Category Archives: Politics

Watch Kid President’s Heartwarming Meeting With Obama

Posted on by

kid-president-obama

Robbie Novak, the ten-year-old YouTube sensation better known as “Kid President,” got a chance to meet with actual President Barack Obama this weekend during the White House’s Easter celebrations — and you can watch the meeting of the presidents.

Obama gave Novak, who also starred in the White House’s April Fools’ Day prank, a tour of the Oval Office, even letting him use the presidential phone.

“Let’s make sure not to cause an international incident,” joked Obama, who showed Novak other White House memorabilia, including a telegraph, a portrait of Abraham Lincoln and the emancipation proclamation.

The two also shared some advice: “You’re doing awesome,” Novak told Obama, who returned the favor by advising Novak and kids around the world to always treat others with respect.

“You keep on doing the great work that you’re doing, I’ll keep doing my best and between the two of us, maybe we can kind of get things going in a good direction,” added Obama.

Novak first warmed hearts worldwide with his inspirational YouTube videos, particularly his “pep talk” video which has racked up 17.6 million views:

Could you live on £53 a week?

Posted on by

Empty pockets

I’ve been intrigued and concerned by the divisive nature of the debate regarding welfare and benefit cuts – specifically the Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit cuts.

There are some clear concepts that those who are making the cuts propose which make sense:

  • As a country our debt is overwhelming and needs to be cut – regardless of how that debt was created and whose fault it is – we don’t want to end up in the same situation as Greece, Cyprus and others with their huge cuts.
  • Many people do want to work but find that they are worse off by doing so due to taxation policies, which leads to more people relying on the welfare state than is necessary.  This situation needs to change.
  • Equally some people have clearly been reaping from the benefits system and are not contributing to society in the way they should.

In contrast there are some very clear arguments against these cuts:

  • There are those who for a variety of reasons are poor and disadvantaged and need to be supported and looked after by the Government and this should cover their living costs – not extravagantly, but equally it should try and find ways to help alleviate their poverty.
  • Whilst some people would be happy to move to a smaller property to avoid the “bedroom tax” there is often a real lack of smaller properties in the areas where they are most needed – this is the fault of planning, local and central government – not the people in these homes.
  • In my current role we’re seeing increasing numbers of people coming to the church to receive financial support or access our food bank.
  • Contrasted to this there is a clear sense in which those earning over £100,000 have seen some tax breaks come into play which doesn’t fit this argument of everyone taking responsibility for the national debt.

Sadly some people have been quick (and therefore wrong) to try and calculate how little people will be left to live on having paid their essential bills.  The mistakes in these calculations has not helped the debate.  In my mind I am clear that each of the figures I have seen quoted are not acceptable for individuals and families to live on.  Kevin pointed out the Hansard recording of a report from Helen Goodman MP, who decided to try living on £18/week during the recent parliamentary recess. I think it makes interesting reading for those of us who are so financially removed from the poorest in our society.

Helen Goodman MP

“I was so shocked when I read what my constituents wrote to me about the implications for them of the bedroom tax, and about how little they would have left to live on, that I decided during the week of the recent recess to see if I could survive on £18 a week, which is what they will be left with to buy their food after 1 April. That figure of £18 is entirely based on the experiences of my constituents, in particular women on employment and support allowance who are about the same age as me, but who had to stop working owing to chronic health conditions, perhaps after 20 years of working life. Out of their £71.70, they have to find £10 for electricity, £20 for heating—gas or coal—£6 for water rates, £4 for bus fares in the case of those who live in villages and have to get to the main town, and £10 for the bedroom tax, which left them with £23 for weekly living expenses.

That £23 has to cover more than food, of course. We did a calculation, and set aside £5 for all the non-food things everyone has to buy—soap, washing powder, washing-up liquid, toothpaste, loo paper—plus a small amount in order to save £50 a year for clothes or a pair of trainers, or in case the iron breaks. That leaves £18.

