By now most of you know we are a tad skint , but this year has been since March a hundred percent better than 2017 the year of the DWP fiasco .
We are still living hand to mouth , theres not a lot of paying off debt or luxury, no saving for a rainy day , plenty of minimum cost meals. I watch political affairs on both sides of the atlantic and was chuffed to see that Trump is trying to get information released through the courts about certain websites that disagree with him , a couple of which i am members of . Maybe I will end up on his little list ? Im sure im on quite a few in this country . This morning however lets talk about the hatred in this country , we are becoming a hugely divided nation , the haves loathing the poor . The rich preaching know your place . One rule for the rich and no justice for the poor . Sat outside the Coop the other day in the winter sunshine watching the local Conservative club over the road . There they are men of a certain age , reading the papers with a fag and a cheap pint , they hate the world with a vengeance, much like my mother in fact . My mothers been so foul and twisted of late that I can barely stand to talk to her. So bad in fact that i looked up angry dementia and found there is such a thing . Maybe this is why were in this mess , all the wealthy oldies who vote tory have a form of dementia ?
On a more cheerful note , last week I took sarcastic son to the jobcenter for his ritual humiliation , hes now so full of antidepressants that he doesnt mind going , though 5 letters a day and endless threats to sanction him for their cockups isnt doing him a lot of good . While he was in I popped up the road and for some reason being on my own , I thought lets have a look at the M&S foodhall , the carpark was pretty deserted because the other big department store across the road is closed and being renovated . What can I say , I blew the catfood money on yellow sticker mince , pork and beef will keep me going for weeks . I suppose the posh folks dont buy a lot of mince ? there was numerous yellow sticker foodstuff seriously good but with a budget of £10 you have to prioritise this was at 2.00pm so what would the reductions have been later on ?
I went in our new (beginning of this year) M&S Foodhall the other day, just to be nosy really, only a few YS, but I was surprised at how busy it was in there, and lots of them were filling trolleys. Didn't think our town was that wealthy!
ReplyDeletethe quality is really good and to be honest its no dearer than the local Coop which is bleedin expensive
DeleteI got some yellow stickered stuff at the M&S in Manchester city centre, came outside and was asked for food by a homeless chap. I'm skint, but feel very rich compared to many, so gave him the Danish pastries and fruit I'd bought. I'm also supporting my minimum wage, zero hours contract daughter who has been made redundant twice this year, whilst my mother thinks nothing of spending £100 at a time on fags, and last week spent over £50 on jigsaws. She's alright Jack, and lives in her ivory tower, casting judgement.
ReplyDeleteMy mother is much the same , my cousin lives near her and does tons for her. But whan he was out of work only for a few weeks , her whole attitude changed , then he was labelled lazy fat scrounger in every sentence. Horrible woman
DeleteI feel that I'd better preface this post by saying that I think you do an amazing job given all that you have to deal with and that I was very pleased when things finally got sorted last year and money issues were at least a bit better.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I cannot help but notice that you are being just as judgemental in your attitude to others - not all those who choose to vote Conservative are ogres or even members of the 1% - I'd venture to say that many of those members of the local Conservative club that you observed have worked hard all their lives for what they and perhaps deserve their papers & beer and I don't think that the majority loathe the poor. If we want to stop the divisiveness and fear that seems to be infesting many countries these days perhaps we all need to tone down the rhetoric just a wee bit....
I do not mean this as a personal attack - and I understand that you still have a lot of worries about your family - but perhaps just a wee bit less demonizing everyone that you deem to be on "the other side" as you wish others to stop demonizing the poor?
I dont object to anyones opinion differing to mine , hence i dont edit comments , but its very hard not to be bitter and twisted with things as they are at the moment in this country . I dont mention half of the degrading stuff we have had happen to us. I dont bring up the scrounging scum comments when youre looking at the yellow label food , or the lazy bastard shouted at my other half when he parks in disabled parking spots, these are just some of the minor things that are a daily happenings and in most cases its from the brainwashed older generation
DeleteI thank you for not editing me out - and I sincerely don't mean to minimize what you have gone through over these past few years but I also find that people from all ilks can be ignorant and unkind.
