Inequality

[VladimirIlyich]

38 minutes ago, Gnasher said:

Inequality, more good news,

 

 

Who'd have thought it eh?

[Anubis]

Just read the thread under yesterday’s tweet from that wanker who suggested a nurse should cook with a 50p bag of pasta.

 

Some of the replies about what poor people should do - usually involving the words cut, cloth and measure - just makes you wonder what proportion of this country are heartless wankers.

[Kepler-186]

11 minutes ago, Anubis said:

Just read the thread under yesterday’s tweet from that wanker who suggested a nurse should cook with a 50p bag of pasta.

 

Some of the replies about what poor people should do - usually involving the words cut, cloth and measure - just makes you wonder what proportion of this country are heartless wankers.

Good to see that Jack Monroe hand him his arse on Twitter though. 
 

 

[Scooby Dudek]

7 minutes ago, Kepler-186 said:

Good to see that Jack Monroe hand him his arse on Twitter though. 
 

 

I don't have/understand Twitter, could you kindly post a link.

I believe you 100% and really like Jack Monroe 

 

Cheers

[Kepler-186]

10 minutes ago, Scooby Dudek said:

I don't have/understand Twitter, could you kindly post a link.

I believe you 100% and really like Jack Monroe 

 

Cheers

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/04/12/jack-monroe-rebuttal-of-ignorant-take-on-food-poverty/
 

Here’s an article on it, and the tweet below is her reply to the Tory prick yesterday. You can then see subsequent replies when you click into it. I agree, she’s ace! 
 

 

[VladimirIlyich]

42 minutes ago, Anubis said:

Just read the thread under yesterday’s tweet from that wanker who suggested a nurse should cook with a 50p bag of pasta.

 

Some of the replies about what poor people should do - usually involving the words cut, cloth and measure - just makes you wonder what proportion of this country are heartless wankers.

All those who voted tory for starters.

[Arniepie]

10 minutes ago, Kepler-186 said:

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/04/12/jack-monroe-rebuttal-of-ignorant-take-on-food-poverty/
 

Here’s an article on it, and the tweet below is her reply to the Tory prick yesterday. You can then see subsequent replies when you click into it. I agree, she’s ace! 
 

 

Applauds 

[Scooby Dudek]

2 hours ago, Kepler-186 said:

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2022/04/12/jack-monroe-rebuttal-of-ignorant-take-on-food-poverty/
 

Here’s an article on it, and the tweet below is her reply to the Tory prick yesterday. You can then see subsequent replies when you click into it. I agree, she’s ace! 
 

 

Cheers for that.

Here is her full reply via her blog. 

 

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2022/04/12/its-not-about-the-pasta-kevin-jack-monroe/

[Kepler-186]

40 minutes ago, Scooby Dudek said:

Cheers for that.

Here is her full reply via her blog. 

 

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2022/04/12/its-not-about-the-pasta-kevin-jack-monroe/

She’s spot on there, very telling about the design of UC, too. 

[Anubis]

1 hour ago, Scooby Dudek said:

Cheers for that.

Here is her full reply via her blog. 

 

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2022/04/12/its-not-about-the-pasta-kevin-jack-monroe/

That is a tour de force piece of writing. I’d urge everyone to read it and pass it on to as many people as possible.

[Arniepie]

5 hours ago, Scooby Dudek said:

Cheers for that.

Here is her full reply via her blog. 

 

https://cookingonabootstrap.com/2022/04/12/its-not-about-the-pasta-kevin-jack-monroe/

I was going to.ask why Is the Labour party not Full 0f people as erudite and angry as that but they would probally be hounded out of politics by the daily mail for being dangerous radicals  

[sir roger]

9 hours ago, Arniepie said:

I was going to.ask why Is the Labour party not Full 0f people as erudite and angry as that but they would probally be hounded out of politics by the daily mail for being dangerous radicals  

Or by Starmer

[Kepler-186]

No peas? 

[Kepler-186]

On 13/04/2022 at 15:06, Kepler-186 said:

No peas? 

Supposed to be some pictures of the efforts the 50p bag of pasta crew had come up with, but it’s not there! 

[Kepler-186]

Top read from The Post. 
 

Perhaps this model would work rolled out into a hub school where groups of kids could come in maybe once a fortnight for art, reading, fun activities but with the overall view of improving their outlook on schooling in general. It might open things up for communities and change perceptions. 

 

The club where Liverpool’s poorest children are embracing art

'It’s really valuable to have a space where they don’t have to worry'

 

By Mollie Simpson 

In a grand reception room in the Bluecoat, ten-year-olds Georgia and Jasmine are making matching t-shirts. They stain red and black ink over white fabric, torn to create arm holes, and write the letters BFF on the front.

