Walking in the woods near London last weekend, I discovered two more homeless camps hidden within the trees. That night, temperatures dropped to -6°C, today there's 3 inches of snow on the ground.
This is the reality of life for many vulnerable people in Britain today. 1/46
This is the reality of life for many vulnerable people in Britain today. 1/46
Over the last 18 months, I've discovered 8 similar camps in woods near my home, within 25 miles of London. Many of these makeshift camps (including these two), though well-hidden, are situated within 200m of a row of massive mansions, many of which lie empty. 2/46
The average price of a mansion on this one road is more than £2 million. Their huge gardens back onto the extensive woods & commons in which these desperate people have chosen to build their shelters because they offer thick tree cover & the best chance of going undetected. 3/46
I was shocked to discover these camps, and evidence of more that have been abandoned. Shocked and shamed by the juxtaposition of such enormous wealth alongside such devastating poverty. But should I have been surprised? 4/46
More than 4m children are living below the poverty line in Britain today. In the 6th largest economy on earth.
Since April 2020, 350,000 children in England are living in a household where someone has had to “skip a meal in the last week”. 5/46
Since April 2020, 350,000 children in England are living in a household where someone has had to “skip a meal in the last week”. 5/46
Inequality is greater in modern day Britain than it was in ancient Rome. In ancient Rome, the richest 1% controlled around 16% of society's wealth; today in Britain, the richest 1% control around 21%. 6/46
Imagine living in a country where every third child you saw was growing up in poverty. Now open your eyes. Because that’s us.
Anne Longfield, children’s commissioner for England, released a report last week. 7/46 childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/upl…
Anne Longfield, children’s commissioner for England, released a report last week. 7/46 childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/upl…
How did it come to this? The fact 14.3 million people live in poverty (22% of all people, 34% of all children) in the world's 6th largest economy is a direct result of more than a decade of Tory policies. 8/46 fullfact.org/economy/povert…
It’s entirely deliberate.
A homeless 17-year-old with mental health issues given a tent to live in by the council = Tory Britain: demonising the very idea of society, started by Thatcher, completed by Tories with MSM, Lib Dem & working-class support. 9/46 bbc.co.uk/news/education…
A homeless 17-year-old with mental health issues given a tent to live in by the council = Tory Britain: demonising the very idea of society, started by Thatcher, completed by Tories with MSM, Lib Dem & working-class support. 9/46 bbc.co.uk/news/education…
Police recently charged a homeless man for breaking coronavirus regulations for being outside. He was charged with "being outside of the place where you were living, namely no fixed address”. I’d say “you couldn’t make it up”, but the Tories did. 10/46 independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/…
Tories don't care about homelessness - they are not homeless.
Tories don't care about food banks - they don't use them.
Tories don't care about the NHS - they go private.
Tories don't care about you - they care about their bank balance. 11/46
Tories don't care about food banks - they don't use them.
Tories don't care about the NHS - they go private.
Tories don't care about you - they care about their bank balance. 11/46
Boris Johnson assures us he didn't burn a £50 note in front of a homeless man, and I for one see no reason not to believe the self-satisfied, dishonest narcissist. But if you look at their record, you have to understand that there will be no respite while they are in power. 12/46
With homelessness up by 50% since 2010, with rough sleeping doubled, with 120,000 children homeless, and a 22% rise in the deaths of homeless people in the last year, we have a right to be shocked.
And how Tories use our money is shocking too… 13/46
And how Tories use our money is shocking too… 13/46
You and I are paying this lot £300 each every day for the rest of their lives. Every one of them is already a millionaire, and all they have to do for that money is sign their name in a book. Imagine the effect of giving every homeless person a fraction of that a day. 14/46
This is how Tories spend OUR money. It's not spending, it's stealing.
You could feed 2,000 homeless people for one day for the same money just one consultant is paid for one day creating an app which doesn't work. 15/46 web.archive.org/web/2020101506…
You could feed 2,000 homeless people for one day for the same money just one consultant is paid for one day creating an app which doesn't work. 15/46 web.archive.org/web/2020101506…
Tory government has no compassion, because Tories have no imagination. They simply cannot believe that they could ever be in this position themselves. To a Tory, the homeless person is a slacker, a lazy good-for-nothing who gets exactly what they deserve. 16/46
As such, the theory goes (it’s not something they hide, they’ll tell you – just ask), there is no duty to help, that just encourages idleness. If people want to starve & freeze: let them… 17/46
No matter that those homeless people may have fallen on hard times because their employer went out of business off the back of Tory policies. No matter that many ex-services ended up on the streets due to ptsd, suffered as a result of government sanctioned conflicts… 18/46
Because we should remember, it is not just millions of ‘our own’ who are impoverished by the actions of ‘our’ government. Tories just sank £16.5 billion into the Ministry of Defence (‘offence’ really), making bombs to drop on poor people around the world. That’s what we do. 19/46
No matter that 50% of homeless people have suffered traumatic head injury prior to becoming homeless, it’s still their fault. No matter that many victims of child abuse end up on the streets, again, to a Tory, it’s their own fault. 20/46
Tories always point to just one part of the pathway leading to despair. Hence, drug-taking may be foregrounded as the excuse which allows government ministers to sleep at night, rather than the abuse & suffering which led to the drug-taking in the first place. 21/46
It’s a catch-all conscience clearer: “they brought it upon themselves; feckless layabouts, we’re doing them a favour leaving them to suffer, maybe they’ll pull their finger out now…”
But homeless people are not worthless. 22/46 bbc.co.uk/news/stories-5…
But homeless people are not worthless. 22/46 bbc.co.uk/news/stories-5…
And it’s also not just the fault of the government, or the traditional Tory voter; many more are to blame for the state of modern Britain.
