to think that it's appalling that society has come to this

[floraloctopus]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-48119099

The school is described as the 4th emergency service (yes, I know that's the coastguard/lifeboats) as they are providing a food bank service, helping get rid of head lice, running training courses on cooking on a budget, meanwhile they are having to make staff redundant because of budgets.

It shouldn't be like this, children and families are suffering whilst the rich get richer thanks to the government policies which take from the poor and give to the rich.

Your not YANBU.

I have felt every single cut that the tories have inflicted on us. I am not able to work due to significant mental health problems.

-Only offered 12 weeks therapy when I was promising 18 months. Saw my Care Co every 2 weeks if I was lucky when I was going through a very difficult time.
-Health Visitor budgets were reduced.
-Getset service (kind of like sure start centre) disappeared due to funding.
-After Adoption (a service for birth families and other areas) went into administration.
-The mental health accommodation lost its funding as well.

Its little wonder that there are more children in the care system than ever...

All these have affected me in one way or another.

I have been very lucky with UC and PIP but, I am not naive to think I always will be. When I started claiming UC there were issues but, it was sorted.

I don't blame the school for doing this at all but, they shouldn't have to be responsible for it. The net should be there but, its a galling fact that even parents working full time are having to use Foodbanks.

All in the name of austerity.

No yanbu but it was ever thus. I can remember our primary school teacher (Miss Franklin, Jessop School, Brixton, early 1970s) bringing cornflakes into school for the several children who hadn’t had breakfast. Used to eat them with tiny bottles of milk we were all given, 1/3 of a pint I think (they always used to stack the crates in front of the radiator!)
It’s probably more widespread now but it’s certainly not new.
She was a fantastic woman, only late 20s I’d say, every weekend she’d take a small group of children out somewhere at greatly reduced cost - I think she took up the slack herself - and did it completely off her own bat, probably wouldn’t be allowed now. A lot of those kids wouldn’t have done anything without her.

My family is high earning and I'd happily pay more tax than I do no ones stopping you writing a cheque to the treasury

You can't earn that level of income. A footballer or a chief exec doesn't deserve that amount. who are you to decide what they deserve to make you creep

To go back to the original article, I seem to remember the teacher running cookery classes saying that barely any of the parents had ever chopped an onion. I am sure there is poverty in many communities, but is it compounded by people having no skills to make money go further...I’m always horrified by how much fast food actually costs.has this generation lost the managing skills grandparents had? Cookery classes for adults may well help the child obesity problem.

No yanbu but it was ever thus. I can remember our primary school teacher (Miss Franklin, Jessop School, Brixton, early 1970s) bringing cornflakes into school for the several children who hadn’t had breakfast. Used to eat them with tiny bottles of milk we were all given, 1/3 of a pint I think

Yes, it was Maggie Thatcher (milk snatcher) who stopped the free milk. Another Tory.

If you have no kitchen, no fridge, no oven or hob how do you prepare and cook nutritious meals?
If you can't pay for gas and electric by direct debit you pay a much higher amount in cash top ups, often by travelling to the nearest place that does top ups.
My late son was an excellent cook but the only place he could afford near his job was a tiny room with no facilities at all. He couldn't even make a sandwich.
There are whole families living in horrible bnb hotels. Children having to share toilets and showers with strangers.
It must be horrendous.
Then to be demonised for not cooking from scratch and struggling to deal with headlice.

Snuffalo what you were advocating in 100% inheritance tax is fairly radical. Surely it’s perfectly reasonable to ask how it would work in practice.

While i share a lot of concerns - i'm not sure what de-lousing children and cutting their hair has to do with poverty. I use bog standard conditioner and a bog standard nit comb on my kids and cut their hair myself every 6 weeks. The other stuff, fair enough I can see why families need the financial support given benefits cuts and it definitely shouldn't be that way.

Snuffalo what you were advocating in 100% inheritance tax is fairly radical. Surely it’s perfectly reasonable to ask how it would work in practice

It wouldn’t, people would hide cash and possessions. Or just buy their kids stuff to transfer money

Backwoodsgirl They do that anyway- yes, abolishing inherited wealth is radical and I’m fully aware that just because it’s the right thing to do doesn’t mean it’s simple or even likely. However your response shows your childish mental capacity again- ‘some people will break the law’ is a pretty stupid reason not to have the law. Let’s abolish laws against theft since some people will shoplift. Fuck it, let’s get rid of all the laws since they’ll all get broken at some point.

i'm not sure what de-lousing children and cutting their hair has to do with poverty

^ Good point.

There's lots of crap housing, but demand exceeds supply, and until this is addressed this is going to stay the same.

P.S. Whats wrong with schools running cooking courses or helping get rid of head lice - its something they used to do - because there are always parents who can't or won't do this.

What does it have to do with poverty? There are some parents who really struggle with life. Cuts in services and reductions in benefits makes it harder for these parents to cope.

We have universal credit and the tories cutting tax credits to 2 children maximum.
Then you have Jacob Reece mog openly against abortion in ANY circumstances
Health services being cut and contraception becoming less accessible.
Oh and benefits if women can prove their baby was the result of rape! Whilst rape victims can be told to hand over their mobile phone to police if they want to report rape.
It’s all just grim.

