Lib Dem MP for Brent Central Sarah Teather will be part of a hunger-fast relay today in protest at what she describes as the coalition government’s “wilful indifference to the hunger of its citizens”. Here’s an excerpt of what she’s written for the Huffington Post:
I shall be fasting as part of the End Hunger Fast Relay. I pick up the baton from the Bishop of Salisbury tonight and pass it on to a Quaker leader on Sunday as we take part in an act of community solidarity with the thousands of British people who go hungry each day because they cannot afford to buy food. …
Much of the desperation my staff and I see in my constituency is caused directly by benefit changes and sanctions. Cuts, caps, and changes to eligibility criteria have all hit people hard and often in cumulative ways, all exacerbated by the new attitude towards claimants, which is driven right from the top. An attitude that presumes each person who claims benefit is scrounging, work shy, or just plain lying about their need for support. An attitude that justifies revoking benefits with no notice and no investigation and delaying correcting the error for months on end.
The stories of inhuman cruelty and anguish this causes for real people should shake everyone’s pride in Britain today. Take the young woman from my constituency who had all her benefits revoked last year when six months pregnant and not reinstated until weeks after she had given birth. But her troubles did not end there, as just a few months later, they were revoked again on the same erroneous charge and she had to begin appealing from scratch. …
Taking part in the End Hunger Fast is about standing in solidarity with those who can’t afford to pay for food. It is about challenging the shame that is heaped on those in poverty and saying,” we, your neighbours, think you deserve better and we want things to change”.
You can read Sarah’s piece in full here.
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12 Comments
Sarah, you are a woman of courage.
Good for you Sarah. Shame there are not more like you
I expect my comment will not make it past Lib Dem Voice moderators but will try anyway.
Why is Teather highlighting people going hungry when churches, charities and caring people are pointing out the increase in people going hungry/cold under the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition’s ‘reforms’ and cuts ?
Should she not be speaking out against her own party’s apparent complicity in creating hunger & resigning the party whip ?
Mea Culpa…..
Teather is protesting as every Lib Dem should.
But my point still stands – Teather should resign as a real protest.
I would rather see MP’s across the board live for one week on the food they could purchase with ammount people on ESA receive. I bet most wouldn’t make it till lunchtime day 1
Well done, Sarah Teather.
And whoever the person calling himself “Sandy” is — maybe he could just eat his words.
“Cuts, caps, and changes to eligibility criteria have all hit people hard and often in cumulative ways, all exacerbated by the new attitude towards claimants, which is driven right from the top. ”
Most of the need seems to be driven by inappropriate application of the criteria for benefits – due to maladministration – and by sanctions, often wrongly applied. As for “cuts”, working age benefits were uprated by 3.1% in 2011, 5.2% in 2012, in line with inflation and 1% in 2013, just 1.4% below the rate of inflation. That’s nearly a 10% increase over three years.
As for “caps”, there’s only one cap, the £26,000 a year cap. Is she saying people can’t sustain themselves on the equivalent of a pre-tax salary of nearly £34,000?
Shouldn’t Sarah Teather be focusing on campaigning to improve the systems of administration and the training the staff receive to avoid poor decision-making and inappropriate sanctions, where there really is a problem, rather than making generalised claims about benefits funding that rarely stand up to closer scrutiny?
Sarah, I still feel that you have courage. What you are stating is the truth, I so feel, that there has been some rather sad comments on the subject of those who are hungry.
Getting food from the “food banks” is not easy, I know, I too have heard some stories.
I wish you well in what ever you chose to do next, so easy to make comments, when you are not in the same position.
@Sandy “But my point still stands – Teather should resign as a real protest”.
She only has a 3% majority Sandy. Are you seriously inviting Labour to take Brent Central?
“Is she saying people can’t sustain themselves on the equivalent of a pre-tax salary of nearly £34,000?”
Well, perhaps you can answer a question.
If a family was deemed to require more than that amount to live on before the cap was introduced, do you think their requirements have magically decreased since then? Or do you perhaps have the idea that benefits in general are over-generous, and that all claimants are being given more money than they need? In which case how on earth is it an appropriate response to reduce the benefits of the unlucky few affected by the cap, and leave all the rest unchanged?
Try to give us a justification for this policy which is a bit more rational than a tabloid headline, please.
As for “caps”, there’s only one cap, the £26,000 a year cap.
And if you think that, you should educate yourself by reading this:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2012/feb/16/housing-benefit-cap-families-central-london
We passed the food poverty motion. The party membership does care about this issue. I wish Sarah could have felt comfortable delivering these arguments from the conference stage as well. We could do with a vocal conscience figurehead right now.