How about this for a tweet from Jess Phillips MP:
‘Pleased about the peoples vote stuff, but still howling as all of the homeless families living in my constituency in Travel Lodges are having to move out for three days because the rooms have been block booked for Crufts. It would be comical if it didn’t dehumanise them further.’
Forget the ‘peoples vote stuff’ and think about the second bit. Just like everywhere across the land, there are large numbers of homeless people. Many are families. There are plenty in my home city, Bristol. And now I read that people are being booted out of their temporary homes in downmarket hotel rooms for people attending a dog show.
Of course, it is not the fault of Travel Lodge, nor Crufts or its visitors, that homeless people are being shunted around. It’s just the way it is. People want to go to the most famous dog show on the planet, many want to stay in Brum. As Barry Norman used to say, and why not? It’s yet another sign of Broken Britain, our hopelessly, some say irrevocably divided country, presided over a broken political system, devoid of leadership and vision.
Despite the promises, the country is consumed by the act of self-harm that is Brexit. Rather than spend money on ending homelessness and rough-sleeping, the government is putting aside many billions of pounds for hardship payments when unemployment starts to balloon under a hard Brexit. As we all know, homelessness is a political choice.
It says much about this country that removing people from their ersatz homes so people can go to a dog show causes barely a ripple of anger and disgust. Has society simply become accustomed to homelessness and now regards it as a price worth paying? I rather think so.
