Save the Children launches appeal for children in the UK

[Vagaceratops]

BBC link

And it will get worse :(

'We don't know how lucky we are here in the UK.'

So, because it's worse in other countries, we should adopt that as our standard of low and do nothing until we're in the same state? Sorry, kids, you're not eating tonight, but you don't know how lucky you are!

I think so too lovechoc.

And it annoys me hugely.

Most DC in the UK are not poor. However, there are a number who are and they need to be helped properly.

Do these executives do the charity work out of the goodness of their hearts and refuse a salary? Heh, I think not! Someone's profiting from this UK child poverty racket and it's not the children in need....

"Most DC in the UK are not poor"

You've hit the nail on the head!

jesus christ

To be fair I don't think they should do it for free. A well run charity needs a good management team.

However, I do think some of the larger charities are no longer focussed on their original remit.

And in a world of competing issues, a charity will take any opportunity to raise its profile.

The fact is that there are DC in the UK who need proper focused help. And we should try to shame each successive governemnt into doing somehting. But when people start running around claiming the sky is falling in, people just roll their eyes and everyone loses out. IMVHO anyway.

"I only drink tap water. Can that be said of these benefits claimants?"

ROFL. That's made my day.

"However, I do think some of the larger charities are no longer focussed on their original remit."

Yes that's my point though. Are they in it because they genuinely want to be helping others, or are they in it for the salary?? If you get a charity set up with those who genuinely care for the cause, surely you'd have a better outcome? More would be done to help those in need, as any funds would go directly to help the children in the form of clothing, food for each and every impoverished family?

"Most DC in the UK are not poor"

You've hit the nail on the head!

Does the fact that MOST are okay negate the need to do anything about the significant minority who are not?

twofingers rather than picking on one particular poster who disagrees with your opinion, please realise others hold similar views to myself....

No, it doesn't make it right that children in the UK are going hungry, in poverty, etc. But at the same time, looking at the bigger picture can also let many see that really the situation could be much worse.

Most of our charities are cramed full of people doing it for the love of it. Charity wages are terrible compared with what many of these people will earn. If someone wants to help a poor child direct they can do that too. Charities like www.kidsco.org.uk/ which help children in London will give you methods of helping directly. They wanted beds recently. Loads of their London children don't have a proper bed. It is not really usualyl the fault of the state actually. The benefits when with a sensbile parent to manage are enough to live no (just). It is usually because there will always be an underclsas of people with a heap of problems who become parents - they often have multiple issues like drugs or drink or mental illness or had fractured childhoods themselves and they cannot manage.

I only get involved with charities where I can personally help, in a direct way and see the difference I can make. I would never donate to a large charity where I've no idea where the money is going.

"I only drink tap water. Can that be said of these benefits claimants?"

ROFL. That's made my day.

Most benefit claimants prefer water that has been collected from melted Siberian snow, bottled in glass made from crushed diamonds, lightly carbonated and flown to the UK by private jet.

This is a well-known fact.

I never understand the mindset that whatever your situation, somebody is worse off than you, so you should be glad about that and feel glad about what you have.

What if Doctors shared that view?

You might not understand it vaga but it's true. Not fair, but that's how it is.

But a child with no heating at home, no decent food and inadequate clothing is not going to think 'In Belarus they have it much worse so I should be happy'

And neither will many adults.

Yes the UK is a rich country. But we only have so much money right?

No-one disputes that we have children who should be better fed, better looked after and given every opportunity to succeed.

We already do make a lot of effort. As others have pointed out there are many benefits already available to parents. There are other agencies who can/will/should step in to help & guide parents and if absolutely necessary remove children.

And if child poverty was the only problem we face then no doubt about it, let's chuck everything we have at it.

But what about all the other groups which need our attention? I mean the disabled, pensioners, the ill, unemployed, single parents? If we are compassionate about child poverty then I assume we should be equally concerned about the other groups?

So where do we draw the line? It's ok saying it's unacceptable to have children living in poverty. But by the same token, it's unacceptable to have pensioners cold in winter. Disabled who cannot get the treatment & support they need. The ill waiting months for life saving treatment.

It's ok talking on these threads like there is some utopian world that is possible by the swoosh of a legislative pen. In reality we don't have anywhere near enough money and we can only try to do so much.

It's a bad argument lovechoc, a government can't ignore the children in its own country because there happen to be other countries in the world where kids have it much worse.

Children in Sweden have it better than ours. They do better at school, they have better health, more opportunities in life. We should be comparing ourselves to countries that are better than us and using them as inspiration to raise ourselves up. Not look at countries where children have it worse, and using that as an excuse to do nothing.

We already do make a lot of effort

Meh, stop gap measures.

It's ok talking on these threads like there is some utopian world that is possible by the swoosh of a legislative pen. In reality we don't have anywhere near enough money and we can only try to do so much.

There is money but it's not being distributed fairly. There is an upward flow of money that is heading out of the country and ends up sitting in off-shore accounts. What we need is for the super-rich to develop a social conscience and to start ploughing money back in to the countries from whence it came. Maybe if they played fair to begin with, we wouldn't need governments to tax them to buggery just to get a fraction of their wealth out of their tight sweaty mits and back in to the economy.

Actualyl most of the money is made and tax obtained from the middle ranking people because there are very very few very rich. The rich make a lovely easy target but the amount you get from them even if you got 80% tax on all their income of all kinds is not really going to be significant. That is the trouble. It might make people feel better but it would not feed the poor.

As I said above children can be fed no benefits but some parents do not manage things well. Those parents are the ones at fault or the ones with addictions or problems which mean they will fail their children. It is the parents failing their children not the state. Obviously we can intervene if we want - ensure children drink water, not rubbishy drinks, check packed lunches in case they are full of awful foods, try to enforce bed times in private homes etc etc but the question is to what extent you leave those who are not very good at managing alone and when to intervene. If mummy got herself in debt because she thinks children need toys costing more than £5 at Oxfam and spent money she did not have do we bail her out?

lovechocFri 07-Sep-12 18:46:19

twofingers sorry bad wording on my part there! With regards to the food bank, I meant at least there's a place for parents to go in times of genuine need when they are struggling these days, food banks are a recent thing which are helping families out. It's brilliant. But sadly there are many countries who don't have this kind of luxury and children just don't get fed at all for days

So you think its "brilliant" that this country has got to the stage where it needs to have food banks. Jesus wept

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8417205.stm

the top 10% income earners actually pay more than half the total income tax.

XeniaFri 07-Sep-12 17:06:29

So full time working mothers' taxes are going towards a family (above) where they would not need state benefits to top up the husband's low wage if the mother were not at home but she chooses to be there?

The sooner we move to a low flat tax, small state and no tax credits or child benefit the better.

And you call yourself a feminist?
oh wait i forgot .......yes thats right feminism is only for rich or fairly well off women.

Ever heard of financial abuse in cases of domestic abuse Xenia. take a read of the Relationships board sometime.
A woman who finds herself in this situation (and before you start many of these men dont show signs of abuse until a woman is pregnant) for them the tax credits and child benefit is the only money they are getting if/when other funds are being deliberately withheld from them.

Exactly, dark! It's just brilliant that we now have food banks because, well, you could be in Belarus.

FFS.