Shame of a Nation

How far has society fallen in Britain? I can’t bring myself to say ‘United Kingdom’ because patently we’re not united. In fact, we seem to have regressed to a pre-Dickensian country were children, the most vulnerable of our society, are allowed to go without food to bolster a morally bankrupt ideology. And any challenge to this is seen as a “political stunt”? How does this happen, and, more importantly, why do we allow it to continue?

The Tory minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has accused UNICEF of “playing politics” after the UN agency gave a grant, on request of a charity, to help feed deprived children in the UK, the first time such action has ever been needed. Rees-Mogg said the charity was meant to look after people in the poorest countries and should be “ashamed”. The only shame here should be felt by a political party that has systematically destroyed the economy of the country and furthered the interests of its own sycophantic party contributors, relations and other co-conspirators, as shown by the distribution of Covid-19 PPE and other high value Government funded contracts. There’s someone playing politics here, but I don’t believe it’s UNICEF.

The fact that the amount UNICEF has said it would pledge is only £25,000 to a South London charity to help supply nearly 25,000 breakfasts in a south London borough over the Christmas holidays and February half-term, is really telling when taken in the context of Rees-Mogg pays zero tax on a £150m Cayman Islands-held bank account, yet he feels free to criticise

The UNICEF project is working in a joint initiative with Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, and this is the first time in its history that the organisation has felt it necessary to support groups in the UK in UNICEF’s 70-year history.

This Government is happy to spend billions of pounds on nuclear weapons but when it comes to the children of this nation, they weren’t even prepared to feed the less privileged ones over the school holidays until they were shamed to do so, indeed, bragging that the Tory Government are feeding children (but conveniently forgetting to mention that only after the public backing of an England footballer campaigning for it!) In fact, we taxpayers pay Rees-Mogg £89k a year to provide that criticism of the work of an international humanitarian charity that is feeding hungry children.

They say they are committed to their election manifesto pledge to reduce child poverty. Really? Between 1998 and 2010 the number of children in poverty shrank from 3 million to 1.6 million. Since 2010 the number of children living in poverty has risen to 4.2 million, projected to rise to 5.2 million by 2022. This is beyond belief. In one of the richest countries in the world, our children should not be forced to rely on charity to have the basics of food to eat. it’s beyond shameful.

As George Orwell said “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever“. The more this Government stumbles through what I sincerely hope is their last ever time in power, the more Orwell’s words are proving prophetic. 

Any political party that values personal gain above hungry children degrades us all, it is the death of ethics.