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In case anyone is wondering...
Jan. 29th, 2015 05:53 pmQuoted from my friend Talis Kimberley-Fairbourn:
(Warning for suicide trigger)
* * *
'Sanctions' is the word the DWP uses.
What it means is: "You know that minimum amount you get in benefits, not quite enough to live on but you exist and your debts are only growing slowly? We're stopping all that. Live on nothing. Nothing. For several weeks. Or several months - we'll choose. Our call.
"Don't eat. Don't catch the bus to the library to use the internet. Don't have electricity in your home, even if you need the fridge to keep your life-saving insulin cool. Don't eat some more. Unless you walk to the Food Bank, and ha ha, you can't cook the pasta or the rice, can you? No electricity.
"Live on nothing. Or starve. We really don't care. We have targets, you see.
"So starve. Freeze. Despair. Kill yourself. That's what we mean by 'sanctions'."
* * *
So tell me, dear folk of this green and pleasant land, this kindly, fair-minded RICH country of ours - are you angry enough yet? Are you?
THIS is why I am doing politics. Because I AM NOT OK WITH THIS.
__________________________________________
And this is why I have been talking about politics, and blogging about politics, and making myself angry and depressed about politics, for some time; because I have seen this coming for thirty years, and every time I thought there was a possible other way, that someone decent was going to get into power, sure enough the pigs turned into people. And now it's happening, and people are dying, and it's possible someone reading this right now is thinking that it's right that they should do so. If that's you, read what Talis has written again, search your heart and conceive, just for a moment, that you might be mistaken.
There is one chance. One party in Westminster right now that is not okay with "sanctions." One party that, if it gets into power, will change this. None of the others will. None of the others will even try. I'm talking, of course, about the Green Party, and right away you're sitting back and making contemptuous noises, because obviously they've got no chance. Even their leader thinks they'll be lucky to get three seats.
Well, you can think that. You can certainly think that. And you can go and vote for your usual party in May, or vote for someone you don't agree with to stop someone else getting in, or whatever you do. Just be aware that you're voting for the status quo, and the status quo is that up there. The status quo is people dying of poverty in a rich country because the government wants them to. You are voting for that. Unless you vote Green, and tell everyone you know what is happening and that they should vote Green, and maybe put a sticker in your window or on your car. I'm sure there are stickers.
Never mind all the bullshit about dustbins in Brighton and the rest. This is life and death. Get the Greens into power in May, confound everyone's expectations, and people will live who would otherwise have died for no reason. I am not overdramatising, I am not lying, I am not deluded and I am not drunk. What I am...is angry.
Britain has one, very very slight, hope. You can tell me it's impossible...or you can help to make it possible. And if you choose the former option, please don't bother.
Vote Green in May.
(Warning for suicide trigger)
* * *
'Sanctions' is the word the DWP uses.
What it means is: "You know that minimum amount you get in benefits, not quite enough to live on but you exist and your debts are only growing slowly? We're stopping all that. Live on nothing. Nothing. For several weeks. Or several months - we'll choose. Our call.
"Don't eat. Don't catch the bus to the library to use the internet. Don't have electricity in your home, even if you need the fridge to keep your life-saving insulin cool. Don't eat some more. Unless you walk to the Food Bank, and ha ha, you can't cook the pasta or the rice, can you? No electricity.
"Live on nothing. Or starve. We really don't care. We have targets, you see.
"So starve. Freeze. Despair. Kill yourself. That's what we mean by 'sanctions'."
* * *
So tell me, dear folk of this green and pleasant land, this kindly, fair-minded RICH country of ours - are you angry enough yet? Are you?
THIS is why I am doing politics. Because I AM NOT OK WITH THIS.
__________________________________________
And this is why I have been talking about politics, and blogging about politics, and making myself angry and depressed about politics, for some time; because I have seen this coming for thirty years, and every time I thought there was a possible other way, that someone decent was going to get into power, sure enough the pigs turned into people. And now it's happening, and people are dying, and it's possible someone reading this right now is thinking that it's right that they should do so. If that's you, read what Talis has written again, search your heart and conceive, just for a moment, that you might be mistaken.
There is one chance. One party in Westminster right now that is not okay with "sanctions." One party that, if it gets into power, will change this. None of the others will. None of the others will even try. I'm talking, of course, about the Green Party, and right away you're sitting back and making contemptuous noises, because obviously they've got no chance. Even their leader thinks they'll be lucky to get three seats.
Well, you can think that. You can certainly think that. And you can go and vote for your usual party in May, or vote for someone you don't agree with to stop someone else getting in, or whatever you do. Just be aware that you're voting for the status quo, and the status quo is that up there. The status quo is people dying of poverty in a rich country because the government wants them to. You are voting for that. Unless you vote Green, and tell everyone you know what is happening and that they should vote Green, and maybe put a sticker in your window or on your car. I'm sure there are stickers.
Never mind all the bullshit about dustbins in Brighton and the rest. This is life and death. Get the Greens into power in May, confound everyone's expectations, and people will live who would otherwise have died for no reason. I am not overdramatising, I am not lying, I am not deluded and I am not drunk. What I am...is angry.
Britain has one, very very slight, hope. You can tell me it's impossible...or you can help to make it possible. And if you choose the former option, please don't bother.
Vote Green in May.