Inequality

[Kepler-186]

59 minutes ago, Creator Supreme said:

If they don't have the correct uniform including the rucksack they will be excluded! Permanently if they repeatedly break the uniform rules. Fucking pathetic isn't it?

 

I note all these trusts have about 8 to 10 or so academies and they pool the budgets for all schools. The best performing 2-3 get massive chunks of the budget, the rest get left to rot!

Sounds like you need to put on your Echo compo face and drag the school’s name publicly a bit,  they normally change tack. It’s a racket if you can’t choose your own accessories or ASDA equivalents for uniform. 
 

In other news they’re proposing to cut special education budget.

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/10/revealed-covert-deal-to-cut-help-for-pupils-in-england-with-special-needs

 

 

 

[Creator Supreme]

2 minutes ago, Kepler-186 said:

Sounds like you need to put on your Echo compo face and drag the school’s name publicly a bit,  they normally change tack. It’s a racket if you can’t choose your own accessories or ASDA equivalents for uniform. 
 

In other news they’re proposing to cut special education budget.

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/10/revealed-covert-deal-to-cut-help-for-pupils-in-england-with-special-needs

 

 

 

Can't do the Echo compo face mate, I've got resting ugly bastard face, that's my only option.

 

The cuts to SEND budgets are sickening. 2 of my kids have been diagnosed with autism, and the youngest is still in school. The idea the budgets to help her and kids lime her are being cut is horrifying.

[Kepler-186]

2 minutes ago, Creator Supreme said:

Can't do the Echo compo face mate, I've got resting ugly bastard face, that's my only option.

 

The cuts to SEND budgets are sickening. 2 of my kids have been diagnosed with autism, and the youngest is still in school. The idea the budgets to help her and kids lime her are being cut is horrifying.

I know you’ve mentioned about your kids, it must be tough. Friend of mine’s lad has autism and she really had to fight to get him help, coached him through exams but he’s got through “school”

and is about to start a uni course. 
 

Crap about the buses too, they still put them on round mine but that’s cos they shut and demolished a few old schools to build houses so kids go miles from their own area.

 

 

 

[Creator Supreme]

51 minutes ago, Kepler-186 said:

I know you’ve mentioned about your kids, it must be tough. Friend of mine’s lad has autism and she really had to fight to get him help, coached him through exams but he’s got through “school”

and is about to start a uni course. 
 

Crap about the buses too, they still put them on round mine but that’s cos they shut and demolished a few old schools to build houses so kids go miles from their own area.

 

 

 

Same here - they ran the buses for 4 years, then withdrew them as they didn't want to pay for them any longer.

 

My lad finished school, got 1 decent GCSE I think (fucker tells me nothing) but has spent the past 2 years mostly in the house. He refuses to engage with anyone who may be able to help him as he is convinced nothing will work for him!

[AngryOfTuebrook]

[VladimirIlyich]

10 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

They are literally 'The Enemy Within.' How sane people refuse to see this (billionaires apart) is the biggest enigma of the United Kingdom. Of course deliberately running down state education and denigrating immigrants will generally divert attention from oneselves towards others without the means to fight back.

[Rushies tash]

1 minute ago, VladimirIlyich said:

They are literally 'The Enemy Within.' How sane people refuse to see this (billionaires apart) is the biggest enigma of the United Kingdom. Of course deliberately running down state education and denigrating immigrants will generally divert attention from oneselves towards others without the means to fight back.

 

Denigrating immigrants isn't as catchy as "stop the boats". Maybe that's why stupid cunts keep voting for them.

[Arniepie]

34 minutes ago, AngryOfTuebrook said:

Apparently it will save his kids about £33m

[Jairzinho]

Apologies if already posted elsewhere.

 

 

[Arniepie]

 

there was a thread on twitter the other day where a tory MP (80k a year,average about 120 days a days) calling people who are off sick, lazy, and a big chunk of replies agreed with him.

That is the type of serf mentality we have in this country. 

[Anubis]

20 hours ago, Arniepie said:

That is the type of serf mentality we have in this country. 

That’s the problem, right there. We are a nation of doffers.

[Kepler-186]

About Manchester but applies across the UK. 

 

https://www.bigissue.com/news/environment/hostile-architecture-design-manchester/
 

How gentrification and hostile architecture has pushed out the working class

 

Gentrification has pushed out poor and working-class residents from Manchester’s city centre, concealing the consequences of hostile design

BRONTË SCHILTZ 

13 Oct 2023

Stevenson Square, Manchester

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City centres have to be more inclusive and accessible for everyone. Manchester’s Northern Quarter has a reputation for bohemianism; home to record shops and independent music venues, the Quarter is lined with street art celebrating the city’s uniqueness. 

 

But beneath the veneer of progressivism lies a harsher reality: the area is fast becoming a poster child for gentrification, pushing out poor and working-class residents and concealing the fatal consequences of inequality.

