Current Affairs The General Election

[zzr45]

I’m saying there are cheap resources that the poor are just too damn dignified to want to stoop to. Dry dog food for instance can be bought in bulk and can form part of a balanced diet. Plus it can give people a shiny coat and a lovely wet nose.

What about really crap multis? Seen any of those knocking about?

 

[Bruce Wayne]

http://ajrae.staff.shef.ac.uk/atlasofinequality/ was launched this week @abelard . It might be of interest given the nature of our discussion.

 

[orchard]

Even Lidl has edible fresh produce. Just saying like, and it's nearly always cheaper than a ready meal. One illustrative response when I've spoken about this previously was along the lines of "try getting your kid to eat that...", which is perhaps indicative of where the fault lies, rather than healthy food being expensive.

I really don't know mate. It's not always as simple as that imo. It takes time, skill as discussed above, fuel, and tools to render some of that food stuff edible like. I can see situations where the absence of any of those elements can prevent a wholesome meal reaching fruition.

 

[abelard]

More than a million UK residents live in 'food deserts', says study

Experts say areas with limited access to cheap fresh food are fuelling health problems

www.theguardian.com

 

[bluebark]

What about really crap multis? Seen any of those knocking about?

I’m not rich enough to own two personas mate.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Will reply in more detail when I have more time, but



that's pretty cheap.

You might recall that Mme Abelard is a social worker for the council (whose budget the coalition cut by more than half), in one of the most deprived constituencies in the country

Fair point, my apologies.

 

[tsubaki]

Do you think Labour are likely to do less? You've mentioned the railways for instance. If you stripped out the profit providers make at the moment and just ran things at cost, would Labour happily reduce the total spent on railways by x%? I'm struggling to see that happening to be honest, and suspect it's far more likely that the profit made today will go on higher salaries for employees instead.

Yes, because a lot of the additional costs now - franchise contest costs, legal fees (for contracts and disputes between contractors and NR, NR and franchises, franchises and the ORR etc) fleet hiring costs, track access charges, even driver wages* are either way higher than they were or didn’t exist at all under BR (or on a unified network like the French or German).

• not that they should be cut, but they certainly could undergo a freeze for a bit whilst the system is reorganised.

The reason driver wages are so high is of course down to the franchises not training enough for ages and getting suckered into luring each other’s staff away.

 

[orchard]

More than a million UK residents live in 'food deserts', says study

Experts say areas with limited access to cheap fresh food are fuelling health problems

www.theguardian.com

They need to adapt and become nomadic ffs

 

[bluebark]

They need to adapt and become nomadic ffs

There’s no need to be facetious pal.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I really don't know mate. It's not always as simple as that imo. It takes time, skill as discussed above, fuel, and tools to render some of that food stuff edible like. I can see situations where the absence of any of those elements can prevent a wholesome meal reaching fruition.

As per the above, I can only speak of London, but <anecdote> my wife tells me that even the very poorest and most deprived homes she visits have basic cooking equipment in them </anecdote>. I've no doubt there are parts of the country where shops aren't easy to come by, but aside from increasing welfare, what are Labour proposing to do about that? Various economists over the past year or so have advocated mobility vouchers to encourage people to move (mainly for work), but if food isn't available where you are, then it's perhaps not the best place to live. Are there any plans for this kind of thing?

 

[brigadier]

Bins provide locally sourced, readily available produce and if poor people could just got over their pride they’d have a free buffet every day.

You joke but people actually think like this and I know how they vote.

 

[zzr45]

More than a million UK residents live in 'food deserts', says study

Experts say areas with limited access to cheap fresh food are fuelling health problems

www.theguardian.com

Bit of an odd methodology- ‘Food deserts are defined by the report as neighbourhoods of between 5,000-15,000 people served by two or fewer big supermarkets’.

By that standard the entire town I grew up in was a food desert because we only had one supermarket. Enough smaller shops to count as an extra supermarket, but I’d wonder how many towns were similar 20-30 years ago.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

You joke but people actually think like this and I know how they vote.

A million tonnes of food waste from supermarkets every year. Who knew reducing that would be seen as radical rather than just good economic and environmental sense.

Food waste and hunger in the UK

Facts and figures about food waste and hunger in the UK. FareShare deals with these issues by redistributing good surplus food to vulnerable people.

fareshare.org.uk

Not sure equating that to scrabbling around in bins is all that helpful.

 

[bluebark]

Don’t think anybody was arguing against food waste being anything other than bad.

 

[roydo]

Don’t think anybody was arguing against food waste being anything other than bad.

As with a lot of things, ultimately down to well intentioned but OTT rulez n regs.

Cant recall having a multitude of stickers and dates on stuff at the butcher or the greengrocer.