“What does BFF stand for?” I ask.

“Best friends forever,” they say in unison.

Georgia and Jasmine might never have met — they’re in different classes at school, but they came together through Out of the Blue, a weekly after school art club for 5-11 year olds from the most deprived areas of Merseyside. Three of the schools are in north Liverpool, one is in Granby, and one in Runcorn. When I met the group leader Gina Tsang in February, she told me the sessions were creating something magical, and invited me to attend a special Easter class to meet the kids.

Georgia starting on her best friend outfit. Photo by Sophie Traynor.

Out of the Blue began in 2014 when two artists from the Bluecoat opened an art outreach club in a shopfront in Broadway. Many families with young kids would turn up, some of them mentioning that there wasn’t enough for families to do in terms of art in north Liverpool. It can be up to an hour and a half on the bus to the Bluecoat or the Walker Art Gallery, and some of them had the impression that art wasn’t a world they could access.

That tiny, overwhelmed shopfront on Broadway made the team realise that for those families to have regular contact with the art world, it was essential to go out into the communities instead of expecting them to come to them. They identified schools in areas of high deprivation with little access to the arts and began bespoke sessions for kids who wanted to join, offering free bus passes so they could get there, with the aim of showing them that art is for everyone. 

Today’s session is led by Gina and Harold Offeh, a Ghanian artist who works in photography, social documentary and video. He often collaborates with children and likes to inject humour and lightness into his work, with more hidden, confronting questions about society. “I sort of love the idea they’re not intimidated, running around in this austere kind of period building,” Harold says, while we watch a girl named Kristina fly around in a cape. “We’re very aware there are lots of barriers for families to engage with art,” Gina adds. “When they come into the Bluecoat, which is this ominous seventeenth century building, it can be quite off putting. So we kind of work against that so they know it’s not as daunting.”

 

Gina grew up in Toxteth and describes herself as coming from a working-class background. Art was a constant presence in her life but she sensed the art world was sometimes perceived as a reserve for the privately educated. “Demystifying the art is really important,” she says. “It’s really valuable to children who might have a lot of stress at school to have a space where they don’t have to worry.” Since the pandemic, she’s noticed there’s more pressure on kids to catch up on school, more of a focus on assessments, grades and tests.

“For me it’s about them being able to see and recognise themselves,” Harold says, as Kristina tears past us. “They get to see themselves acknowledged. I feel it’s very critical that it’s not superficial. It’s not a luxury.”

It’s a warm spring day, and it’s the first time the kids have been invited for a big session back in the Bluecoat since February 2020. The weekly after-school clubs ran intermittently throughout the pandemic, and Gina worried interest was waning. But today, it’s a full house: they were expecting around 12, but 22 have turned up.

At the table by the window, Georgia and Jasmine have been working studiously on their designs for hours now. Jasmine tells me they skipped lunch so they could finish their outfits. “We’ve got a lot to do,” Georgia says.

 

Others are more autonomous: a girl named Hannah with a constellation of freckles and hazel eyes quietly works on a paper crown decorated with blue daffodils. She says it’s her first class and she doesn’t know people that well yet. The flowers in her drawing are tiny and intricate, with a precise quality to the way she draws each leaf and petal. 

Charlea, an energetic but shy girl with glasses and auburn hair in pigtails, sits next to Jamie, a friend from her class in school. She’s a massive Everton fan: her artwork is a series of felt stickers decorating a bright blue handbag. Jamie is a little more introverted and plays on his phone. He’s been coming since Year Four, and is handy with loom bands, a type of elastic band that can be woven into bracelets, necklaces and charms, but he confides in me he’s anxious about joining secondary school in the autumn and that he won’t know anyone from primary school there. Not quite knowing what to say, I point out that it must have been hard at first to make friends at Out of the Blue, but look at all the people around him now. He half smiles.

 

The latest exhibition at the Bluecoat came from Out of the Blue. The colourful inflatables in the courtyard, OK! Cherub! by Bruce Asbestos were inspired by an idea from one boy at school in Liverpool. He was normally confident, but felt hesitant to share his ideas. When he was brave enough to raise his hand and share his idea, that became the focal point of that school’s sculpture. “He felt so seen and valued,” Gina remembers, her voice going soft. “His confidence, he feels much more involved in the group. He comes from a large family, the mother just had twins, so to be recognised in the group, that’s really raised his self esteem. That’s a life achievement for anyone.”

