The social consequences of austerity economics have been most visible in Europe’s southern periphery. In the UK, the coalition government has brought in sharp cutbacks in welfare state provision in the name of dealing with the financial crisis. Their impact is becoming increasingly visible.
A survey by the Netmums website found that one in five mothers in the UK regularly goes without meals to feed their children. Thousands now rely on charities and emergency food banks to feed themselves and their families.
In the last 12 months the Trussell Trust, the largest operator of food banks in the UK, says it has fed 350,000 people – 100,000 more than anticipated and an increase of 170 percent over the previous year.
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British Prime Minister David Cameron has praised the Trussell Trust’s work, but food banks are a direct consequence of government policies that are designed to force people off benefits, regardless of consequences. Labour MP Peter Hain recently accused the government of “terrorising” the unemployed in his constituency by forcing them to choose between starvation and low-paid work.
The 19th century Poor Law system once had a similarly punitive and deterrent attitude towards the industrial poor. Today, hunger is a consequence of manufactured poverty in the seventh largest economy in the world, and the poor are once again being victimised and punished.
In these circumstances, food banks may become a convenient substitute for statutory assistance, enabling the political heirs of the late Margaret Thatcher to strip still further at the welfare safety net, in the knowledge that people may be hungry, but at least they won’t be starving.