You know, just every once in a while I come across some left wing loony spouting complete and utter bollocks and the steam starts to pour out of my ears. Yesterday was just one such occasion.
The well know bunch of lefties at the Institute for Fiscal Studies published a report on child poverty. They reckon that there are currently one in five children in this country living below the poverty line and that this is rapidly rising to one in four.
On the BBC news, an ‘expert’ from the IFS was droning on about how the last wonderful New Labour government – you remember; the one that dropped us all in this crock of shit in the first place – was tackling this important issue and that now the wicked coalition was in power they were undoing all Labour’s great work by cutting expenditure too quickly. What a cunt!
If that wasn’t bad enough, he went on and on about the poor cheeeeldren who get bullied at school because they have to wear their older siblings second hand clothes, and how middle class families were going to be about £2,000 a year worse off by the end of 2014, and how 400,000 more cheeeeldren will be in ‘relative’ poverty by the end of 2014.
Well, this is all bollocks, isn’t it?
Poverty is not when you can’t afford to put petrol in your car. Poverty is when you can’t afford to buy one in the frst place.
Poverty is not about having to prune your shopping budget. Poverty is when you can’t afford to eat.
Poverty is not about your children wearing hand me downs. Poverty is when they have no shoes on their feet.
Poverty is not about when you have to cut down on cigarettes, beer, eating out and holidays. Poverty is about when you can’t afford them at all.
The poverty line in this country is defined as when the income of a family with one child AFTER tax and National Insurance falls below around £15,000 per annum. Given that the minimum wage is £230 a week my message to these people is that two full time working people can’t earn less than £23,000 per annum so one of you needs to get off your arse and go to work to support your kids.
And here’s another message for you : Don’t have kids unless you can afford to support them in the first place.
And while we’re bleating on about the poor squeezed litle middle Englanders, let’s remember that these are the people who were given a massive income hike when the interest rates were cut on their mortgages.
Never mind the families who are going to be £2,000 a year worse off. Let’s spare a thought for the older generation who can’t afford heating bills. The ones who have saved all their lives so they could have a comfortable retirement and find their pension funds decimated and the income from their savings slashed.
Child poverty, my arse!…
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Dioclese 
I had to listen to that too Dioclese, Radio 2 about 12:30-13:00 with the presenter drumming up sadness by imploring his listeners "what we want are YOUR stories, call now to tell us how the recession is hurting you and YOUR KIDS" and then on desperation "or your extended family"What a bunch of special pleading cunts that brought on the airwaves. I switched them off.
Conversation whilst watching this bullshit on the news last night:Me: "So what exactly is 'poverty' anyway? What do they fucking mean when they say 'poverty'?"Wife: "Um, not sure".Me: "Is it not some Somali toddler with no clothes or food and flies all over it? That's fucking 'poverty' right?". Wife: "Yeah, I guess".Yaysus fucking christ!! These total cunts probably think 'child poverty' is not being able to afford a £30 monthly Blackberry contract for 12 year old Shaznay/Jordan/Tyler in-breed, chavvy, yo-wassup-blud-innit scumbag. I fucking despise these cunts with all my soul.Excuse me while I go and explode.
Oh how well I remember poverty, going to school in cut down boiler suit, with a pair of cast off, down at heel, US army boots, the other kids were all in the same boat so it didn't really matter.Underwear – you must be joking.Socks – fucking ha ha.Tooth brush and paste – do me a favour.Toys – we made our own.Nostalgic, maybe, but I worked my arse off for the next 50 years so that my kids would not suffer in a similar way, although to be honest I don't recall "suffering" in childhood. I laid aside a small amount for later years and all seemed rosy for the future. Along comes Blair and Brown who, with the conivance of the Tories and the Lib Dems, saw to it that I'll be wearing a cut down boiler suit and cast off, down at heel, US army boots at my funeral.Full circle. Fuck 'em.
The funny thing is, if you make this point, they'll claim that poverty is "relative, not absolute." Of course, what they really mean is, relative to the people around you, not relative to all people everywhere. I have no problem with poverty being defined relatively as long as it's universal, ie. you are "poor" if your income is less than 75% of the GLOBAL median income.Defining "poverty" by the people around you really is the politics of envy.