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To wonder if tory voters care about the 1 million.

391 replies

Jacobsmum1972 · 08/05/2015 18:43

I bet they don't give a flying monkeys for anyone coming under attack by the Tories. The poor, disabled and tennants.

I have felt close to tears all day because I know what a conservative majority means for so many in this country.

SadSadSad

OP posts:
Fairylea · 09/05/2015 08:23

I know all about workhouses. I've done research on them. And yes I know they segregated mothers and children and all the ins and outs of them. It was an analogy. That's all. A way of pointing out that we have to start caring about those less fortunate than ourselves otherwise we are heading back in that direction. I'm not alone in thinking and feeling like that. I'm certainly not a fool and neither are the tens of thousands of other people who are absolutely disgusted at having to face more years of David Cameron and his tories.

tobysmum77 · 09/05/2015 08:24

I think they may think that it isn't necessarily the government's responsibility to sort out everyone's problems on a personal level and do everything for them. That isn't the same as being selfish, perhaps they volunteer in their community, help out a member of their family who has hit hard times.

tobysmum77 · 09/05/2015 08:25

But fairylea 'we have to start helping' you mean 'the government'

fiveacres · 09/05/2015 08:26

Fairy it wasn't an analogy. You claimed a direct link to nursery standards slipping to workhouses. And those who voted conservative brought it in.

Charis1 · 09/05/2015 08:32

And yes, people DID starve to death before they existed. Check your history.

not in recent history.

Check for yourself. the last case of starvation due to poverty in Uk was under a labout govt......

.
Food is only cheap if you can afford it, and CB is not paid to all
what utter crap. CB is paid to everyone on any income from low to well above average. There is a surfeit of cheap food in the country. carrots, potato, rice, pasta, liver, bananas, saver ranges, etc etc etc. There are tins of baked beans less than 20p, for goodness sakes, and many other tins in the same price range.

A private bathroom and kitchen within a family home is not a luxury its a necessity.

This is an example of the greed and entitlement in this country. I expect you are one of those people who thinks they are entitled to switch the heating on instead of putting on an extra jumper, aren't you, and go running round screaming waving your hands over your head if you are without hot water for a couple of days!

This country is full of people DEMANDING they live in the lap of luxury. None of these things are necessary for a happy ,healthy life. Nor are they or should they be available for free.

I just don't get where this sense of entitlement comes from. You start at the bottom in life and work up. I'm not old ( in my 40s, ) and my parents generation were so different.

My parents grew up without an inside toilet, or central heating. My dad had a fireplace, my mum had nothing.

When I was a baby, my parents spent their evening sitting in their car, because needing a car for work, they were then unable to afford chairs in their home, or a radio.

After leaving home I lived in shared accommodation for the first 12 years, until I could afford to rent my fist self contained home, with my own small kitchen and bathroom.

A decade later I became a home owner, I have always worked full time, and so I pay for my own way, meaning, for example, if I can't afford shopping, I do without it, and when out boiler broke last year and wasn't covered by the insurance, we spent 6 months without heating or hot water while we saved up a deposit for a new one.

We do not, and never have considered ourselves poor, or oppressed!

Because we are not, we are well off. My parents generation also were quite happy with what they had, and proud.

yet people with far more than us, and far far far far more than our parents, consider themselves somehow being ground down by the government, when in fact they are given so much help and support in every way.

of course it is disappointing if your standard of living goes down instead of up, of course everyone wants a luxurious home, but I promise you if everyone had one, there would be not one iota of difference in the demands and the complaints, people would just want a better one.

How about just being happy with life, and working hard to improve your self?

NRomanoff · 09/05/2015 08:32

To me that isn't far off a workhouse culture - albeit a slightly modernised version

That's not an analogy.

And you going back to work when your was 12 weeks is nothing like a workhouse. I am shocked someone who researched them, doesn't realise this.

Charis1 · 09/05/2015 08:39

workhouse? Utterly ridiculous. Quite insane.

DinkyDye · 09/05/2015 08:39

I didn't vote Tories (or Labour) but Charis your posts are great!

tobysmum77 · 09/05/2015 08:40

People starved to death as recently as the 30s. Whatever the causes of death were recorded as. Read Helen Forrester's books they are truly shocking.

fiveacres · 09/05/2015 08:44

Helen Forrester's novels were set before any real attempts to have a welfare state, in the middle of a great depression and in addition her family were heavily in debt IIRC.

I daresay her family would have been delighted with a food bank, tax credits and child benefit!

Queenofwands · 09/05/2015 08:52

Charis...... So your child lived in a house without heating or hot water for 6 months, and it took you that long to save for just a deposit for a new boiler? I am sorry but your child is living in poverty, and I would gladly have bought you a new boiler if I had known. My sister paid 800.00 for her boiler which was a lot of money for her too. I don't want to live in a country where people who are working are so poor it takes them 8 months to save up a deposit for something that costs £800.00, and means their children are cold and can't bathe. I find that upsetting and depressing in the UK which is one of the worlds richest countries. I really would hate that to be the norm.

