Griffin wrote:Roy Hunter wrote:There is no demonstrable causal link between 'Austerity' and homelessness, but there sure as hell is a correlation.
The fact that no one has demonstrated evidentialy a causal link is disgraceful. We know that people are being made homeless by rent rises and bedroom tax, but no one can be bothered to prove it. We know that use of foodbanks has risen due to austerity, but that has not been proven either, so the government can just go on saying that more people love the food handed out by food banks or it's been made fashionable or more people know about them now, or whatever other rubbish they want to use to dupe the voters. I can't stand the lies.
I think it's more that the Government is deliberately avoiding finding the evidence. There was a debate last year in Parliament, asking the Government to investigate why use of foodbanks is increasing. The Tories imposed a 3-line whip on voting against it (if you're not familiar with this terminology, it means they made it mandatory for all of their MPs to vote against it). In the end 296 MPs voted against the motion, nearly all from the Tory side (names listed on the "A Girl Called Jack" website, if you're interested). When Oxfam, or the Tressell Trust (who run 100s of food banks the length and bredth of the UK) report that clients are reporting that it is Government policies that is pushing them into hardship, the Government just dismiss it as "political" nad still claim there is no evidence.
Parental volunteers at a food bank. Comes back with stories every single week about new clients who end up using a food bank because they've had their benefits sanctions for dumbass reasons (I remember a couple of weeks ago being told of someone who had benefits removed for 3 months for not attending a Job Centre interview - because they were at their child's funeral). It seems that it takes conscious amount of "not looking" to fail to see connections between Government austerity cuts and the rises in homelessness, poverty, inequality and food bank use.
CF