I have just finished watching Dispatches ‘ Breadline Kids ‘ and first things first, these kids are heroes and their parents honest. The second thing is that I am so angry that today, in the Better Together UK, a teenager battling cancer has to rely on foodbanks and gets refused disability benefits because she was in hospital. The Gran who has given up her job to look after her grand-daughter having to face the disappointment of having to rely on food banks to feed her grand-daughter and herself, the Dad cashing in his coins. What kind of country are we living in when this is the norm for thousands of people.
Every NO voter and politician in Scotland should have to watch this programme, but would they care. Given that the highest areas of poverty in Scotland are nearly all in Labour MP constituencies they lost the will to care a long time ago. I am absolutely ashamed of this country tonight, we have money to fight wars and kill people but we can’t feed people, we have money for state opening of this and that, but we can’t provide enough money for people to live on, MPs can milk the system and not go to jail when caught and most of the people in poverty in this country are working. In my area the poverty levels of children in poverty are a national disgrace:
Dundee West 26%
Lochee 30%
West End 19%
Coldside 29%
There is no way that the UK, the Union is anything that can be defended anymore. I hate this UK more than I have hated anything in my life. I always say I don’t hate but that’s a lie, I hate a country that is happy to see kids go hungry. I challenge any NO voter who reads this blog to reply and tell me why we are better off together, most of us are one pay packet away from a food back, come on tell why I am Better Together. If I had my way I would force every one of them to watch tonight’s dispatches.
We should all be ashamed. We should all be disgusted. We should all be angry.
Here in Scotland we hear it all the time that vote Labour and we will fight poverty blah blah blah. All Labour MPs fight is their bank balance and their waistline. Tonight I am more convinced than ever that it has to be a YES and I can honestly say that I will never forgive anyone who votes NO, I won’t abuse you, I won’t argue with you, but I will pity you, I will not entertain you and I will never forgive you, esp the unionist I’m alright jack politicians.
I wrote to my MP Jim McGovern some time ago asking that he request an investigation into the rise of food banks, he didn’t even reply. Labour are a joke, do not believe their lies.
grumpyscottishman.wordpress.com 
I do so agree with you. I’m in Aberdeen so not the same poverty here but I too feel so ashamed of our politicians only SNP shows that things can be different. We can all help to change it & give EVERYONE hope for a better future not just the lucky few.
Mary
I am very aware of poverty as I work with young people and many live in it but the programme tonight showed us brilliant young people who deserve better, the unionists are not worthy of them.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
This was the clincher for me GPS
Pro union and a stubborn one too……No more
I heard all about it on the news and online but when i first met someone , a young lass with two kids , going to the local foodbank . I felt such shame . I can’t describe it other than deep shame. The food bank gave her messages but only later she admitted that she had no electricity to cook with. I made sure she and the kids would be fine by giving the small amount of cash i had. She was very upset but thankful .
If i thought i would be ok knowing the family would be fine for a few days at least , i was wrong. It took me days to eat myself and i still see that wee lass passing every now and again and things haven’t got any better for her. Every week is a struggle and we all know that there are so many like her. It makes me feel ill just thinking about it.
I served with our armed forces and took aid to many countries , helping famine, natural disasters victims and always thanked my stars that it could never happen at home.
But it does happen here . In a country so wealthy it is obscene . Many are the young folk with no jobs or hopes, but also disabled and infirm. It is so common now and our politicians who are paid to govern and protect us , blame them as the problem. Shirkers and slackers. Who would have thought that the people of this country would stand by and allow this to happen to the weakest , often children, of our society
Reading your blog reinforces my belief that the union has failed. Independence for so many is the last hope. A no vote means even more joining the food bank queues . Maybe myself one day. A YES vote at least gives us hope.
Thanks for the read Grumpy . I can’t say i enjoyed it , but there again i know i wasn’t supposed too. And i’ll be back for more.
Yesguy
It really is heartbreaking that we have come to this, in many ways we are back to the Victorian age and this vision is supported by the three tory parties. There has to be a better way to do things than what we have at present. The mood for independence would not be as strong if there were a westminster establishment ready to basically bring about devo max or home rule across all four nations but there is not, they are fighting to hang on to what they have which is basically absolute power over us. The fact is only a YES vote can start us down a process of change, one we will have to wrestle from all the Scottish Parties but with independence we have a chance to achieve that.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
I reached your blog after watching breadline kids and doing some searches.
It was a very upsetting programme – with amazingly articulate children – I’m sure I couldn’t have spoken with such understanding at their age.
I read you agree with Scotland leaving the UK. My mother was Scottish but as she died 58 years ago I have no idea what her views would have been. Her father was a miner in an undersea mine in Fife – but having had an English father (equally deprived) I am a hybrid who finds it hard to believe any politician.
