Above the Home Secretary's warning about illegal sweepstakes, the girl
saved from death in a snowdrift, the kicking woman who beat 13 men,
blackmailed stage stars, and the reason why Capt FE Guest has switched
his political allegiance to the Conservatives (there were bloody fools
even then), the big headline tells a story that feels a little bit
familiar.
UNDERFED WORKERS DRIVEN TO DRUGS, it screams ... Growing Illness Due To Lack of Proper Food.
Gill, the food bank manager, found this old paper when she was clearing
out her grandfather's garage, and she hands it to me for my
entertainment.
"The bill for drugs in this area has gone up by £16,000 in the past 12
months, and in Sunderland prescriptions have been increased by more than
18%. Over the whole area more than half a million prescriptions have
been dispensed.
"Not only is enforced idleness undermining the moral fibre of the
workless; it is draining away their health. Both they and many of those
in work are not getting enough food, and drugs and medicines are being
used in increasing quantities to alleviate hunger and check the ravages
of disease and general ill health."
The parallels are too obvious to need pointing out. Of course there are a
few differences too: the medication used these days by people who are
desperate is often of the illegal variety, but enforced idleness
undermines the moral fibre and drains away the health all right, and 84
years later there are still no answers from the powers that be.
Of course having a good pool of unemployed people is the key to driving
down wages and powering up our economy, without much thought to the poor
bastards whose moral fibre is being given a good kicking, and who, if
they really have the stuffing knocked out of them, end up at Blawarthill
Parish Church in Glasgow on a Tuesday or Friday for some badly-needed
food to alleviate hunger and fend off the ravages of disease.
I think the desperation is better hidden now, with the poverty concealed
by better housing and schooling, and people are not literally tramping
the streets in search of work, but the fact that it's concealed should
not blind us to the damage it does to society when there are immensely
rich people, making more and more money, and yet people are so desperate
they have to come and get free tins to survive.
I think of other parallels with the 1930s: how - elsewhere in Europe at
least - the Depression helped dubious politicians of all colours to surf
to power on a wave of dissatisfaction with the economy, poverty and a
lack of social justice.
Of course the system needs to change, of course it is blindingly stupid
that we have a UK cabinet of millionaires who have not the slightest
idea that sanctioning a benefit claimant can mean they have so little
money they will starve.
But the parallel raises fears about the motives of those who want to
radically change the way we are governed and relate to other nations.
Herald Scotland