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 09/05/2015 08:59

Good posts Charis

AuntyMag10 · 09/05/2015 09:00

Excellent post Charis!

devon004 · 09/05/2015 09:19

So a kitchen a a bathroom is a luxury now and show a sense of entitlement. How the hell are the poor going to cook their cheap baked beans or foodbank parcel without a hob.
my parents were working poor and had their dc in the 60s and 70s. We lived in a damp council house with no central heating and I swear my bronchitis was down to this. Do I want children to have this kind of upbringing now? No of course not. My elder siblings alsoremember being really short of food and having to share eggs etc despite both parents working and dad working in his holidays to pay for school uniforms etc. They were not feckless.
neither is my sister having to pay £10 per week council tax out of her paltry £71 per week. Is she starving no! but she is anaemic. She cannot afford a holiday, doesn't smoke or drink. Has to pay £5 every two weeks to sign on as they closed the local office. Has to walk 3 miles daily to job search as she has no computer, let alone internet andvhas just had her retirement age moved again. Was nearly santioned for working to long in the charity shop they recommended and had to pay nearly £5 in phone calls to sort it out.
and we have another 5 years of this.

devon004 · 09/05/2015 09:20

Sorry born in 50s and 60s

BMW6 · 09/05/2015 09:22

Blimey. My 4 siblings and I were all born and brought up in a council house that had no central heating (only a coal fire in the lounge). This is the UK - not Siberia. I do not class absence of CH as being in Poverty. Poor, yes. Poverty - no.

m0therofdragons · 09/05/2015 09:29

my experience is that labour bang on about helping the poor and all sounds lovely but once in power the reality is different. in the late 90s my dad was redundant and under labour got £94 a fortnight to survive on for a family of 4.this was because the labour system counted the hours my mum worked and didn't look at how little she earned at all. We would have been better off if she didn't work too.
Then there's me and dh. Both of us had pay freezes and I ended up being made redundant under labour. This was due to labour making it too expensive to run a business.
so yes I want the poor looked after but do I believe labour will do that? No there would just be even more poor.
I'm amazed how many people love labour. Economy aside, they subtly sold the nhs and messed up education for many. My brother was in the first year of tuition fees so my parents had less than a year's notice to plan for that one. but oh yes labour help the poor right? Were they helping the poor when they went to war based on a lie and our troops didn't have the equipment they needed?
Just to clarify, I'm not tory but I cannot stand labour and am baffled by those who do.

devon004 · 09/05/2015 09:29

Central heating fine, damp not fine.

Queenofwands · 09/05/2015 09:36

The success of a country used to be based on its standard of living, of its poorest. You will have had a hot water tank for hot water in your council house....with the coal fire if you grew up in the late 60s 70s. I also grew up in a house with single glazing and no central heating in the 70s we nearly all did. That was 40 years ago, As we have moved forward we should be bringing the poor with us...by your logic if your parents had a tin bath and an outside toilet then people on benefits who have a tin bath and an outside toilet are not living in poverty. How far back do we go with this?

flippinada · 09/05/2015 09:37

Charis

You're wrong I'm afraid. Someone (at least one person) has starved to death recently in the UK:

Mark Wood

I'm also sorry to hear you were without a boiler for six months as that sounds awful. I think anyone would struggle without hot water and heating for that length of time. I would get insurance so you're covered if that type of thing happens again.

Queenofwands · 09/05/2015 09:38

Apologies my last post was addressed to BMW6

Charis1 · 09/05/2015 09:41

flippinaa, anyone who has starved to death in the uk recently died because of behaviour related to mental health, not due to poverty.

we didn't really struggle without heating and hot water, it was a bit inconvenient though.

We are, and were insured up to our eyeballs, but there is always some eventuality not covered, isn't there.

QOD · 09/05/2015 09:41

Well said charis

TondelayoSchwarzkopf · 09/05/2015 09:46

People with mental health problems shouldn't have support to help them live functional lives?

What a vile comment.

flippinada · 09/05/2015 09:49

"anyone who has starved to death in the uk recently died because of behaviour related to mental health, not due to poverty".

If you are referring to Mark Wood, then he still starved to death, no matter what the cause. It may not have been caused directly by his benefits being cut but it most certainly was an aggravating factor as his benefits were (wrongly) sanctioned and he couldn't afford to buy food, or pay for electricity to run the fridge he kept his insulin in. He weighed around 5 stone when he died.

In all honesty, I would find it very hard to to go without hot water and central heating for any length of time. I think most people would.

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