“Skipping is for people who fall out of the system... There was a strong feeling that we wanted to take control of our own lives and not be passive recipients of charity from food banks.”
Liza Van Zyl, explaining why disabled activists from DAN Cymru are running workshops on how to scavenge for food from supermarket skips.
I came across this article through a post made on Facebook by 'Where's The Benefit', a group who are campaigning against the government's distressing war on disabled benefit claimants.
The article was written by John Pring, a well known writer of the DNS, Disability News Service, and whose thoughts on current events that affect the disabled is widely thought well of.
As strange as it seems, I was not unfamiliar with the idea of raiding skips for food, as I have known, for some years, a group of people already reduced to doing this, when what little money they receive in benefits is used to pay bills, so that there is little to nothing left for such luxuries as eating.
To many people, this would be shocking, and they would be horrified to be asked to do such a thing but, for years now, there has been a whole society of people who have been forced to do this, or go hungry.
As I was growing up, and I was taught about the provisions that many of our forward-thinking leaders had set up in place, all those years ago, for those who needed it, I was proud to live in a country that looked after it's disabled or ill, it's poor, and it's needy.
It was probably very ingenious of me to believe that this state would continue, especially as I watched, over time, as our government changed from those old-time men who had worked hard, physical jobs for a living, and so knew what it felt like to have to work back-breaking jobs for little reward, into a whole government full of people who had no idea what it was like to need, or want, and so had no idea whatsoever of how their schemes and plans would disrupt, and then ruin, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people!
It was probably very ingenious of me to believe that this state would continue, especially as I watched, over time, as our government changed from those old-time men who had worked hard, physical jobs for a living, and so knew what it felt like to have to work back-breaking jobs for little reward, into a whole government full of people who had no idea what it was like to need, or want, and so had no idea whatsoever of how their schemes and plans would disrupt, and then ruin, the lives of hundreds of thousands of people!
I had been brought up in the belief that, if you are able to, then you work hard for your wages but if, through no fault of your own, you became unable to do so, then you should be supported by those who can.
As a factory worker, and then later, working in the catering business, I had done my job to my best ability, and had never demurred at the money taken from me in tax and national insurance - quite a high percentage, when I was single - because I believed that these were taken from me to support those less able to look after themselves. I had always had it in the back of my mind that, if the worst came to the worst, then I would be looked after by the very money that all of my family and friends paid out weekly to the government.
How little did I know that, by the time I needed help myself, we would be led by a government who decided to put the blame for all the financial problems that the country was facing, not to those who actually caused it, such as the bankers, and all of those firms who use loopholes to get out of paying their fair share of taxes to the country that made them rich in the first place - no, our government decided to start a dirty campaign against that group of people they saw as being unable to fight back - the very same disabled and ill, unemployed, low-paid, living in poverty group that our government were sworn to look after!
As a factory worker, and then later, working in the catering business, I had done my job to my best ability, and had never demurred at the money taken from me in tax and national insurance - quite a high percentage, when I was single - because I believed that these were taken from me to support those less able to look after themselves. I had always had it in the back of my mind that, if the worst came to the worst, then I would be looked after by the very money that all of my family and friends paid out weekly to the government.
How little did I know that, by the time I needed help myself, we would be led by a government who decided to put the blame for all the financial problems that the country was facing, not to those who actually caused it, such as the bankers, and all of those firms who use loopholes to get out of paying their fair share of taxes to the country that made them rich in the first place - no, our government decided to start a dirty campaign against that group of people they saw as being unable to fight back - the very same disabled and ill, unemployed, low-paid, living in poverty group that our government were sworn to look after!
First they started with a subtle media campaign to blacken our characters - making out through a gross misuse of figures, that there was widespread corruption where the claiming of benefits was concerned - apparently the ill and disabled are all claiming benefits that they were really not entitled to! (This was quickly disproved, using their own records)
Then the blackening of character came out in the open, with a variety of ministers publicly calling us leeches and scroungers - something that the worst of so-called newspapers picked up and carried with glee!
For every person caught red-handed at dishonest claiming, all the vitriol of the media was shouted full force, blocking out the voices of those who could give the other side to each story - the countless times benefits were overpaid, and the recipient let the benefit office know, or those who didn't claim what they were entitled to, because, by now, the stigma attached to claiming was beyond belief!
All of this has become a battle, played out mainly via the internet, or in marches and rallies that are very rarely reported by any branch of the media - unless, of course, there has been some sort of violence that, after all the fuss has died down, is normally found to have been started either by the police trying to kettle these groups, and being much more rough on the disabled people trying to protest than they should have been, or by people planted within the groups, to deliberately start something, so that the law can then use this as an excuse to stop the peaceful protest.
I have watched all of this unfold, and I can only see more trouble ahead, as people from all walks of life are affected by the cuts created by a government who seem to flounder from one unusable idea to the next - while creating their own nest-eggs for a time when they realise we will not put up with this any more!
The problem for those who vote, is that there is little to no difference between all of these career politicians any more so that, no matter what party is put into power, they will only be thinking of what they can do to grease the wheels of their buddies, rather than doing as they should be, and looking after the people who pay their wages!
Those politicians of old may have had their problems, but at least they had experience of the real world, and the problems that real people face - maybe it should become law that anyone who wishes to serve as a politician, should have at least ten years of ordinary, everyday work behind them before they apply?
You never know, it just might work!
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