The World-Wide War On The Poor

[filkertom]

siliconshaman directs us to a report from the British front.

Comments

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Raaarrh! And it's the same way here! What are they thinking?!?
Thank you for the link, by the way. One of the clearest, simplest, starkest explanations I've read yet on the whole class warfare attitude.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I tell ya. It's just damning.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Nobody who thinks the way they do should be allowed to govern anything. Full stop. It's that simple. Get the conservatives out of government, and keep them out. It won't solve all the problems, or make all our leaders automatically good at their jobs, but it will remove a large portion of the unnecessary evil.

And anyone who wants to vote for them can go and do the other thing. Sorry.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Absolute agreement. Government's entire purpose is twofold: doing collectively what we cannot do individually, and helping and protecting its people and their welfare while doing so. Inserting the profit motive into the mix -- especially as deeply as it has been lately -- is simply obscene.

[realinterrobang.livejournal.com]

This is why I think neoconservatism is unconstitutional in Canada, and I'd love to see a challenge put -- neoconservatism is a fundamentally anti-statist ideology, and we have a constitutional right to "peace, order, and good government." They fail on at least 2 of those 3 things...

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

The whole situation is outrageous. Giving a homeless person a bowl of soup or a bed to stay in at a hostel doesn't encourage homelessness. If anything it gives them hope because people still care about them. It makes them not invisible.

I know that not all rich people are douchebags but it certainly seems like the ones in power certainly are at times.

[fair-witness.livejournal.com]

What, no workhouses? No debtors' prison?

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

The second thing my cynic side said, when I saw this link, was "Population Control?"

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Motherfsckers. May they all some day be poor and needy, and get to sleep in the bed they've made.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately I'm sure they have enough money squirreled away to keep that from happening. I doubt the possibility even crossed their mind. Social status has its privileges.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I know, it's a virtual impossibility. Nonetheless, I can wish and dream about justice.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

Murdochracy noun where the real news will be drowned out by an orgy of blaming the victims.

That word needs to be added to the dictionary and used frequently.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

The article is somewhat misleading. The ban on providing food to the homeless would apply in a specific small area of the borough. A food delivery in a residential area is attracting up to a hundred rough sleepers a night. The residents are complaining about the impact this has on them. It is not a ban on helping rough sleepers everywhere in the borough.

I do worry about the impact current cuts will have on rough sleepers and other vulnerable groups but articles which distort what is happening don't help anyone.

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

The ban is a trial-by-stealth for a more sweeping one. Councils can introduce by-laws with little to no consultation or review you see, but there is a more general one being proposed which would make being homeless effectively illegal, as well as aiding them.

Of course, now that prisoners have to work for their privileges, and that prisons are to be privatised, it's not hard to see why they'd do this.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

As far as I can find there are no current plans to privatise any additional UK prisons. A couple of the older prisons got closed and are not being replaced but I cannot find any reference to privatisation. I did read something about expecting prisoners to work but I am not sure if it has been implemented or not.

It is intended to allow private sector or charities to run rehabilitation services on a payment by results basis. I hope Nacro gets a lot of this work as they can probably do this better than anyone else out there.

Happy to be pointed at soures on prison privatisation if I am just picking lousy search terms.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

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Just making sure we're talking about exactly the same thing here: It is a ban on helping people. On feeding people.

I don't care how small the area of the borough is. It's a ban on giving someone food. Based on their socio-economic status.

The reason all those rough sleepers are going to that one food delivery is that they likely have nowhere else to go, unless they resort to crime. And I would imagine a good number of them have yet enough self-dignity, or at least self-preservation, to not want to do that unless and until it's their very last resort.

I will not be surprised at all if the crime rate goes up in those areas with many rough sleepers. And then there will be an outcry for Something To Be Done About Them. And the first idea will be more police protection, but the budget has been cut for that as well. Which will likely result in more punitive measures against the homeless.

If you can't see where this is going, I believe the magic words are, "First they came for...".

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

I'll post two replies as there are in my opinion two different issues here. My problem with the article is that is is a lie. All the parts of it are true but it is carefully formed out of bits of truth to create a lie. I read the article and thought bullshit and within five minutes I could confirm it was indeed bullshit.
I detest this approach whatever cause it is done in support of. If the cause deserves supporting then tell the truth. Because I know the author is lying to me I start opposing what he is supporting because I have no respect for them as an individual.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Citation, please.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

So you could confirm that the article was a lie "within five minutes" but can't be arsed to show your work? I think I'll apply the same standard to you that you've applied to the article; your credibility about ANYTHING just went to shit.

[bayushisan.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to join in asking for some kind of citation beyond what you "know".

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

Second part of my reply.

It is a ban on helping people in a specific place. Just because something is a good thing to do generally does not mean it is necessarily a good thing to do in a specific spot. I wish the article had given information on how long the kitchen had run there and what level of complaints had prompted the councils action but it didn't. I simply don't have enough information to say whether I think it is a reasonable request to move the food distribution point two block so that the locals can get some sleep or a cheap and shabby thin end of the wedge as many are assuming.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Moving them on isn't close to solving the problem. That only relocates it to somewhere else. At some point, you have to solve the problem. This not only doesn't solve it, not only exacerbates it, but it criminalizes it, just because others don't like the look of it.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

The second link I included in my other reply also shows what services Westminster does offer to rough sleepers. I guess for me the issue is do they do enough other things to make this a reasonable aspect of their policy. Take a look and see what you think about the whole picture, I am not saying you should change your opinion just that I don't think you had all the fact you should have been offered after reading the article originally linked to.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I thank you very much for the linkage. I still disagree with it -- many of the proposed alternative programs seem to be undercut by Cameron's budget cutting, and quite a lot of the reasons given for doing it can be boiled down to non-homeless people are uncomfortable with homeless people. It still seems to me a way of putting off any problems rather than solving the root problems. But it's more data, straight from the source, and (again) while I don't agree with it, I can see where they're coming from.

[thistlethorn.livejournal.com]

Jesus. Every time I think the rich conservatives sink to a new low, they become even more evil. Feeding the homeless a criminal act? What the fuck is wrong with these people?

[james-the-evil1.livejournal.com]

This has been going on in Orlando, Fl for some time. The city wants to keep its shiny clean tourist friendly image, and so they hate the homeless. They've passed Draconian laws aimed at various charities that were feeding the homeless downtown with the idea that "If we don't feed them they won't be here to be seen." They've made it a criminal offense & arrested people for it.

[violinsontv.livejournal.com]

If you have clarification that this is false, please link us to it. Corroboration would be helpful.