In recent history, we had two great opportunities to put this kind of suffering where it belongs: in the past. 23/46
In recent history, we had two great opportunities to put this kind of suffering where it belongs: in the past. 23/46
The choice in 2017 and 2019 was basically:
> Boris Johnson gets rid of the NHS, or;
> Corbyn gets rid of food banks, homelessness, child poverty, zero-hour contracts, austerity, tax breaks for the rich etc.
That should have been an easy choice… 24/46
> Boris Johnson gets rid of the NHS, or;
> Corbyn gets rid of food banks, homelessness, child poverty, zero-hour contracts, austerity, tax breaks for the rich etc.
That should have been an easy choice… 24/46
But people decided the last election was the Brexit election. They forgot it was also the climate election, the investment election, the NHS election, the living standards election, the education election, the poverty election, the fair taxes election: the change election. 25/46
How did they forget? Why were voters so obsessed with one issue? Why didn’t voters care about other things?
The answer is at least partly due to mainstream media. The MSM wasn’t just busy bashing Jeremy Corbyn, it was also busy avoiding any issue which might harm Boris. 26/46
The answer is at least partly due to mainstream media. The MSM wasn’t just busy bashing Jeremy Corbyn, it was also busy avoiding any issue which might harm Boris. 26/46
Thus, in the first 3 weeks of the last election campaign, the subject of 'housing' registered 0.2%, 0.6% & 2.4% prominence in the MSM despite more than 300,000 homeless people in the UK as we moved into winter. Shows how much the MSM cares... 27/46 lboro.ac.uk/news-events/ge…
In the first 3 weeks of the last election campaign, the subject of 'social security' registered 1.2%, 1.2% & 3.0% prominence in the MSM despite 4 million children in the UK living in poverty. This proves that the MSM avoided the shameful record of the Tories... 28/46
Any news hack, politician or voter (who didn't back Corbyn) that mentions poverty, homelessness, NHS sell-off or climate change in the next 5 years had better be reporting good news, because I won't be able to stand the vomit-inducing hypocrisy if they say things are bad. 29/46
Jeremy Corbyn was slated as a ‘bloody commie’ for threatening to give up a massive country house to help the homeless… He is the leader we could have had were it not for the power of elites protecting their pile. 30/46 independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…
Priti Patel could gut a homeless person, Dominic Raab could shoot an immigrant, Matt Hancock could wave his little willy around in public & Boris Johnson could take a shit in the Serpentine before the MSM expressed anything more emotive than mild distaste. 31/46
Be under no illusions, the MSM is the enemy of change. Without the MSM’s dereliction of duty in terms of reporting the realities of modern Britain, the working-class traitors who signed up for Tory madness would never have done it. But they did! 32/46
It's almost 100 years since the 1920's General Strike. Working-class voters, fighting for their rights, voted in the 1st ever Labour government. They'd be spinning in their graves if they knew that 100 years later, working class voters would crown Boris & his Tory goons. 33/46
This was a dereliction of duty every bit as dreadful as the MSM Tory free pass, and the betrayal of Iain McNicol & Tom Watson et al. We now have to live with it. Including those people desperately hanging on in the woods near where I live. 34/46
When we move on, there must be accountability - not just for the Covid car crash, but for it all: capitalism, climate catastrophe, war, poverty. We need something new, & accountability starts at home. So if you know a Tory voter, you need to start educating them now. 35/46
We mustn’t only imagine a society where psychos and sociopaths are locked up rather than allowed to be in charge: we must make it happen. Because when we elevate the obscene to positions of power, everyone suffers. 36/46
People deluding themselves that politicians like Keir Starmer offer anything substantially different to the Tories is dangerous - it is what allows neo-liberals to continue driving us off the climate and poverty cliffs. 37/46
Starmer's response to a £16.5 billion increase to 'defence' spending was: “We welcome this additional funding for our defence & security forces & we agree that it is vital..."
"Vital" - during an economic emergency, despite no actual enemy and while people are starving! 38/46
"Vital" - during an economic emergency, despite no actual enemy and while people are starving! 38/46
Only obscenely wealthy privileged elites could imagine anything is 'irrespective of political differences.' How could the poor, homeless or bereaved have a Happy Christmas? Starmer literally helped steal a socialist Christmas last year. 39/46
https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1342193647543062533
If something is broken, you fix it, recycle it or chuck it. You don’t replace it with another broken part. We have to do better than Starmer… we have to do better than ‘centrist’ Labour.
So, what positive steps can be taken now? 40/46
So, what positive steps can be taken now? 40/46
Four things, 3 of which are immediately actionable, are vital: 1. Dumping Starmer’s Labour Party – Labour had it’s day, but is dead, we must bury it. 2. Finding a new party to get behind: there are lots of options, but no consensus (this may need more time to coalesce); 41/46
3. Friends & relatives who betrayed their roots have to be enlightened; 4. We must destroy the MSM. We can’t wait for legislation to remove the monopoly of the media barons, so we need to act ourselves. 42/46
Never buy a newspaper, never register with an MSM provider, never link or quote media without ensuring you avoid funding their propaganda, instead celebrate & support the rise in alt media… 43/46
The first step in liberating our democracy lies in destroying the hold MSM has over the political system. It’s time we supported media which reports on the real stories rather than protects the wider disease. 44/46
It starts with a story, this new modern Britain. The current story is old, and it won’t change unless we choose a new story-teller. So that’s what we must do. We need to support the true free press with subscriptions & disseminate their message. 45/46
Please consider signing up for one or more of the fantastic media providers listed here (there are loads more), and boycott the MSM. Please add links in comments if you know great sites we should share. My short list is on the next tweet... Thanks for reading. 46/46
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