I live in an outer London suburb that does have poverty and I have known it in my life too. The hated London really should be the square mile and the areas where the uncaring rich are – who have no idea how ordinary folk live.
What a world we live in…
Andrina
Even though Alistair Darling and the Better Together side, aided by the BBC , try to paint the debate as an anti-English thing that is far from the truth. I don’t know anyone who supports yes who would say this is about English people. If anything I feel sorry for Northern England as they face the same problems we do, also London as you have noted, but Scottish voters have a chance to do something about it. English voters , under the current system, are chosing the tories and right wing parties to the extend that they form the government. I know that not all english people feel this way but right now that is not going to change and Scottish people voting for independence might just encourage the debate in the other parts of the UK. For me this union is now at an end and is not the success they would have us believe, all it did was maintain that top 1% and the rest of us might as well be living in the 1800’s.
Thanks for commenting.
Bruce
Andrina
You have our sympathy. we know there are areas of England and Wales where the poorest are in the same position, the vast numbers down south would make it impossible to ignore. The only opportunity we have is this referendum , general elections have failed us for decades now , this is the one of a kind chance that may never occur again.
We have to be selfish and vote for a Scottish Govt that is answerable to us. This would never happen if we stayed with the union. Most people i know have family and friends down south and we hope that if we can show a better way a fairer way then i t would galvanize the rUK to push for changes too. From where we are we see only a tory /labour/ukip govt who will carry on it’s austerity plans and we have had enough. The union has failed all of UK but only Scotland has the option of choice .
A new Scotland will have it’s sleeves rolled up and we will build a better way . This i believe for folk are awake now. The apathy that infects voters everywhere has gone in Scotland . We are talking and sharing ideas and we will build a better country. Our politicians now know we are well aware .
Maybe you should think about coming north and reclaim your mothers roots. You would be welcome and most folk who come here stay . It’s a nice place with good people. I think you might find many people outwith Scotland thinking of returning. You can be re born in a country re born. You won’t feel out of place.
I fully understand your reasoning – chances need to be taken. Apathy amongst English voters in endemic – only about 35% voted at elections a few weeks ago. I actually voted UKIP – simply because I want us to be liberated from the the EU! ( I am now officially an ethnic minority in London) How can you trust any of them – I am still angry about benefit cuts and certainly haven’t forgotten about the expenses scandal.
Years ago we wanted to move to Scotland – we were warmly welcomed there when we visited. I was considered Scottish because of my mother and my husband ‘became’ Scottish by being married to me!
However, our – then young – son became disabled through a brain tumour and has since had 2 more surgeries for more tumours; a stroke caused by a torn carotid artery – and is now in kidney failure. I have been on dialysis and had a transplant – Scotland couldn’t afford us!
Incidentally we have had virtually no help from any authority over the years with our son – I felt awful about all those children on the programme, but could particularly empathise with the family with the daughter with leukemia.
Half of America seems to want to lay claim to Joan Crookston re the Tranent massacre – but I can too! Up my Mclaren line through the Crookstons, she was the sister of a direct ascendent. I too would have been up the front beating the drum in protest against the English militia – and would also been murdered I dareay.. I hate injustice..
Here are a few figures showing the places where at least 1 child in 3 lives in poverty, or in Willie Bain’s Springburn and Anas Sarwar’s Calton, around 1 in 2.
Springburn (Willie Bain MP) 51%; Calton (Anas Sarwar MP) 49%; Glasgow Centre East (Sarwar) 42%; Glasgow Canal (Ann McKechin MP) 42%; Drumchapel & Anniesland (McKechin) 40%; Glasgow Southside Central 38%; Buckhaven, Methil & Wemyss (Lindsay Roy MP) 38%; Glasgow North-east (Margaret Curran MP) 37%; Dundee East End (James McGovern MP) 36%; Sighthill-Gorgie (Alistair Darling MP (35%); Anderston-Glasgow City (Sarwar) 35%; Govan (Sarwar) 35%; Saltcoats-Stevenston (Katy Clark MP) 35%; Garscadden-Scotstounhill (John Robertson MP) 34%; Ayr North (Sandra Osborne MP) 34%; Kilmarnock South (Cathy Jamieson MP) 33%.
With the exception of Katy Clark who voted against and James McGovern who didn’t vote, all the MPs named above voted in favour of a cap on social protection spending in March. 32 Scottish Labour MPs voted in support of Ian Duncan Smith yet they are in favour of billions being spent on Trident.
The rot in the Labour Party might have become truly visible during the Blair-Brown years, but it must have started long before they corrupted it.
What a disgrace they are.
Iain
McGovern is West in Dundee but it just shows the years of Labour dealing with poverty, Better Together my arse and def No Thanks to the Union.
Thanks for commenting.
bruce