Dennis Benson

Back to rain and dark skies. I have just been speaking to a friend who is sitting in the sun at the Oval, here the only thing we are sitting in is puddles, at least that is where Albert landed when he slipped whilst carrying a basket of eggs. Thankfully the eggs survived, I haven’t bothered to check on Albert.

We were short-handed this morning, several of our colleagues having gone to church. We follow the Alistair Campbell line on the allotments and “don’t do God’, but I for one admire and envy those whose faith is intact. I always feel a great sense of outrage when eminent posers state that there is no God, or is for that matter. The human mind is incapable of understanding or knowing, it is a matter of faith or lack of it. The most annoying bigots of all are those who still question the crucifixion for that has been an established fact since the discovery of early scrolls back in the 1970s. Believe what you choose, but one unquestionable fact is that the greatest man ever to walk this earth was cruelly put to death on what we now call Good Friday.

We know that one of his themes was compassion for ‘little children’. Sadly one of today’s stories shows that we are failing utterly in that regard. For proof one needs to go no further than a batch of new reports from charities. The ‘Kid’s Company’, which supports children in London suffering from malnutrition, reports a surge in the number of young children coming to their walk-in centres, hoping not for shelter or safety, but for food. Parents are struggling to buy even milk, bread and pasta and the content of school meals has been reduced alarmingly.

‘Kid’s Company’ reports cases of children reduced to stealing from bins and eating raw meat. At  schools in five inner London areas almost 70% of pupils are reportedly fed little at home. The nightmare is borne out by FareShare, the national charity that distributes surplus supermarket food, which reports that soup kitchens, hostels and community groups are now struggling to cope with a huge increase in demand. A national survey conducted by ‘ Mumsnet’ has found that one in five mothers now regularly forsake their main meal of the day so that their children can eat.

 We live in the seventh richest country on Earth and many of our children are suffering from hunger. But the explanation is easy to find. Unemployment in many poorer areas is hard to find, and even before the Osborne budget, many families were struggling. Now the Institute for Fiscal Studies reports that the average family with children stands to lose £511 per year. Some low paid workers would be better off on the dole. And according to the ‘Resolution Foundation’, a young couple working 23 hours, looking after a child and getting by on £15,000 a year; will lose a fifth of their income because of cuts to working tax credits.

TV presenters like to use charts to show who is the worst off. They needn’t bother for the answer is obvious. It is the children of poorer families, the small people that most of us would prefer not to hear about. At the top of government there seems almost a belief that stories of malnutrition are an invention. David Cameron said last week that he has young children and wouldn’t let this happen. George Osborne echoed the sentiment. But both men are extremely rich, and seem to live in a fantasy world where the only hunger exists in socialist propaganda.

Does anyone really care? Can any of us, as we sit down to our Good Friday meals, really imagine what some children in the UK are now enduring? I find myself wondering what the man whose crucifixion we mark today would say about our society.

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NHS; LIES AND YET MORE LIES!

For some time I have wondered how it can be that every GP I encouter condemns the Lansley reforms, yet the man himself continues to claim to have the support of almost every doctor in the land. A new poll provides the explanation – Lansley is lying.

The BBC has conducted a poll of a representative sample of 814 GPs. 83% predict that the changes will lead to an increase in rationing. 87% believe that the changes will lead to private companies taking over many NHS services. 55% believe that the changes will damage healthcare and 33% are doubtful.

Andrew Lansley is in the process of destroying the NHS. He might at least spare us the lies.

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