Thread by @RoadsideMum

The last couple of weeks has been a bit crazy.

Reflecting on it, some things spring out for me, so I thought I would do what I do, and make a little thread about it...

1/

Apparently, almost no one in the media even went to a normal state school, let alone has personal experience of deprivation. That lack of experience is a massive factor in how the narrative is shaped. They honestly, truly, can not and do not understand us, or even know us.

2/

The situation in the nation's corporate boardrooms and in the corridors of power aren't much different. Exceptions of course exist, but those individuals seem to be rarities.

Fair to say those groups don't know us either and for the most part they aren't trying to.

3/

Working class, low waged or truly skint people face huge barriers to making themself heard in any sphere of influence.

There isn't a willingness to talk to us - Marcus Rashford got a meeting at the Dept for Education about my kids lunch but I did not - I asked repeatedly.

4/

Being on Free School Meals isn't even necessarily just for the skintest of the skint- about a quarter of children in this country have recently been on FSM and about a fifth still are. Even so, we have heard lots of well paid commentators talk about it, but few parents.

5/

Parents have been telling me that when they try to be heard they face multiple barriers including being ignored or ridiculed, being shamed, fabricated escalations to many and various authorities, harassment and being turned into poverty porn. That's just *some* of it.

6/

Journalists tell me they find it hard to get the trust to get the authentic voices into their work, they find it hard to make good work without those voices and poverty porn sells. They tell me editors are sometimes not interested and fresh angles aren't always easy, etc.

7/

With regard to the original FSM issue, Chartwells, boxes & vouchers, it's become beyond clear to me that there is no place for a profit to be cut from the aid we offer our most vulnerable. Why do voucher and box schemes exist? I agree with Labour, it should be cash.

8/

But when I think about FSM, I keep coming back to "how did we ever get into this mess"? By stereotyping, marginalising and ignoring people like me, and like thousands of you.

If there's hope for the future, it's going to need a lot more of us making ourselves heard.

9/

The fight for FSM is well and truly underway, but the concerns of the poor are many and various, it's not just this one thing where we need to be heard and heard properly, without having to fear being manipulated, used, and harmed.

It's going to need an army of voices.

10/

So where my head is at right now is, how to build an army of voices.

What is it that needs to exist, to make sure that you right now reading this from home can be heard safely, and that you right now reading this from the newsroom can get verified contributors?

11/

Then there's all the spinoff stuff, like what if you need a court order to protect yourself from intrusion, what if someone nicks your copyright, what are your rights and how do you make sure you are respected?

Plus what pay are you fairly due and how to get it?

12/

I've been thinking about how a bridge could be built between institutions with all the power and people who have none- (but who are the subject of the moment).

How to do it protectively, and sustainably? I don't have answers yet. Still working it out. Still listening.

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