financial crash of 2008 and are more than £500 a year less than their pre-crisis level after inflation is factored in. The future holds no respite, as “non-pensioner median income growth is not set to return for several years.” Even without the negative economic impact of a no-deal Brexit—in which the UK withdraws from the European Union and is forced to trade on World Trade Organization terms—“the outlook for household incomes is weak.”

Projected income growth is lowest for parents, the unemployed, low- to middle-income working households, social renters, those with mortgages, and single adults. The RF reports that child poverty is predicted to “rise to record levels within the next five years, and will be six percentage points higher in 2023-24 than in 2016-17.”

By 2023-24, “The majority of children who either have a single parent; are in larger families; are in a household where no-one is in work; or live in private or social rented housing, will be in poverty.”

Income for all families that have children is predicted to decrease by 1 percent between 2016-17 and 2023-24, compared to a rise of 4 percent for non-children households. And income growth will be disproportionately lower for the poorest 40 percent of the population.

The Resolution Foundation (RF) found that average real household income at the end of 2018 was “£1,500 lower than had been projected in pre-referendum forecasts.” The Bank of England’s average earnings projection, though stronger than the OBR’s, was revised downwards and forecasts a real pay drop in 2019. While the poor are predicted to get poorer, “the richest 4 percent of the population are projected to continue to have a greater share of income than the entire bottom 40 percent.”

The Brexit vote and ensuing economic uncertainties are cited by the RF as a contributory factor in growing poverty. Immediately after the referendum vote the pound fell, affecting the poorest families most of all because the bulk of their income covers necessities. The report singles out the government’s moves to decimate what remains of the post-war welfare system as a major factor in reducing poorer households and families with children to penury.

The freeze in benefit payments is into its fourth year, leaving households with £4.4 billion a year less in total. Families with more than two children will be up to £2,800 a year worse off, as they can only claim for up to two children now. Families on tax credits or those claiming Universal Credit (UC) will lose the “family element” of their benefit, amounting to an annual deduction of £545.

Government tax breaks have benefited only high earners, while council tax rises and pension cuts—including auto-enrolment into pension scheme with contributions rising from 2 to 5 percent in April—have massively eroded the disposable income of the worse off.

Support for the unemployed in 2019-20 will be at its lowest point since 1990-91, meaning there has been no improvement in the living standards of those who are the poorest in 30 years. And in the poorest percentile of the population, it is parents with children who are hardest hit.

The Resolution Foundation report ends on a sanguine but unrealistic note. Their gloomy predictions may be challenged, “either as a result of economic trends diverging from today’s forecasts or as a result of deliberate policy change.”

As the UK enterers un-navigated waters, with EU withdrawal set to take place in just over a month, the Tory government is committed to increasing the exploitation of the working class and completely dismantling previous welfare reforms. This onslaught is in order to allow British corporations to increase their profitability and remain competitive in the world market as trade war begins to intensify. This onslaught against the masses will be imposed whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations and under any future government, no matter what its political coloration.

In 2015, the vast majority of Labor MPs allowed the passage of the Tories Welfare Reform Bill by abstaining on it. The 48 MPs who did vote against, have refused to drive out the Blairites right wing. Instead, they have repeatedly capitulated to their every right-wing demand.

Even a critical factor in the growth of poverty in recent years was the instruction by Corbyn and his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell to Labor councils that they continue to set legal budgets, i.e., impose cuts, in the face of cuts to their funding by central government. McDonnell has committed a future Labor government to a “Fiscal Credibility Rule,” rendering bankrupt any rhetoric he occasionally makes about fighting austerity. Earlier, Labor-run Birmingham City Council, that has already laid off 12,000 workers over the last decade, announced another nearly 1,100 job losses.

Legitimate criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism

By Ameen Izzadeen

When Israel’s Parliament, the Knesset, in the wee hours of July 19 passed a controversial law, declaring that Israel was exclusively a Jewish state, the passage of the bill made headlines but failed to generate much worldwide condemnation.

In any other democracy, including the United States, a bid to enact similar legislation will draw widespread denunciation. The new Israeli law undermines human dignity and upholds the superiority of Jewish citizens over its other citizens. It has been given the enshrined status of a Basic Law, underlying the principles of the State. Therefore, it cannot easily be repealed. The new law recognises “Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people” and reduces its Arab and Druze people to second class citizens.

Imagine if Sri Lanka’s parliament passes a law stating that Sri Lanka is exclusively a country for the Sinhala Buddhists. Within minutes, international condemnations will pour in. The United States and the European Union will withdraw trade concessions and warn of tough measures if the government fails to reverse the law. Sanctions will be slapped. Sri Lanka will be overnight reduced to a pariah state.