These are kids whose parents are experiencing real challenges in their lives, but they approach their art with a lightness and optimism. “The families are facing all kinds of deprivations and we talk to them as much as possible to understand what’s going on,” Gina says. “A lot of stuff comes out in their art.”

We reach the end of the class and the kids do a “share”, a version of an artist talk where they stand up at the front of the class to introduce their work and talk about the inspirations behind it. Georgia and Jasmine share their best friend outfits, which culminated in two red and black t-shirts, pipe cleaner glasses, patterned socks and bracelets. A thoughtful boy named Ruben, sitting politely in round glasses and a green t-shirt, compliments their imagination and teamwork. 
 

A girl named Liliana comes up to the front of the class. She made a blue handbag, the straps woven out of multicoloured loom bands, hanging loosely over her shoulder. Jamie perks up. “How long did it take you to do the loom bands?” he asks. Not long, she says. She offers to teach him later and he nods.

Before the afternoon break, Gina asks the group what skills everyone has used today. Charlea is feeling too shy to share her work, but she throws her hand up. “I never gave up,” she says, sticking close to Jamie’s side. “I worked together,” says Jasmine.

At the end of the share, the doors open out to the courtyard and everyone runs outside to play. Gina pours blackcurrant squash into plastic cups. When the room is empty, we take a moment to look at the creations that some of the kids didn’t feel brave enough to share. A plastic watch with the time drawn on it. Hannah’s flower-embroidered crown. Blue roses drawn with crayon on card. A dusting of blue chalk, as thin as sugar, lingering on a paper crown. Everything is unique and imaginative. At the end of the session, they run back in, drink their squash, and carefully take their artworks home in their rucksacks, a little piece of themselves carried proudly on their backs.

[Anubis]

That's great. It would be fantastic if they could roll it out to more communities, or community hubs. I suppose cost and personnel is an issue.

[Duff Man]

 

And after you've finished paying that off, you can start saving for a house that's roughly eight times the average UK salary. Incredible country.

[Creator Supreme]

I've just been given a 3% pay rise which increases my gross salary by just over £100 a month, but at the same time my company is no longer paying a contribution to my utilities costs for working from home (fair enough), so that knocks £30 or so a month off the increase.

 

The best bit though is the increase in tax and NI. Thanks to all of this, my £100+ a month gross increase works out as a £9 a month net increase. I don't think that £9 is going to go very far in he current climate!

 

I know I shouldn't moan as I'm in a very lucky position compared to many people, but it does make me think, how long before somebody who's earning in excess of £50k gross per annum starts needing to use food banks?

 

How anybody on a zero hours contract and / or earning minimum wage survives at this time is beyond me! It must just be a life of constant stress over money!

 

Not to mention those who are unfortunate enough to be on benefits!

[VladimirIlyich]

11 minutes ago, Creator Supreme said:

I've just been given a 3% pay rise which increases my gross salary by just over £100 a month, but at the same time my company is no longer paying a contribution to my utilities costs for working from home (fair enough), so that knocks £30 or so a month off the increase.

 

The best bit though is the increase in tax and NI. Thanks to all of this, my £100+ a month gross increase works out as a £9 a month net increase. I don't think that £9 is going to go very far in he current climate!

 

I know I shouldn't moan as I'm in a very lucky position compared to many people, but it does make me think, how long before somebody who's earning in excess of £50k gross per annum starts needing to use food banks?

 

How anybody on a zero hours contract and / or earning minimum wage survives at this time is beyond me! It must just be a life of constant stress over money!

 

Not to mention those who are unfortunate enough to be on benefits!

If they manage to qualify for those benefits. It's easier to complete The Krypton Factor Obstacle Course in a Wheelchaid that qualify for benefits nowadays.

[Creator Supreme]

22 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

If they manage to qualify for those benefits. It's easier to complete The Krypton Factor Obstacle Course in a Wheelchaid that qualify for benefits nowadays.

Too frigging true mate, it's a disgrace what people get put through just to put a meal on the table!

[Section_31]

We're not getting a pay rise but they did put a coffee pod machine in the kitchen.

 

[Anubis]

6 hours ago, Section_31 said:

We're not getting a pay rise but they did put a coffee pod machine in the kitchen.

 

Wouldn’t get too excited just yet.

 

[TheHowieLama]

Flash back:

 

The caption read - John and Yoko waiting for the maid to finish the bed so they can go back to protesting the system.

 

[Section_31]

I see a new Downton Abbey film is out. Whay a whacky bunch we are, the idea that watching something where people are basically paid slaves for their 'betters' is considered nostalgic, feelgood telly.

 

It's written by a Tory peer of course.

[Kepler-186]