Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

The Welfare Reform Committee in Holyrood has accused the UK Government of being “in denial” over the link between welfare reforms and increasing demand on food banks.

Committee members visited a number of food banks across Scotland and took written evidence from providers including Trussell Trust, Oxfam Scotland and the British Red Cross, as part of an inquiry into the supposed link between benefit changes and food bank usage.

The committee also commissioned research from the Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh.



According to the Trussell Trust, the demand for food banks has increased by 400% since the UK Government began their relentless attack on social security benefits.

The committee raised concerned that the increased use of benefit sanctions against some of the poorest sections of society is behind the startling rise in food bank usage.

In the year leading up to September 2013, official Government figures show that nearly 900,000 Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) claimants had their benefit payments cut or stopped completely – the highest figure since JSA was introduced.

22,840 sick and disabled people in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) were also sanctioned during this period.

This, in part, has led to MSPs arguing that it is “insulting to suggest” that there is “no robust evidence linking food bank usage to welfare reform”, as suggested by Tory employment minister Esther McVey in a letter to the Scottish Government.

McVey recently postponed a meeting with the committee to discuss the impact of welfare reform in Scotland. This resulted in Labour MSP Ken Macintosh accusing the UK Government of deliberately trying to “avoid answering questions” about the “significant and negative impact the welfare changes have had on some of our most vulnerable”.

Scottish Labour MSP and convener of the committee, Michael McMahon said:

“The UK Government can no longer ignore the evidence that their welfare reforms are having a real impact on people’s ability to feed themselves.

“There can be no place for this in a modern, prosperous nation, just as there should be no need for food banks.

“Our evidence showed some low paid workers need to access food banks.

“This makes it even more insulting for them to insist that people using food banks are anything other than in desperate need of help. Help the welfare system should be providing, not charities.

“Allowing this Dickensian model of welfare to take root is simply unacceptable. Ignoring the problem cannot be part of the solution.”

The committee’s Deputy convener and SNP MSP Jamie Hepburn, said:

“All our committee members visited food banks across Scotland.

“We were impressed by the professional and respectful way that the volunteers dealt with people who came to them, often in their hour of greatest need.”

Hepburn said that the UK Government needed to “own up to the role it is playing in causing the increase in demand and stop pretending this is simply all about people looking for something for nothing”, and that any such suggestion “insults the vulnerable members of our society using food banks and the volunteers that run them”.

Hepburn slammed the government’s welfare changes for “pushing people to the brink – and often beyond”.

A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) dismissed the report as not being “based on solid evidence, but on the opinions of those interviewed”, adding:

“The truth is that employment is going up, benefits are being paid to claimants more quickly and independent experts tell us that there are fewer people struggling with their food bills compared with a few years ago.

“The Trussell Trust and other foodbanks agree that increased awareness has helped to explain their recent growth.

“We spend £94bn a year on working age benefits and the welfare system provides a safety net that supports millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed.

“Our reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities by promoting work and helping people to lift themselves out of poverty.”

hey sticky, why don't you go out in the lovely sunshine and catch some fish - or even a can of worms? ...... much better than spending your time posting more of the usual

George Osborne conceded this morning that a housing bubble remains a threat to the recovery following comments by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in its annual appraisal of the UK economy.

The chancellor said on BBC Radio 4 he agreed with IMF head Christine Lagarde's conclusion that Britain must keep a close eye on rising house prices and indebtedness.

Cyners Bollos.

What ever happens at the next GE for the likes of you and me nothing will change. We'll still have the corrupt politicians, high wages, back handers who talk a good talk but actualy achieve nothing! I'll still feel like a stranger walking through my own city centre and an ethnic minority sat on the South of England beaches. Schools will continue to teach my child about foreign religion and culture rather than that of English tradition. There will still be a budget deficiet year upon year with the government not providing any accountability on where Treasury Revenue really goes.

Whoopie doo, can't bloody wait..

Sorry meant bollocks.

nothing will change
if sticky and fred in particular get their wish, then for sure you'll be paying a lot more tax, which revenue is unlikely to be put to good and constructive use ...... a few thousand more civil servants, pen pushers and paper shufflers perhaps?

So osbourne at last conceeds his recovery plan was built upon a cloud of over inflated credit for the housing market. Exactly why he critisised labour. 2 faced or what.

Now what happens to growth when he reins it in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why bollocks?
it's not sunny at your end, or you can't even catch fish? :-)

IMF tells Britain to rein in riskier mortgages

Why can't our politicians man up and tell that French bitch to mind her own business and if she wants to poke her conk of a nose anywhere it should be in the shrinking Euro nations..

Maybe Balls would grow a pair and earn some credibility with voters if he did.

Yes youl be paying more tax ALF, were going from taxing income to taxing assets and your and hays houses are our top priority.

Plus we'l be banging up the rate of inheritance tax, no longer will the posh boys have big hand downs.

Hard WORKING people will gain under labour, lay about posh boys who have had everything given on a plate will find that that plate as been swiftly be been put back in the cupboard.

No longer will the disabled sick and poor be targeted. It will be a complete U turn with the Over priviledged toffs baring the brunt of cuts and their gravy boat cut off at source.

God save our gracious Queen god save our noble Queen god save................


ohhh got carried away their thought i was ALF.

Man up ? We don't want any of that Kerry talk on here, tich

sticky - if you believe even half the rubbish you post, i truly despair of you .... as it is, i'ld recommend not rubbing your hands gleefully until fred and his (and your) pals actually manage to win GE outright

I think that if UKIP had chosen a better candidate than Roger Helmer, perhaps, the result and Newark may have been different.

Helmer appears to be a tory remnant of bygone days tory blusterers and the "old" brigade!

Guessing, that at the GE that many UKIP vote will help decimate the tory vote.

Manuel and the rest of the tory has "beens" or never "weres" had better get Terresa elected as their leader.

She should go down a bomb!

Most people avoid inheritance tax by setting up trusts. Labour won't have mansion taxes as most of their senior members have pricey houses.

What is happening in the Rebecca Brook's case?

I wonder if she will write a "tell all" article if she "goes" down.

Could be interesting reading.

On the subject of Kerry!!

Hazyone,

Post 42037

You appear to be judging others by your own standards and motivations.

Kerry sounds like Donald Rumsfeld .

Why did we have to have the Amricans with all the power and the Arabs with all the oil ?

would you rather the reverse?