Food Banks and Ferraris

I recently listened to “Food Banks and Ferraris”, a song by Sally Ironmonger, a singer-songwriter from the Medway towns. This song is a social commentary on those who have and those who haven’t – and it really made me think. There are things that we as the general public see as a part of life. For example, going shopping in Maidstone, you will inevitably come across some people who are homeless, but this is normal right? All countries have people unfortunate enough to not have a home, so why should we be surprised that the same thing occurs here?

The answer to this question is that the UK is the 5^th largest economy in the world. In itself, London is the biggest financial sector in the world, with other large cities such as Edinburgh and Glasgow in the top 100. Why on earth are there people living on the streets in the freezing cold when we as a country are doing so well for ourselves? In fact, because of the increasing amount of homeless people, there is a record high use of food banks in the UK. The latest figures published by the Trussell Trust show that 1,109,309 three day emergency food supplies were provided to people in crisis by the charity in the 2015/16 financial year, which is an increase of 2% on the previous year. How is it possible that people living in one of the wealthiest nations in the world can’t afford to buy themselves food? And how have we become so self-involved that we don’t notice it going on right beneath our noses?

Let’s go back to the issue of the homeless, because I think that this is something that really needs to be paid attention to. According to the latest figures, there was an increase of 30% from 2014 to 2015 throughout the UK of rough sleeping, while since 2010 rough sleeping estimates show an increase of 102%. This means that on any one night, 3569 people are estimated to be sleeping rough. Is this acceptable? In Maidstone, rough sleeping is highly visible and there has been a tenfold rise in the number of households defined as homeless in the town. As I said before, I’m not shocked when I see rough sleepers in Maidstone – it’s become the norm. I should be shocked, but it’s too common. No one is immune to becoming homeless as there are many paths leading to this desperate place. What is the most shocking about the statistics regarding the homeless is that the average age of death for these people is 47 for men and 43 for women. If this doesn’t prove that we have screwed up as a society, nothing will. If we aren’t spending our billions of pounds on helping these people, what are the government’s priorities? However, it’s easy to blame people with more power than ourselves. What are our priorities? I could be out there fundraising to help these people, so why don’t I? We concern ourselves with the TV, celebrity gossip, where to go out for dinner etc. whilst others are wondering if they will get through the next night of sub-zero temperatures.

Now I’m going to go to the other end of the spectrum. In 2013 Ferrari sold more of its sports cars in Britain than in any other European country. This should give an indication of how wealthy we are as a whole. In fact, this year the richest 1000 people have more wealth than the poorest 40% of households. According to the Equality Trust, the richest 1000 saw their wealth increase by a staggering £28,508 billion – the equivalent of £78 million a day, or £901 a second. Just this increase could pay 20 years’ worth of grocery bills for all of the UK’s users of food banks.

From this article, I think we can pretty much say for certain that the gap is widening between the rich and the poor. Whilst the rich are buying their new 2016 model cars, others are losing their houses and in the worst cases, their lives. I appreciate that there is no simple solution, but poverty is real and here in the UK. More and more people are falling through the gaps in the welfare state safety net. It’s a disgrace. I actually really want a response to this article from any local politicians who are reading it. Why is the situation getting worse and the gap between the richest and poorest growing? And what do you propose to do about it? In fact, I’d like to hear from anyone who has any thoughts or ideas about this topic.