ReplyDeleteI myself was laid off and forced into an early retirement due to "restructuring" and now get by on Govt. and very small work pensions. In fact I work part-time and will have to seek more PT work in order to make ends meet in a very expensive city so I am not above looking for bargains and 50% off meat stickers myself and I've never encountered any condemnation - in fact, I find more and more out there with me.
I am also partially disabled and walk with the aid of a cane so I am well aware of how thoughtless and very unkind some people can be - but I have encountered this from people of all walks of life - young/old - black/white - well off and not so well off so I find it's more to do with the individual than any class or group they may belong to.
I have spoken with friends in the UK and I am shocked at how convoluted your welfare/benefits system has become - I don't know how anyone manages to negotiate it but that isn't the fault of any one individual but rather a system that has evolved over time and through many different governments. I would assume (perhaps incorrectly) that you are more in favour of the Labour party headed by Corbyn? But if you look back at other Labour Govt. while they talked about helping more - they did very little. And Corbyn himself seems to promote and to surround himself with some very vile anti-semites so I don't think that I could vote for a party that doesn't condemn this sort of thinking (and no I am not Jewish). I am just uncomfortable with extremes of any kind and wish that people would try to meet in the middle more instead of this extreme divisiveness that seems to be the norm more and more. It is very sad.
Margie, I have read your comments here and on other blogs and you always have something interesting to say and put things over so well, do you have a blog yourself ? I'm sure it would be a popular read !
Delete( sorry to hijack your blog to say this Kate but Margie is such a thoughtful commentator.
Thank you for the comments - I do try. No I do not have a blog - I have thought about it but I'm not as brave as people like Kate.
DeleteI will admit that I admire Jeremy Corbyn for surviving long enough to be a ray of light in his party. But the fact is he must be one tough cookie to survive his party of backstabbing loons. The anti semitism rows are as old as time, but there is another side to it , casual racism exists throughout the human race theres always someone we dislike on a totally unjustified reason, based on gossip or single interactions blackening a whole people . Nobody is Mother Theresa we all dislike someone or something , you just have to carry on and suck it up.
DeleteI was in the UK last month. It's not the country I was born in anymore. Yes, I realize everything changes. Canada isn't the country my parents migrated to, any longer.
ReplyDeleteWhat I did notice was the huge sense of entitlement of people. The social support network has been stretched to the limit and it will fracture. People need to take more responsibility for themselves. Ambulance transport to and from the hospital? Here, ambulances are really only used for emergencies and even then there is a charge. It cost me $350 after a car wreck to be taken to hospital and yes, I was able to claim a portion back from private insurance. People don't expect to be taken home after a procedure. Family, friends, taxis do the job.
What we did find alarming is the loss of identity and what the nations represent. It was summed up in a newspaper article we read in Scotland. A politician was angry that there was funding only for education in English or Gaelic. No funding for Arabic education. Here, if children of my generation wanted to learn their families mother tongues, they learnt at home or their parents paid for language classes on Saturday (half of my class went to "Chinese School" on Saturday) to learn to read these languages. Now people expect the publicly funded system to provide mother tongue languages as part of the daily education.
Food is too precious to be wasted. I know of nobody that turns up their noses at reduced items. The best I ever see in my part of Canada is 25% off.
The vast majority of people do not have ' ambulance' transport to and from hospital, and nobody would choose it as a first option. My uncle had to use it last year as his sons were both away, he is elderly and infirm, and he lives in another part of the country to us, so nobody else was available to take him. He was collected 4 hours before his appointment time, and then had to wait a long time after the appointment had ended in order to get home. He was out of the house for over 8 hours, for a short appointment. Although it is called ' ambulance transport', it is actually a glorified minibus; I was transferred from one hospital to another in one, and it is far from comfortable.
