Food poverty in UK has reached level of 'public health emergency', warn experts
Source: Independent UK
Food poverty in UK has reached level of 'public health emergency', warn experts
Hunger in Britain has reached the level of a public health emergency and the Government may be covering up the extent to which austerity and welfare cuts are adding to the problem, leading experts have said.
In a letter to the British Medical Journal, a group of doctors and senior academics from the Medical Research Council and two leading universities said that the effect of Government policies on vulnerable peoples ability to afford food needed to be urgently monitored.
A surge in the number of people requiring emergency food aid, a decrease in the amount of calories consumed by British families, and a doubling of the number of malnutrition cases seen at English hospitals represent all the signs of a public health emergency that could go unrecognised until it is too late to take preventative action, they write.
Despite mounting evidence for a growing food poverty crisis in the UK, ministers maintain there is no robust evidence of a link between sweeping welfare reforms and a rise in the use of food banks. However, publication of research into the phenomenon, commissioned by the Government itself, has been delayed, amid speculation that the findings may prove embarrassing for ministers.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/food-poverty-in-uk-has-reached-level-of-public-health-emergency-warn-experts-8981051.html
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)it looks like their politicians are as delusional as ours.
MyNameGoesHere
(7,638 posts)revolutions were never started by well fed and happy people.
LuvNewcastle
(16,847 posts)If they keep starving people over there, the British government is going to have a lot of trouble on their hands.
adirondacker
(2,921 posts)'Revolutionary' Protesters in Ukraine Take Over Govt Buildings
After weekend of mass demonstrations, police stand down as people take over central square, city hall, and call for general strike
- Jon Queally, staff write
"The hundreds of the thousands of street demonstrators who took to the streets across the Ukraine on Sunday show no signs of letting up as their calls for 'revolution' against the government of President Viktor Yanukovych were matched with strategic seizures of ground in the nation's capital of Kiev on Monday.
Kiev's Independence Square, according to reports, is now under the full control of the protesters who have set up barricades protecting the central gathering area. Meanwhile, key government offices came under occupation overnight with protesters setting up a makeshift headquarters inside city hall and government workers have been barred from entering their workplaces."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/12/02
LuvNewcastle
(16,847 posts)That's the only language the elites understand. Voting isn't doing the trick.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Berlum
(7,044 posts)totodeinhere
(13,058 posts)There is something wrong with this picture.
mwooldri
(10,303 posts)15 years ago, the words 'Food Bank' weren't in anyones mind. The citizens advice bureau would be looking to help with benefits and that usually solved things. Not now