I therefore took up the challenge of trying to live on £18, and I want to tell Members what it is like. It is extremely unpleasant. I had porridge for breakfast every morning, as I usually do, but I make my porridge with milk; now I was making it with water. I had to eat the same food over and over and over again. Single people are hit particularly hard, because cheap food comes in big packs. I made a stew at the beginning of the week, and I ate the same food four nights a week. I had pasta twice a week. I had baked potatoes. I had eggs on six occasions. It was completely impossible to have meat or fish; that was out of the question. It was also impossible to have five portions of fruit and vegetables a week.

I therefore also have a message for the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), who is responsible for public health. She was criticising people on low incomes for obesity. Of course people on low incomes are more likely to have that problem; they have to fill up on toast and biscuits.

I found myself waking up in the middle of the night absolutely ravenous, having to make cups of tea and eat biscuits. I had a headache for five days in that week, and I was completely lethargic and exhausted by 4 pm. Some people are on jobseeker’s allowance and are looking for a job. Looking for a job is a job in itself; it takes time and energy. The people whom DWP Ministers want to do workfare are being expected to work 30 hours a week, yet they are not going to have enough to eat properly.

Most shocking of all was the fact that come Sunday I ran out of food—there was literally nothing left to eat that night. If Ministers are happy with the notion that 660,000 of our fellow citizens are literally not going to have enough to eat by the end of the week, all I can say is that I pity them because they have no pity and no conception of what they are going to do to the people in our constituencies who will be faced with this bedroom tax.

The Minister has been very free and easy in talking about all these wonderful alternatives, such as the fact that people can move. In my constituency more than 1,000 people will be affected by the bedroom tax, but there are fewer than 100 smaller properties to which they could move. In my constituency, it is not possible for all these people to increase the number of hours they work, as seven people are chasing every job; people are in part-time work because they cannot get full-time work. Government Members have shown their complete ignorance of the benefits system by saying, “You just have to work a couple of hours a week on the minimum wage.” Of course that is not true, because these people would get then into the tapers and the disregards, and their benefits would be cut or they might find themselves paying tax. The numbers simply do not add up.

Of course some individuals or couples have properties that are larger than they need, but the so-called under-occupancy is in one part of the country and the overcrowding is in another. It simply is not credible to suggest that all the large, over-occupying families in London will move up to Durham, particularly given that the unemployment rate there is more than 9%. What would they be moving to? What would they be moving for?

I made a video diary of my week, so I got a lot of feedback from people affected by this policy. Interestingly, they said, “Yes, this is the reality of our lives. We are not able to survive properly now and things are going to get worse to the tune of £10 a week from 1 April.” In 2006, I did the same experiment under the previous Labour Government, living on benefits to see what life was like for young people on the lowest rate of income support. I found that difficult, but there was enough money to get through the whole week. I wish to point out to the Minister that we have reached a new low, because the £21 that people had in 2006 is equivalent to £28 now, and that should be compared with the £18 with which people are going to be expected to feed themselves.

The Minister has made much, too, of the discretionary housing benefits, which many hon. Members have questioned. In County Durham, £5 million of income will be taken out of people’s pockets and out of the local economy. The size of the discretionary fund is half a million pounds, so once again there is a huge gap between actual need and the resources being given to people to deal with it.

Many hon. Members have pointed out the unfairness of the policy for people who are disabled and need to sleep separately, be they adults or children; people who have children in the Army; foster carers; and separated parents. This policy is a fundamental attack on the poorest people in this country. People are going to lose between £500 and £1,000 over the course of next year, through no fault of their own. But the really disgusting thing is that on the same day that the bedroom tax is being introduced millionaires are being given a tax cut that will be worth £1,000—not over the year as a whole, but every single week.”

This is copied directly from Hansard, beginning at 27th Feb 2013 5.36pm. 

Yes, there are people who take advantage of our welfare system, but not many, according to the Truth and Lies about Poverty Report recently published by the Joint Public Issues Team, benefit fraud is about 0.9% of payments, about £1.9 million. On the other hand tax avoidance is about 6% of revenues due, about £30 billion. Only 3% of families on benefits receive more than £10,000 in housing benefit a year – many struggle to make ends meet on a daily basis. Only 8% of families claiming benefits have three or more children.