DeleteThis is a link to the patient transport information for my area which illustrates that there are strict criteria to be filled, and that you can't just ring up and use the service just because you don't want to pay for a taxi. http://www.nwas.nhs.uk/our-services/patient-transport-service/patients/eligibility-criteria/#.W-fzXojRDIU
The horrors of hospital transport are well known especially if you live in rural Lincolnshire . Thames Ambulance are legendary they have lost elderly patients , driven them around all day without actually taking them for their appointment. Taken them to the wrong city etc etc. As someone who cares for a disabled person , I can see how the whole shoddy system could be made so much easier with a bit of technology. Video conferencing within the local doctors surgery could cut so much of this travelling out for the elderly
DeleteScarlet, are you telling the world that your family permitted an elderly man to spend a day being shuttled around? That his sons couldn't chip together and pay his fares?
DeleteThere is one blogger who regularly posts that she uses the hospital transport service for her husband rather and pick him up herself because of the fuel costs. Hardly what the service was intended.
We have video conferencing here. The country is enormous. It's not unusual for the surgeons I work with to only see their patient over the internet. The patient is then flown down from the Arctic and the government pays for them because there just aren't the surgeons up in the North.
There is one blogger who has stopped work to become a "carer", downsized their council house to an apartment and has appeared to undergone an improvement in their lifestyle. Here, if you have to leave work to look after an infirm or elderly relative, you get minimal money. I would have a hard time even getting unemployment money as I would be seen to have voluntarily left my job.
It is very clear that your social services system is far more supportive than the Canadian.
Yes, I am. My uncle has enough money to have paid for a taxi himself, but at the time, none of them realised what patient transport entailed. It was offered, and was gladly accepted as what they thought was a safe way for him to keep his appointment whilst they were away. He has never used it again, as, since his experience, my cousins have always ensured one of them is available. I suppose some people aren't fortunate enough to have that choice; those without family nearby, or friends that can help, or enough money to pay for a taxi, particularly if they live in a rural area, miles from the nearest hospital.
DeleteI think I know who you mean with the first blogger, but not the second that you mention. Our social services/ benefits system used to be supportive, but from what I have read, particularly here on Kate's blog, and the cases of people who are dying but have been told that they are fit for work; some have died within weeks of being told this, and of having their benefits stopped. I'm unsure how the second person you mention is faring better; I've just checked and carer's allowance is £64.60 per week for caring for someone for 35 hours, so it's not really enough to be considered a replacement for a wage.
Things have changed so much here in the last 20 years its enough to scare anyone . I well remember all the muslim children having to attend Madrassa schools when i was a kid , didnt do them any harm . Nowadays its viewed as a political issue because a few have been caught teaching political matters . But i also have friends who are extremist Christians and have there own schools or choose to home school whose views arent exactly mainstream. Live and let live is my view and im pleased that people with such a wide range of views seem to end up here , I like different opinions , im even kind to my Troll bots
ReplyDeleteLovely to awaken to being called a Troll bot.
DeleteGovernment can only be expected to do so much for their population/taxpayers.
Universal education was set up to provide a basic education for the population. I abhor public money supporting faithbased schools. There should be a separation of Church/Mosque/Synagogue and State. It is the family's job to educate their children in the family faith.
Universal Healthcare is awesome if you have it. Here in Canada it was set up to ensure that basic health needs were met and that no-one had to sell the family farm to pay for surgery (it did happen). Over the years it has changed to cover all sorts of things it was never meant to because people fit it necessary. Childbirth coverage was for a safe delivery and a section if deemed medically necessary. Now people pre-book their sections for their own (non-health related) reasons. IV? Nobody has the right to be a parent. We all grew up with people who never had their "own" child. They adopted, fostered, or spoiled their nieces, nephews, neighbours kids.
So, yes, I guess I am a troll because I differ from you.