But Israel is often treated with kid gloves and allowed to get away scot free. It can kill a thousand unarmed Palestinians in one go and still strut about on the world stage, with the US patting it on the back and hailing it as ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’. When the abominable law was passed, there was not even a whimper of protest from the Donald Trump administration. Perhaps, Israel was emboldened by Trump’s move to recognise the whole of Jerusalem as the undisputed capital of Israel – a move that killed Palestinian peace hopes.

Expressing concern, the European Union issued a weak statement that hardly stood up to the depravity of the racist law. Much weaker was the statement the United Nations Secretary General’s office issued. "We reaffirm the United Nations' respect for the sovereignty of states to define their constitutional character while emphasizing the need for all states to adhere to universal human rights principles, including the protection of minority rights," said UNSG’s spokesman Farhan Haq.

The passage of the bill, on the contrary, warrants international isolation of Israel – just as South Africa had been during the apartheid years -- and the reintroduction of the 1975 United Nations General Assembly Resolution which asserted that Zionism was a form of racism. The resolution had the support of the Non-Aligned Movement. In December 1991, with the Cold War coming to an end, the resolution was revoked, under pressure from and in awe of the US, which was emerging as the sole superpower or, sadly, as the global bully,
unchallenged by any rival.

Israel’s Arabs and the Druze communities have challenged the law in the Israeli Supreme Court, but Zionist hardliners, including Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, have warned of an earthquake if the courts were to uphold the petitions.

Against this backdrop, a major controversy has erupted in the British Labour Party, with party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has spoken in support of the Palestinians’ freedom cause, being slapped the anti-Semite label.

Corbyn’s problems began in April 2016 when Labour MP Naz Shah criticised Israel on social media posts and endorsed a suggestion that Israel be sent to the US. This was followed by former London mayor Ken Livingstone’s defence of Shah during a radio show. He added to the controversy by saying Hitler supported Zionism. He later resigned from the Labour Party, following his suspension.

These incidents and criticism of Israeli by several Labour activists saw Corbyn being accused of incompetence in dealing with anti-Semitism. In March this year, Jewish community leaders published an open letter accusing him of “siding with anti-Semites”. Although Corbyn had clarified matters saying he did not and would not support anti-Semitism, he remains vilified in the rightwing media. This is mainly because, Corbyn, in the true spirit of the traditional Labour, has been supporting the Palestinian cause, opposing Britain’s urge to bomb Syria and, domestically, pushing for radical socialist reforms aimed at uplifting the living standards of the working class.

Last month, amidst growing criticism, the Labour Party accepted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism in a bid to put the controversy to rest once and for all, but rightly did not agree to a stipulation which said criticism of Israel could be deemed anti-Semitism. The Labour Party argued that legitimate criticism of Israel could not be anti-Semitic.

Despite this principled stance, a section of the party wants Corbyn ousted. They are the rightwing members – the so-called Blairites or supporters of former Prime Minister Tony Blair who lied to the British people to launch the illegal war on Iraq in 2003, and who as the international community’s Middle East peace envoy did nothing but making millions of dollars through his private consultancy business targeted at the region’s despots.

The huge storm the criticism of Israel has created in British politics and the mild condemnations Israel’s apartheid law has evoked only underline the double standards the world has adopted in eliminating racism. The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination reaffirms in its preamble that discrimination between human beings on the grounds of race, colour or ethnic origin is an obstacle to friendly and peaceful relations among nations and is capable of disturbing peace and security among peoples and the harmony of persons living side by side even within one and the same State.

In a related controversy, Britain’s former foreign minister Boris Johnson has drawn criticism from Prime Minister Theresa May and rights groups for saying that Muslim women who wear burqas or Niqab look like letter boxes or bank robbers. May, while scolding him, said women should be free to wear the burqa if they chose to do so.

But this appears to be a rare case of condemnation of Islamophobia defined as “dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims”. Often, in the name of freedom of expression, any mockery of Islam and its prophet is allowed in the so-called liberal and enlightened West, where academics and researchers are still prevented from questioning the Zionists’ narration of the Holocaust or Israel’s right to rob the Palestinians’ land.

True, anti-Semitism is bad and needs to be condemned in the strongest possible terms. The Holocaust is remembered not to allow Israel to oppress Palestinians and occupy their lands in violation of international law, but to prevent another Holocaust, irrespective of who the victims are. Sadly, the Palestinians are subjected to a subtle Holocaust, by Israel with the explicit support of the US.

If the strongest condemnation is reserved only in defence of Jewish dignity and is not forthcoming with similar vigour when other ethnic groups and religious communities are ridiculed and their dignity tarnished, then those who are issuing such condemnation are practising the worst form of racism.

US-EU Nuclear Deal with Iran Exposes Western Hypocrisy

By Latheef Farook  

The United States and  its European countries have finally managed to force Iran to agree to a nuclear deal by using sanctions and other ruthless means crippling Iran’s economy and causing sufferings to its people. However this is not the end as key issues need to be resolved before a final agreement by June 30. However no such immoral methods were used to force Israel which is reported to be, not developing, but having around 400 nuclear bombs threatening the entire region?

