Minister for Hunger in supposedly one of the richest nation with fifth largest economy may sound absurd. But in reality Britain may not be listed in top twenty nations if prosperity is based on living standard and personal average income, reflecting the quality of life we enjoy. Those who have travelled extensively in Europe will not need any reminder.
Infrastructure that includes roads, rail, quality of housing as well as NHS is unbelievable in countries like Germany, France, Switzerland and especially in Scandinavian countries, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark where no one is homeless or sleeps on roads or have food-banks! Medical treatment is available practically on demand, no waiting list and no excuses. There houses are so well insulated, with wooden cladding and triple-glazed windows, as there winters are so bitterly cold. Yet their heating bills are much lower than ours!
Most of these houses, especially in Norway and Finland have Jacuzzi and sauna as standard, unheard in this country unless you live in a millionaire’s row! After we come back from visiting these countries, we feel we are returning to a developing nation!
Here some five thousand people sleep rough on our streets, in bitterly cold and wet winters, under railway bridges, shop doorways and any space that may keep them dry. No wonder their life-span is half compared to those affluent people living normal life. There are more food-banks now than at any other time since Second World War. Even those who are in employment, unlike unemployed, sick and disable people, like cleaners, waiters and even nurses who should be the most valued members of the society, struggle to make ends meet, needing regular support from food-banks to feed their children, feeling shamed and isolated while queuing outside food-bank outlets.
No wonder a group of MPs want government to appoint “Minister for Hunger” to study and help unfortunate people who go hungry, especially growing children. According to UN study, some 19% of under the age of 15, living with their parents struggle to buy food, suffer from malnutrition. This minister should also have the added responsibility to look after homeless and rough sleepers, provide them with roof over their heads and three square meals a day.
There is no shortage of money when we take care of the poor of the world, with our ever bulging Overseas Aid budget of some £14 billion, spending some ten billion building aircraft carriers and ten times that amount to replace our ageing nuclear submarines! The fact is our priorities are wrong, our isolated “Ivory Tower” living politicians have no clue how the other half lives. It is time for them to try to survive on the income of less than one thousand pounds a month with a family to support.
Dealing with our MPs all the time, I have no doubt that our MPs are kind, caring and devoted to their duties, always able, ready and willing to help their constituents, the best in the world, only their priorities are wrong so often!
Unless public wake-up, write to their MPs in droves, protest at our involvement all over the world, Iraq and Libya being the prime example, stop antagonizing Russia and China, especially Russia, as countries like Germany and France, pretending to be our friends, quietly cultivate close relations with Russia where French President and German Chancellor are regular visitors, stealing our trade.
Germany is even financing the pipeline from Russia to Central Europe to export their oil and gas to these countries. It is time to realize we no longer have an empire to rule and pretend to be the policemen of the world! It is time to concentrate on home front, remove poverty and provide roof over the heads of every citizen! With Brexit on the horizon, our lives will get worse before it will get better. But get better it will, especially we play our cards right, support our manufacturing industries, especially cars with £39 billion we will not have to pay if we leave without agreement and transfer funds from aid budget to support our economy!
Bhupendra Gandhi
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We know that each mainstream media have their agenda and will try to publish what the ownership want as narrative. Certainly Minister for Hunger sounds pointless but could be an answer to specifically look at real cases. UK foreign policy in line with USA tends to be based upon threat to national security hence participation in wars in far countries however since time of Vietnam war not a lot has changed and the changing political scene in developing countries make the politicians here react and unwittingly get invovled. Food Poverty can be addressed also by diverting funds to needy rather than those who take a lifestyle of dependency