As a concluding thought I believe strongly that we have to see cuts in our budgets, we cannot keep ever increasing our debt, and whilst there are never easy answers I don’t believe these changes to the welfare state are the correct move.

Books I have read: Only Half Of Me: British and Muslim: The Conflict Within

Posted on by

Only Half of Me - Being a Muslim in Britain

I finished reading Only Half Of Me: British and Muslim: The Conflict Within by Rageh Omaar last night.  I found it a fascinating read as he describes both the personal tensions and cultural tensions he has seen over his life and the way in which society makes big assumptions against British Muslims.

Following 9/11 and then the 7/7 London bombing society has become much more suspicious and negative towards British Muslims.  Omaar shows how this goes beyond what should be acceptable.  Having grown up originally in Somalia and then moving to Britain for a private education, he struggled to develop into an adult who straddled both his parents Islamic faith and the Western society in which he was living.

The point that I found most interesting was the sub culture of wealthy upper middle class Muslims moving to the UK to provide their children with a top quality education, sometimes staying, sometimes moving back to their country of origin.  In Omaar’s case with Somalia falling into civil war his family decided to stay in the UK and it was only as a reporter for the BBC that he went back to visit his homeland.  Alongside his own story, Omaar details the responses of a number of people who fled from oppression in their native land.

The book challenges the reader to a better understanding of Muslims coming to live in Britain.  But it does leave a number of key questions unanswered – there are positive challenges for how white British people can respond better to British Muslims, whereas there seems little in response as to how a British Muslim should engage with British society.

I feel as if Omaar has written part 1, but could write more suggestions as to how society could function better as a whole.

Books I have read: Childhood Under Siege

Posted on by

Childhood under siege

As a children’s and youth worker I am fascinated by how culture, media and business shapes our children, and so it was with interest that I read Childhood Under Siege: How Big Business Ruthlessly Targets Children by Joel Bakan.

In many ways I felt like Bakan wrote in a similar way to Michael Moore, arguing that big business and governments that look the other way had created a society that instead of encouraging, developing and supporting children and young people actually feasts upon them.  Using Nelson Mandela’s comment that:

‘There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.’

Bakan shows that we fail to protect our children, even though we profess to hold them close through things like in 1989, governments worldwide promising all children the same rights by adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The book explores education, pharmaceutical business, ecology, child labour and more in the USA showing that across industries business is targeting children putting profit first.

The book at times can be scary and feel overly dramatic, but I think it is a helpful cynical look at how business and children work together.

Councillor in attack on food bank

Posted on by

Councillor Chris Steward

A senior York politician has sparked a furious row by saying there is no real poverty in Britain and people should not donate to food banks.

Chris Steward, a Conservative councillor, said living standards had surged, that there was no need for food banks, that they were an insult to starving people around the world, and that donating to them allowed recipients to spend more money on alcohol and cigarettes.

But his comments have been condemned by political opponents and The Trussell Trust, which runs 275 banks nationwide.  Chris Mould, the charity’s executive chairman, said more than 10,000 professionals nationwide were referring people to food banks and said: “He is making totally inappropriate assertions which I challenge him to back up with proper evidence.”

Coun Steward said on twitter that it insulted those in poverty to claim it existed in the UK. Asked to elaborate, he said Britain had relative poverty, like every country, but not absolute poverty.

He said:

“We have lots of poor people, but living standards have surged over the years. There is certainly no need for food banks; no-one in the UK is starving and I think food banks insult the one billion in the world that go to bed hungry every day and ignore the fact a child dies of hunger every three seconds.”

“The fact some give food to food banks, merely enables people who can’t budget (an issue where schools should do much more and I have said the council should) or don’t want to, to have more money to spend on alcohol, cigarettes etc.”

