[Politics] Absolute poverty

[Bozza]

Quite, I wonder how many people in absolute poverty in the UK are now sitting in front their 50" TV watching Jeremy Kyle while posting a photo of their 5th child eating a macdonald's breakfast on facebook using their £50 a month iPhone.

Times have moved on.

Previously, when mocking the poor, their monster-sized TV was always described as being “flat screen”.

Flat screen technology is now so ubiquitous that it seems it does not need to be explicitly stated.

Can we, perhaps, punctuate their excessive spending on luxuries by referring to their TV as being 4K as I’ve not got one of those, so I may feel a bit aggrieved if poor people do.

 

[Simster]

Can we, perhaps, punctuate their excessive spending on luxuries by referring to their TV as being 4K as I’ve not got one of those, so I may feel a bit aggrieved if poor people do.

He's already done that, he's used the iPhone example - I bet YOU haven't got one of those Bozza.

 

[n1 gull]

I must admit I hate these kind of statistics. What is poverty in this country? People driving to food banks? Kids that don't have the latest football kits?

I know on the whole we live in a nice area of the country but sometimes people scream poverty and it loses its meaning. There are lots of genuinely less fortunate people and they don't get the attention/help required if others are also pleading poverty.

I also find Chuka incredibly patronising. I can't stand they way he talks he does my head in

 

[Bry Nylon]

The best bit on Question Time last night was Prisons Minister Sam Gyimah responding to a question about how Theresa May how handled Donald Trump's latest tweets.

"It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies," he replied. "But it takes even more courage to stand up to your friends."

What he didn't say was that he was quoting Professor Dumbledore awarding Neville Longbottom 10 House Points at the end of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.'

 

[Bozza]

He's already done that, he's used the iPhone example - I bet YOU haven't got one of those Bozza.

He didn’t state what model.

If it’s an iPhone X then I’m going to be absolutely FUMING.

 

[wellquickwoody]

I know quite a number of elderly people that can't afford to heat their houses in winter - I'd suggest not being warm is considered 'absolute poverty'. I know a number of people that have had to use food banks - once again, something I'd consider 'absolute poverty'. I find it remarkable that just because people don't know anyone in absolute poverty means they dismiss it actually exists - especially those privileged enough to f**k off to warm climates.

It exists, just not 1 in 5, IMO.

PS. Privileged? Not complaining but I have never been gifted a silver spoon, far from it. Just spent everyday working since leaving school, oh, apart from two weeks unemployed. That will be about 35 and a half years.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Some actual proper research instead of ‘its from the left so must be nonsense’. A huge surprise that WQW is wide of the mark.

We're coming up to pantomime season, so.......... Oh no it's not!

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Quite, I wonder how many people in absolute poverty in the UK are now sitting in front their 50" TV watching Jeremy Kyle while posting a photo of their 5th child eating a macdonald's breakfast on facebook using their £50 a month iPhone.

Very, very few, if any.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Labour Party MP, your turn now.

There's left and left. He's a moderate centrist labour MP who resigned from the shadow cabinet when Corbyn became leader.

 

[The Clamp]

Absolute total king boxxocks. No doubt a left winger funded by others who needs to justify their funding, and in their eyes, any bull shit will do. Should have funding withdrawn and work in the real world rather than avoid actually funding their own lifestyle.

Awesome. A rant based on assumptions on a subject you don't know the first thing about. I mean, literally the first thing. You don't even know what absolute poverty means. Classic Right Wing NSC.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Absolute total king boxxocks. No doubt a left winger funded by others who needs to justify their funding, and in their eyes, any bull shit will do. Should have funding withdrawn and work in the real world rather than avoid actually funding their own lifestyle.

While I agree he is talking bollocks, he does actually have a proper job. He's an MP.

Also he is FAR from left wing.

Apart from that, you are spot on.

 

[SeagullRic]

Was just about to post much the same. The definition of 'asolute poverty' is only relative to the living standards in this country. Judged against the living standards of many other countries, the notion of anybody living in this country in absolute poverty is laughable. Relative poverty maybe.

Given that Brighton now has the worst rates of homelessness per resident in the country after London, I'm not sure you can say the idea of anybody living in absolute poverty is laughable?

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I must admit I hate these kind of statistics. What is poverty in this country? People driving to food banks? Kids that don't have the latest football kits?

I know on the whole we live in a nice area of the country but sometimes people scream poverty and it loses its meaning. There are lots of genuinely less fortunate people and they don't get the attention/help required if others are also pleading poverty.

I also find Chuka incredibly patronising. I can't stand they way he talks he does my head in

Indeed. Like many liberal arts graduates, he is inumerate, which explains how he has mixed up 'relative' poverty with 'absolute'. The relative poverty issue is a constant source of challenge for the well-meaning. I have heard folk complaining about the outrage that 20% of people are in the bottom fifth of the wealth table, and that they want to see poverty, as defined as being below average income, reduced. I would like to sit down with them and a pencil and piece of paper and explain some of the maths I learned as a nine year old.

 

[dazzer6666]

Given that Brighton now has the worst rates of homelessness per resident in the country after London, I'm not sure you can say the idea of anybody living in absolute poverty is laughable?

You're right, there are definitely an increasing number of cases (even using a 'pure' definition) that are there or very close, but it's the '1 in 5' bit based on the UK definition that doesn't really ring true..........

 

[Questions]

Times have moved on.

Previously, when mocking the poor, their monster-sized TV was always described as being “flat screen”.

Flat screen technology is now so ubiquitous that it seems it does not need to be explicitly stated.

Can we, perhaps, punctuate their excessive spending on luxuries by referring to their TV as being 4K as I’ve not got one of those, so I may feel a bit aggrieved if poor people do.

And to think I can remember when only the rich kids had a 26in colour tv. It took two people to lift them as well.

 

[btnbelle]

In the Uk there are 307,000 people sleeping rough or living in inadequate housing. I would count them as living in poverty.

https://www.theguardian.com/society...eople-in-uk-are-homeless-according-to-shelter

Many more people who work or are unemployed are just about managing. They are only a couple of pay packets away from being homeless if a disaster or two strike.

I feel ashamed to see people living on our streets. For the most part they are not lazy but most likely mentally ill or have fallen on the hardest of times.

 

[The Clamp]

It's not necessarily a bad thing to slightly exagerrate the degree of poverty in this country. It may mobilise aomething to be done. In my opinion, in 2017, in a country such as the UK, nobody should be homeless and families should not be going hungry. Whether that is down to education, funding, inadequate benefits, lack of effctive back to work programmes, disregard and demonisation of the poor, marginalising of lower classes, people being allowed to slip through the net, people not wanting/bothering to work or a combination of all of these and more, I don't know but it's simply not on.

 

[Blackadder]

Labour Party MP, your turn now.

Can I have a turn?

Tony Blair was a Labour MP. He was practically a communist.

Umunna is deeply opposed to Corbyn's Left-wing politics.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Different people have a different perception of poverty. A friend of my brother’s claims that her, her husband and two kids live on the bread line. They recently purchased a mahoosive house in Ovingdean, they own a Range Rover Evoque, a VW Transporter and a classic vehicle worth upwards of £30,000. Both parents work, one owns their own business and the other has a very well paid job in the housing market industry.

 

[clippedgull]

Chuka Umunna on newsnight last night said 1 in 5 people(14million) in this country live in absolute poverty Personally i do not know anyone to whom this term applies and i do not consider my lifestyle to be over privileged,so how accurate is Mr Umannas statement.

More accurate than your post!

He wasn't on Newsnight.