Statistics today from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) further expose the scale of poverty in the UK. They show that, despite interventions such as the furlough scheme, lockdowns are helping push many families “to the brink”.
Food
“Food – good food – is not a luxury, and there is nothing you can do, no one you can be, that justifies being deprived of it. The matter must be put beyond question.”
Sean Bell: Food is everything
Last week, North Edinburgh Arts opened up a new ‘Pennywell Pantry’. For a weekly membership of £3.50, members of the Pantry will be able to choose a selection of food with a value of £15-£20 each week. The Pantry is laid out just like a small super-market, where people go in and select items for their […]
Community solidarity will be needed to survive the coming weeks and months
There is a constitutional curiosity in the UK Government’s Internal Market Bill which professor Michael Keatings, Centre for Constitutional Change director, has identified, and is worth reflecting on. Until now the UK Government operated a system of powers which was fundamentally different from that of the EU. Some powers are reserved and some are devolved, but […]
Britain’s new unitary state
“We shouldn’t have a society where, in the space of a few short weeks, people are unable to feed themselves.”
‘Food for Good’, not just for lockdown.
Food. Everyone needs it. It’s one of those universal essentials that goes on regardless of a pandemic. But most of us are so used to getting it on our plate that we don’t worry about it how it got there, and whether the mechanisms which led it to get there are resilient. There is growing […]
Chickens coming home to roost
Local knowledge is key to dealing with community’s basic needs during crisis, but the government should be doing everything they can to provide funding and support, in order to protect society’s most vulnerable people.