This is the traditional double standard of US and Europe in treating Israel and Muslim countries with different yard sticks. Israel, a country established illegally on robbed Palestinian, remains above law since its creation in 1948 while Muslim countries should abide by their dictates like divine command or face crippling economic sanctions .

Ever since Iran’s nuclear program came to light Israel was alarmed as its nuclear supremacy in the region was challenged. Thus Israel  and it US led European allies began using pressure tactics on Iran to prevent its nuclear program.

On 21 September 2011 Iran announced its second uranium enrichment facility stating that the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA was informed as early as 2004 of this. It is being built into the side of a mountain at the holy city of Qom making it less vulnerable to destruction, even with the latest bunker-busting U.S. bombs, to ensure nuclear activities continue uninterrupted in the event of a military strike.

Then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said  his country was ready to let the IAEA inspectors inspect the new facilities and time and again then  IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei said  Iran was 'on the wrong side of the law’ and he had seen "no credible evidence"  of developing nuclear weapons”.                                                                                         

In the midst came Iran’s test firing of medium- and long-range missiles. Reacting swiftly as if Iran has declared war on the West, President Barack Obama, along with then British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and then French President Nicolas Sarkozy, accused Iran of building a secret nuclear fuel plant. French President Sarkozy warned that Europe and the United States would tighten sanctions against Iran unless it halted its nuclear program.

"The U.S. has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, Russia has about the same, Britain and France had several hundreds. Israel ,having one of the most sophisticated nuclear arsenals in the world, refused to sign the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, NPT, which seeks to limit the spread of such weapons of mass destruction.

However, there was hardly a reference to Israel’s secret nuclear weapons. Instead President Obama assured Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that Israel would not be pressured into accounting for its nuclear arsenal or signing the NPT.Thus allowing Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without opening it to international inspections.

According to reports President Obama also guaranteed that the White House would continue its almost five and half decade-old secret deal with the Zionist state. Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity and the tacit agreement prolonged the nuclear understanding reached between President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Golda Meir in 1969.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemned Western countries' focus on Iran's nuclear program and stressed that the world should deal with Israel's nuclear weapons that used "phosphorous bombs" against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

 What is the reason for this double standard? Why are world leaders so reluctant to open Israel's nuclear arsenal up to discussion, whereas Iran's ambiguous ambitions are occupying the floor in the UN? The answer lies in Israel's successful public diplomacy tactics. 

Israel has the backing of the strongest lobbying groups in the US and the European capitals. It has the advantage of using the media to create a favorable image of itself and an abhorrent image of Iran and other “enemies” of Israel. It has the advantage of the “Holocaust shame” of the Western world. It has the pretext of being able to claim “existential threat.”

Apart from the Holocaust, none of these advantages was natural-born advantages of being Jewish and the sole home of the Jewish people in the world. Even the “Holocaust shame” of the Christian West is a product of years of propaganda.

A satellite image of Israel's Negev Nuclear Research Center at Dimona

Iran, as one of the original signatories of the NPT, has been a consistent advocate of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. In contrast, Israel has never agreed to an IAEA inspection, and its nuclear weapons plant at Dimona remains an open secret.    Israel dismissed UN resolutions calling on it to sign the NPT, just as it dismissed the   UN report charging it with crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel maintains a world record for violations of international law, it gets away with this because the powers that be grants it immunity. 

Western media, an integral part of the Western war machine, manufacture lies to mislead the world. They did the same thing to justify their designs on Iran, the only country in the region that refused to bow down to the dictates of the unholy Anglo-American –Israeli trinity unlike their counterparts in the Middle East.

The media screamed with head lines such as “Showdown looms with Iran over secret nuclear plant”. “The clock ticking”, “Good versus evil”, “Iran’s secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq”, “Iranian plan to wage war on, and defeat, US forces in Iraq” by September of that year – a demonstrable falsehood for which there has been no retraction.

The weapons Industry remains an integral part of the US, UK, France and Israel. They need wars, destructions and massacre of innocent people to ensure their weapons industries flourish. Politicians implement the evil designs of the weapons industry and the so-called Western free media whose freedom ends when it comes to holocaust and criticizing Jewish crime, manufacture lies to mislead the world to justify wars.

The  name of the game remains the same-  toe the line or face destruction- whoever be at the helm- be it George Bush, Tony Blair, Barack Obama, Gordon Brown, Jacques Chirac, Ehud Olmert or   Benjamin Netanyahu  .The goal is to control the “strategic prize” of the gas and oilfields of the Caspian Sea, central Asia, the Gulf and Iran – in other words, Eurasia.  Innocent people all over the world pay the price with their flesh, bloods, lives and their natural resources. Ends