Submitted by Tee White

After nearly 400 years plundering wealth from countries in every corner of the world, in 2019, the United Kingdom government is unable to ensure that all its citizens have access to such a basic human right as adequate food. See the report below from CNN. In November last year, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights stated about the UK, “14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty. Four million of these are more than 50% below the poverty line, and 1.5 million are destitute, unable to afford basic essentials. The widely respected Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts a 7% rise in child poverty between 2015 and 2022, and various sources predict child poverty rates of as high as 40%.  For almost one in every two children to be poor in twenty-first century Britain is not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster, all rolled into one”. See a link to the full report below.

This social disaster in the 5th largest capitalist economy in the world is a direct result of the application of  austerity programmes based on neo-liberal economic dogmas. If these dogmas can have such a devastating effect on a large economy such as the UK’s, what does anyone think their impact will be on a small, distorted economy such as ours?

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/20/uk/uk-food-poverty-hrw-report-gbr-intl/index.html