 

This is the subject of The Modern History of the Northern Quarter, a walking tour run by placemaker Hayley Flynn under the name Skyliner. 

 

Flynn delved into some of the most striking examples of the area’s failures to protect its residents and visitors amid rising costs of living – an increasing problem in city centres across the UK. There is hostile design all around us, invisible until we learn where to look.

Wholesale Fish Market

Once a thriving covered space, Wholesale Fish Market is now an open, empty square. 

“When it was a market, sex workers would come here because it was busy and they felt safe, and it’s always been an anchor for working-class people,” Flynn says. “There was a night asylum entrance, so if you were homeless, you could come and sleep here. 

 

“But now, it’s a really barren space – and it’s been designed that way. The gate’s open today, but that’s hugely rare. [The council] lock it as much as they can and there are signs about CCTV, but the planning permission was granted based on this being public realm.” 

Accessing the space requires a code, but when Flynn requested it for her tours, she was told by residents of the surrounding flats that “we can’t because of homeless people” who might seek solace on the market’s benches, if they knew they were there. 

“It’s a hostile design – if you’re stood by the gate, you can’t see that there’s anywhere to sit because the benches are hidden,” says Flynn. 

In the centre of the square, now in a state of disrepair, a plaque reads: “In Memory of Julie Margret Jones Found July 1998 Sadly Missed R.I.P. All Our Love Mum & Family.”  

“Julie Jones was a sex worker, and her body was found here,” Flynn says. “Effectively, the council used her death to say, something bad happened here; they used sex workers and homeless people, working-class people, as leverage, and because that gate is almost always closed, her family can’t even come to her official plaque.” 

William Fairburn Way

 

On the corner of William Fairburn Way and Copperas Street, adjacent to the market, the corner of a residential building is lined with tasteful wood panelling – but if you look on Google Earth, you will see an open space bracketed by pillars and covered by a first-floor balcony. 

“Two homeless people died there in the last couple of years,” Flynn explains, resulting in the proprietors covering the space so that people could no longer shelter there. 

“I just find that so tricky – that the default is: ‘If they’re not here, the problem is removed.’ There’s such an onus put on city design as a means to fix all the problems and push them aside.” 

 

Thomas Street

Opened by Prince Charles in 1981, social housing was built on the roof of Manchester Arndale shopping centre, which “near enough doubled housing figures for the city centre”, Flynn says. 

At this time, local businesses were closing, unable to compete with the Arndale, and the area was falling into disrepair – and disrepute. But as creatives moved into the new housing, the council made efforts to rejuvenate the area. This included the construction of an art trail. 

Back when the trail was first in development, “There was a plan to introduce benches and things that you need to improve an area,” Flynn says. “But that was too expensive, so they fell back on just the art. But people came back and said, ‘You have to put some benches in or you’re not having the art,’ and where that happened on a big scale was here” – on the corner of Thomas Street and John Street. 

 

Today, though, there are no benches to be seen. 

“One set of benches was set fire to a few years back,” Flynn explains, “and all of them were then removed. Because it was a homeless person who did that, the council said that they can’t have space here, so now people rest on the wall.” 

This notion of punishing a large demographic – in January, 7,407 people were known to be experiencing homelessness in Manchester, or 1.35% of the local population – for the actions of an individual is prevalent among the decisions that lead to hostile planning of city centres. 

The square now features a statue of a broom to celebrate the city’s street sweepers. “So all these pieces of art are about people without much money,” says Flynn, noting the irony.

Brightwell Walk 

Nearby Brightwell Walk is home to social housing built in the late 1970s. “Some of the residents have been here since they were built,” Flynn says. “But because of right to buy, a lot of them became privately owned, and a lot of those became Airbnbs – and that’s a huge issue. 

“Aside from removing social housing, it’s pushing social tenants out because these units are really small, but the Airbnb listings say, ‘Sleeps upwards of 10 people’, so they’re not explicitly saying, ‘Come and party,’ but they are saying that.” 

 

Nearby, a stretch of sheltered ground big enough for someone to sleep under is blocked off with a metal gate and filled with litter. Beside it is a key safe of the type used for Airbnb properties. 

 

Stevenson Square

 

Stevenson Square (main picture) was once the epicentre of Manchester’s radical politics. “This was the official meeting place for the suffragettes,” Flynn says. “Any protest started here. 

“It was also known as Speakers’ Corner, because in the Victorian era, there was a tax on paper so poor people couldn’t afford newspapers, so people would set up a stage here and read the papers every day. We’re only a radical city because of Stevenson Square.” 

But now, it is commercialised, inaccessible and even dangerous. 

The streets are lined with boards advertising trendy bars, but seating is reserved for money spenders, and the arrangement leaves the uneven pavement unusable for wheelchair users, parents with pushchairs and others with limited mobility. 

“The pedestrianisation has left it less accessible than it ever was,” Flynn says. Bus stops were even sold to bars to make space for additional seating. That has resulted in the removal of bus shelters, taking away the only free seating “in what is supposedly a public square”. 

