Ah, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Polly Toynbee is on the BBC telling us how wonderful the Labour years were and how awful those nasty vicious Conservatives are creating so much..ahem.. “child poverty” ! This struck me as a wonderfully unbalanced item but to the BBC it is all light and reason.
THOSE EVIL CONSERVATIVES – A CONTINUING SERIES
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One interesting thing that was said by Polly (villa in Tuscany) Toynbee was the use fo the phrase “Social deficit”
An attempt to try and reframe the fianancial deficit into something else.
Still, the BBC wasn’t talking about the real problem, which isn’t the deficit, its government debt, all of it.
They are still trying to equate deficit with debt, and debt with borrowing, excluding all the off balance sheet nightmare items.
I get the feeling the social deficit she is on about is also the creation of an underclass in “poverty” (you know why I put it in quotation marks), unfortunately she can’t see that that is precisely what we already have. She even tries to blame the banks at one point (re the money ran out)
It’s startling that a ‘conservative’ think tank, the CSJ, should accept such an absurd definition of ‘poverty’ – half the average income.
The whole terms of the debate were pure bs, just a pretext for serial moral masturbators to pour out and endless stream of verbal diarrea into our earholes.
I’ve got a few quibbles about how Humphrys conducted the debate, but no ‘biggies’. Overall Poole had his say and Toynbee had hers. But very annoying that the terms of these debates always get framed beforehand by the BBC’s Labourist Mark Easton. A lot of airtime wasted that should be given over to those vying for public opinion either side of the debate, not pre-loading the debate.
Polly Tonynbee’s grasp of economics is very tenuous. On Sky news she was saying that there was no need for cuts, we should grow ourselves out of debt, just like the Americans, I suppose she was echoing Ed Balls. America is now having to address their huge deficit.
Only a complete imbecile would recommend such a course, yet people seem to hang on her every word.
Polly’s grasp of anything is tenuous.
I know I keep mentioning that I am just back from Gamibia, but there is no pverty in the UK and anyone who thinks there is is a prat.
Gambia !
Welcome back! Hope you managed to find Irn-bru in Gambia!
Thanks , Hippie. Yes, amazingly, they have it in cans in all the best supermarkets. I bought some for my in-laws who insisted I drink some first. To my surprise , they thought it was disgusting. I refrained from saying “you mean like Gambian food ? “.
We all know what you mean grant but they use “relative poverty”, and “eradicate poverty”, or as it is known in Latin, complete bollocks. Nobody ever tells them that eradicating poverty is impossible if it is relative. And, as you say, anyone who has been to ANY African country, or South American for that matter, KNOWS that there is ZERO (not even 0.0001%) in the UK.
Welcome back Grant did you have a good time! whats the food like?
Thanks, Charlie.
West African food is disgusting to me. It is so embarrassing, because whenever I visit anyone’s house, they really push the boat out and I can only eat a little out of politeness.
We spent some days with my wife’s Auntie Ida, who lives in abject poverty in a village near Kaolack in Senegal. She even cooked two big meals in one day and had bought a very expensive mosquito net especially for us.
Luckily, my wife, who spent 2 years in Scotland can cook a sort of mixture of African and European food and I can cook reasonably, but I don’t think anyone goes to Gambia or Senegal for the food. Fantastic fish in Gambia, but they manage to ruinit somehow as with all good ingredients !
PS Charlie, yes i had a great time otherwise, wonderful people in the face of so much suffering.
Will someone remind me again-what on earth is this superannuated intern with perpetual tenure doing on the BBC anyhow?
Shouldn`t she be using her Tuscan vote to support that nice Mr Berlusconi?
I am sick of these house trained poodles of the enlightenment getting my telly tax to pay for their airmiles and third houses-doesn`t her hubby coin enough in as a quangocrat to mean that she could stay at home and drip her bile and lavender oil into her Hampstead plant pots? Cut your carbon footprint eh?
Believe the SDP may need you still Poll…and Andy Marr might be needing another nanny for that sistahack of his.
Dopey bugger pays for other blokes child support. Maybe Polly could learn something about protecting the vulnerable from the “Toricuts” by doing something similar…smugtax perhaps? Practice what you preach-it`s what daddy would have wanted!
Cj
One of you finest posts. Made my day, I am still laughing !
A “Smug Tax” indeed – if only we could measure it, Polly would be on the Top Band.
Irrespective of the “relative” cannard, The Poor are one of Camerons sacred cows too. Lots of hand-wringing and angst over the effects of everything on The Poor. With some notable exceptions, the Poor are Poor because they make and do nothing, other than have children they can’t afford, but which apparently we can. Poverty is a career choice in multiracial and benefit-farming Britain, as a direct consequence of peverse incentives created by Governments of all Parties. However to say so brands you as “heartless and evil (Tory)”, the term-of-abuse of choice after “racist (Tory)”.
The public debate is over, because the thought police chair the debate.
London Calling you forgot the ‘n’vulnerable – as in poor’n’vulnerable.
and “disadvantaged”
Prior to the 7 o’clock news they had a chap on from the OECD who commented fairly on their report.
He said U.K. third highest spender on the problem after Denmark and France.
The really key point he made was that the U.K. principally uses “cash transfers”, while others do not.
Reading between the lines the answer would be to reduce the cash transfer incentive to have more children “born into poverty”. Severely taper state “cash transfers”?
On a related subject and someone may be able to confirm but while shopping in a supermarket in a deprived area in Norther France the family in front of me seemed to be obtaining goods on some form of “ticket”. The till receipt was put by the cashier in a special bag. I presume that this will not allow of booze and fags, only essentials.