Amazed to see a libertarian on here, I thought they were the domain of "edgy" 18 year old males who browse men's rights pages on Reddit

It's awful what the Tories have done to this country. The thing that really grinds my gears is when their supporters blame Labour for the current mess because they overspent. Nevermind the fact it was a global recession caused by bankers in the US, it WAS NINE BLOODY YEARS AGO. They've had plenty of time to create their right wing utopia where everyone pulls themselves up by their bootstraps and they've done fuck all, other than pander to wealthy pensioners.

Still, they've pulled a blinder with Brexit, it's a great method of distraction, until that actually happens and people realise just how bad things can get.

InTheEndgameNow nope female, 33, British citizen who left the UK 6 years ago

I'm no particular fan of any of the current political parties, but I've been the unofficial carer for my mentally disabled DH under both Labour and Tory governments and I can categorically say that there were far more support and treatment options available under Blair/Brown (much as I dislike the former in particular) than under Cameron/May. The last time my DH went to his GP to seek additional support, which was earlier this year, he was given the number for a crisis support team and a list of local charities. Fifteen years ago in a similar situation he was referred to a psychiatrist, a psychologist and had a community psychiatric nurse assigned to him. That level of MN care simply isn't available any more because NHS budgets have been slashed to the bone and then had the marrow sucked out.

So where MH issues are a contributory factor in some parents being unable to look after their children effectively...then unless they can afford to pay for private healthcare and have the wherewithal to arrange it then they're screwed, quite frankly. And why wouldn't MH illness be prevalent amongst people who have been ground down by:

poverty;
shitty housing conditions;
a poor or patchy education;
being considered part of an underclass by those who just love to look down on them;
being demonised as scroungers and benefit cheats by a predominantly right wing press;
having no realistic prospect of improving their lot when the system is weighted against them;
the sheer overwhelmingness of not knowing where to start even if they did want to change things because the support structures, the knowledge of where to search out what help may be available and the confidence to interact with authorities to fight for that help, knowledge and confidence that many of us would take for granted, are missing for them.

Any one of us can get ill out of the blue. It happened to me. Thank goodness I have a family, a husband to support me, a home.
I spend my life attending hospital appointments, having blood tests, organising my life around being able to do 1 or 2 tasks a day.
Cuts in services and rationing of care and treatment makes it all more difficult.
I can only imagine how awful it must be to develop an illness if you are a single parent, in awful accommodation. Terrifying.

I hate this: the poor can afford their iPhones bur choose not to feed their kids and the rich should have it all taken away. All horrible attitudes

These people are modern day saints in my opinion.

I feel very sorry for those who become ill or lose jobs/ circumstances dramatically change etc. They should have every help given possible. What I can't agree with is that all of these people haven't created bad situations via their own bad choices- why would you have a baby if you don't have a job or can't even afford the basics? I think it's the height of entitlement to not even think of how you will support a child and to expect all those around you to pay for them. Especially those who keep on having child after child.

Nit nurses should be brought back into school. It is disgusting that we allow some children to be covered in untreated head lice for the fear of upsetting their parents.

why would you have a baby if you don't have a job or can't even afford the basics?

Because for a lot of women, their lives have been so devoid of love that they think a child/children will be someone to fill that void.

Because they have nothing else of any value in their lives, but a child will be incontrovertibly theirs.

Because paucity of education contributes to poor long-term planning / decision making / risk assessment skills, not to mention gaps in basic knowledge about biology, reproduction and contraception.

Because that's the only example they've seen in their communities.

Because they feel they have as much right as anyone else who wants a child to have one.

It's not that hard to think of a few reasons which may seem stupid to those of us looking on from a place of privilege (by which I mean of education and/or a sense of self-worth and/or supportive backgrounds that gave us options, rather than necessarily financial) but probably aren't so stupid if you're living the kind of life I described upthread and that life is all you've ever known.

Yes, it was Maggie Thatcher (milk snatcher) who stopped the free milk. Another Tory.

At our school no one would drink it, most of it was wasted and poured away. I used to knock back as many bottles as i could manage mind you by midday in summer i was almost cheese in the bottle!

I wonder if they ought to bring it back?, also some schools round our way have these "breakfast clubs" now, least they do in the private sector don't know if they do in the state, anyone??

I remember the days of the nit nurses! Can't parents check their children anymore?.

However your response shows your childish mental capacity again-

Snuffalo if there was 100% inheritance tax people would certainly break the law to avoid paying it - surely it’s perfectly reasonable to suggest this would happen.
You make a suggestion that there should be 100% inheritance tax and then when posters disagree with you or try to discuss this idea you’re rude to them.

Cafe, it's very true. Most of the time it's down to poor choices. There seems to be no shame anymore in not providing for ones family.

I wonder how many would have a child/children or large families if there were no benefits so they would be responsible both now and in the future. It's likely our birth rate would drop dramatically. Easy to make choices when someone else is picking up the tab.