 

Flowerbeds now take the place of former benches, but “they are regularly used to stash knives in,” Flynn says. “What’s the danger of having a bench? There’s nothing more antisocial than not allowing people space to rest.” 

Flynn notes the city’s attachment to Factory Records and Haçienda nightclub owner Tony Wilson’s infamous quote: “This is Manchester, we do things differently here.” 

 

“We do: we do things worse,” she laughs. “We don’t learn from the mistakes of other cities.” 

To learn more, visit theskyliner.org

[Section_31]

Fuck me, talk about sign of the times.

[Strontium]

[Arniepie]

The Tories have created a new poverty – one so deep and vicious it requires Victorian vocabulary | Frances Ryan | The Guardian

[AngryOfTuebrook]

[Anubis]

But lifting the cap on banker’s bonuses is the priority.

 

[Kevin D]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/14/millions-of-uk-households-forced-to-unplug-fridge-to-cope-with-rising-bills
 

About 2m UK households have been forced to turn off their fridge or freezer to save money as they continue to struggle with what poverty campaigners called a “frightening” level of hardship.

Nearly half of those households said that since May they had to disconnect their fridge or freezer for the first time, a sign the cost of living crisis was still hurting low-income families, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) charity.

 

Millions of families were still resorting to “desperate measures” to cope with rising bills and prices, it said, with four out of five households on universal credit also going without food, turning off the heating, and not replacing worn-out clothing.

 

The JRF’s latest cost of living crisis tracker survey found that in October a quarter (2.8m) of UK low-income households ran up debt to pay for food, a third sold belongings to raise cash, and one in six had used community “warm rooms”.

 

The findings come amid concerns among poverty charities that ministers are looking to reduce financial help for low income families at next week’s autumn statement by cutting benefits and winding down cost of living support payments.

The JRF said that although the government had allocated more than £12bn in targeted cost of living support, and inflation has begun to fall, 7.3m households had gone without food and other essentials in the last six months, suggesting the crisis was far from over.

 

There is speculation ministers could freeze the value of working age benefits from next April, which would raise billions for the Treasury but make about 9m households lose out on an estimated average of £460, and push lower income families even further into poverty.

 

Millions of families unplugging their fridges and freezers is the latest chapter in a long-running story of hardship. People risk becoming sick from eating spoiled food and going without healthy, fresh food. This risks lasting harm to the health of millions,” said Peter Matejic, chief analyst at the JRF.

“The picture isn’t getting better for low income families even as inflation starts to come down. Too many are taking out loans to pay for food, selling their belongings and using warm banks to try and get by.”

 

He added: “It’s unconscionable that the government is reportedly considering cutting struggling families’ benefits to fund tax cuts. In the upcoming autumn statement benefits must be increased in line with inflation and local housing allowance must be unfrozen to support private renters with their housing costs.”

 

Charities are concerned that headline falls in inflation levels, while welcome, will do little to improve living standards for the poorest unless benefits, the value of which has been eroded over recent years, are increased to reflect food and energy prices and private sector rents.

 

Low income groups most likely to be going without essentials are those dependent on universal credit; black, Asian and mixed ethnicity households; families with a disabled member and families with children, said the JRF.

 

 

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesperson said: “The cost of living payments have provided a significant financial boost to millions of households – just one part of the record £94bn support package we have provided to help with the rising cost of bills.

 

“This includes a 10.1% rise to benefits earlier this year, and we’re investing £3.5bn to help thousands into jobs – the best way to secure their financial security in the long term.

 

“Ultimately, the best way we can help families is to reduce inflation, and we’re sticking to our plan to halve it this year, taking the long-term decisions that will secure the country’s financial future.”

 

[Anubis]

“Ultimately, the best way to help low income families and get the country’s economy back on track is to have them die. This will ease their misery, and the burden on the country.”

[bossy]

We’ll thank fuck with have a record number of billionaires and multi millionaires or where would we be? 

[Anubis]

On 14/11/2023 at 13:22, Anubis said:

“Ultimately, the best way to help low income families and get the country’s economy back on track is to have them die. This will ease their misery, and the burden on the country.”

 

 

[Paulie Dangerously]

"sick notes will be approved by the benefits system rather than doctors"

 

So that will be call centre workers on minimum wage following draconian rules instead of medical professionals. What a shit show. 

[Anubis]

Well said, James. If anyone wonders who this guy is, he started a charity after the death of his son and is trying to live up to being somebody he hoped his son would be proud of. He and his team fit boilers and fix boilers for free for those who need help but have no money, and also do shopping for food for people who need help. Hugh Grant is a supporter. More humanity in his little finger than most politicians entire bodies.

 

 

[Anubis]

State benefits eh, Jeremy?

 

[sir roger]

Maybe the BBC could stop the poverty porn shit that it is constantly pumping out every morning and make a programme called ' Won't pay, we'll put you away '