Well done to those wonderful people who have this Christmas arranged collections of toys and food for the very poorest in society. The fact that we even need food banks and toy collections in a country as rich as ours is in itself a national disgrace. But we have the government we choose, by virtue of having elected one that is happy for some people to rely on handouts, and essentially it’s for those of us who aren’t happy with that situation to do what we can. And happily, we do.
My family has always made donations for collections and a few years ago decided that just doing something at Christmas wasn’t enough. While we feel strongly that people should not go hungry at Christmas, and see their children go without toys, what happens in January? The truth is life goes on as normal for most people and the new normal for poor people is to go without food. So we give a weekly donation via our on-line Morrison’s shop. That and, when the time comes, helping to elect a Labour government are the best things our family can do to alleviate poverty.
Sorry if you were offended by the introduction of politics in this blog, although I’m actually not sorry. I’m far more offended by poverty and history shows that only one political party has actually done anything to deal with it.
Keep giving to foodbanks, especially but not solely at Christmas, keep donating toys for the children of poor families but eventually it comes down to who runs the country and how they run it. The partying toe rags in Number 10 don’t give a toss. Someday soon we will have the opportunity to show that we do.