Mr Mould said Coun Steward was “poorly informed” and said living standards for people on low incomes had declined in recent years, with heating costs rising by 65 per cent in five years and the cost of basic food rising by’ 35 per cent. He said it was stereotyping to say those on low incomes were using money unwisely, saying there were many reasons why people found themselves in crisis.

Chris Mould said:

“He says there is no need for food banks; I am astonished by his assertion. What does he know? Where is his evidence? More than 10,000 front-line professionals, week in week out, are referring people they are trying to help to food banks.  They are seeing people from Cornwall to Inverness, York to Liverpool, and in increasing numbers they are referring people to food banks.  I am talking from an evidence-base of 10,000 care professionals who would argue with him. It is astonishing he would make an assertion like that.”

food bank

Mr Mould said nobody suggested people should not be distressed or outraged by unnecessary hunger elsewhere in the world, but said:

“It is clear that people in the UK who we meet have been going without meals when they arrive at food banks. They are going to bed hungry too. We are one of the richest countries in the world, but one of the most unequal in terms of income distribution in Europe.”

I found it amazing in this period of recession where most weeks there are major news articles on increases in poverty in the UK that a local politician would go as far to state there is no need for food banks.  As someone who has worked with young people and families for nearly a decade, I’ve helped them access food banks many times – they are incredibly valuable local tools.

What do you think?  Was Councillor Steward right to say we don’t need food banks?

———————– UPDATE ———————–

The York Press are now reporting that:

The York councillor who sparked an angry backlash by saying food banks were not needed has said he will visit one to see how they work.

Chris Steward, chairman of York Conservatives and councillor for Rural West York, made the offer after he came under fire for comments revealed in The Press on Thursday. Coun Steward claimed there was no real poverty in the UK.

He has since said on twitter that he would be happy to visit a food bank to work a shift.

York Labour councillor Dafydd Williams also yesterday invited Coun Steward to visit the York food bank at Gateway Church in Acomb, and called the councillor’s comments “ill-informed”. Coun Steward declined to add to his comments on twitter when contacted by The Press.

New Law in Jerusalem Bans Models with BMI Under 18.5

Posted on by

BMI

A new law that took effect on Tuesday states that male and female models who have a body mass index under 18.5 cannot appear in the media, on Israeli websites or walk the catwalk at fashion shows, according to a story in The Jerusalem Post.

Impressionable teens are the aim of the law when it comes to protecting them from eating disorders. It was created by then-Kadima MK Rachel Adatto.  The new law was also sponsored by Likud-Beytenu MK Danny Danon and is thought to be the first in the world of its kind.  Violations of this law come with a fine and are considered to be criminal offences.  Violators of the new law can be sued in court by citizens and this includes families who had relatives that died or suffered complications from eating disorders.

The media, despite publishing illegal images, cannot be held liable.  Any company that produces an advertisement, runs a fashion show or used a model who is too thin can be sued in court.  An advertisement that appears to have been edited to make the model appear as having a body mass index under 18.5 will have a label that warns about the image being distorted.  At least seven percent of the ad’s space must be covered by the warning.

Any model who wishes to participate in a fashion show or an advertising campaign has to provide written statements from their doctor that says the model’s body mass index, up to no longer than three months ago, is above 18.5.  If a note from their doctor is not presented, the model is not permitted to appear in the fashion show or in an advertising campaign.

The creator of the law, Adatto, also works as a gynecologist.  She said on January 1 that a “revolution against the anorexic model of beauty begins. Overly skinny models who look as if they eat a biscuit a day and then serve as a model for our children” will no longer be seen.

An advocate of Adatto’s bill, Adi Barkan, is a longtime fashion photographer. Barkan said,

“We are all affected. We wear black, do [drastic] diets and are obsessive about our looks. The time has come for the end of the era of skeletons on billboards and sickly thinness all over. The time has come to think about ourselves and our children and take responsibility for what we show them. Too thin is not sexy.”

As someone who works with young people I feel this law is long overdue, and hope that the UK will bring into play something similar.

123›»