Duke of Edinburgh dies

[Citizen's Nephew]

I do wonder about that, really?

BTW IMO there is no one "close to home" or even living anywhere in the UK who has any experience of living in abject poverty.

Please, let's not do this - it's too depressing. My wife's background in psychiatric and social services means I've got to know of the most horrendous families and the lives of children and adolescents growing up in sexually and physically abusive homes. The home is still one of the unsafest places when it comes to child or domestic abuse. At least one child is killed a week in the UK

And the way the term abject poverty is used feels uncomfortably like referring to the deserving and undeserving poor.

Yes, child poverty is close to home - in Wales and even parts of Cardiff. Wales has the worst child poverty in UK.

Look, I just wanted to point out that there are other sides to all of this disproportionate wealth and privilege and that is irrefutable.

So, with respect, I encourage you to find out more about the issues I'm concerned with and I'll read a bit more about HRH Prince Phillip et al. You can't get fairer than that.

[Gofer Blue]

Please, let's not do this - it's too depressing. My wife's background in psychiatric and social services means I've got to know of the most horrendous families and the lives of children and adolescents growing up in sexually and physically abusive homes. The home is still one of the unsafest places when it comes to child or domestic abuse. At least one child is killed a week in the UK

And the way the term abject poverty is used feels uncomfortably like referring to the deserving and undeserving poor.

Yes, child poverty is close to home - in Wales and even parts of Cardiff. Wales has the worst child poverty in UK.

Look, I just wanted to point out that there are other sides to all of this disproportionate wealth and privilege and that is irrefutable.

So, with respect, I encourage you to find out more about the issues I'm concerned with and I'll read a bit more about HRH Prince Phillip et al. You can't get fairer than that.

I hope I would never be found guilty of using the term deserving poor! I have direct experience of what I would describe as abject poverty from times spent in Uganda, Malawi and (briefly) in India and also poverty in the UK as a volunteer in a food bank but I agree, let's leave it there, otherwise this could descend into a Dutch auction style discussion.

[Citizen's Nephew]

I hope I would never be found guilty of using the term deserving poor! I have direct experience of what I would describe as abject poverty from times spent in Uganda, Malawi and (briefly) in India and also poverty in the UK as a volunteer in a food bank but I agree, let's leave it there, otherwise this could descend into a Dutch auction style discussion.

I'm pretty sure we're on the same page and hat's off to the Food Bank volunteering

[xsnaggle]

Please, let's not do this - it's too depressing. My wife's background in psychiatric and social services means I've got to know of the most horrendous families and the lives of children and adolescents growing up in sexually and physically abusive homes. The home is still one of the unsafest places when it comes to child or domestic abuse. At least one child is killed a week in the UK

And the way the term abject poverty is used feels uncomfortably like referring to the deserving and undeserving poor.

Yes, child poverty is close to home - in Wales and even parts of Cardiff. Wales has the worst child poverty in UK.

Look, I just wanted to point out that there are other sides to all of this disproportionate wealth and privilege and that is irrefutable.

So, with respect, I encourage you to find out more about the issues I'm concerned with and I'll read a bit more about HRH Prince Phillip et al. You can't get fairer than that.

Trust me Wales does not have the worst child or family poverty in the UK, nor has it had in the last 50 years. I have seen families of 8 living in a 2 up 2 down with no bathroom ,a toilet in the yard and no furniture except in the so called sitting room. sleeping on matresses on the floor and taking it in turns to sleep because there are not enough matresses. Families that didn't bath from one month's end to the next, kids and adults with ringworm and scurvy, no food in the house, never saw fruit from one week to the next.
A 6 yr old boy walking around the town in the pouring rain at 3 AM because "It's not my turn to sleep.
I get annoyed sometimes when I think of what I've seen in this country and hear people shouting about poverty. I realise it is hard for them but they are luckier than they will ever know.

[Citizen's Nephew]

Trust me Wales does not have the worst child or family poverty in the UK, nor has it had in the last 50 years. I have seen families of 8 living in a 2 up 2 down with no bathroom ,a toilet in the yard and no furniture except in the so called sitting room. sleeping on matresses on the floor and taking it in turns to sleep because there are not enough matresses. Families that didn't bath from one month's end to the next, kids and adults with ringworm and scurvy, no food in the house, never saw fruit from one week to the next.
A 6 yr old boy walking around the town in the pouring rain at 3 AM because "It's not my turn to sleep.
I get annoyed sometimes when I think of what I've seen in this country and hear people shouting about poverty. I realise it is hard for them but they are luckier than they will ever know.

Please don't shoot the messenger - I'm only going on what I've seen reported and I totally get where you're coming from. I would say this though, you acknowledge that you realise it's hard for them and you're right, they're luckier than the examples you've cited, but for them, it's true of today and life is different, the demands are different.

Anyway, I don't want to get into this sh*t because as I mentioned in an earlier post it's too depressing. I'm trying to build bridges year and winging it!

I just want everyone on this thread to have a virtual group hug!

[Gofer Blue]

Trust me Wales does not have the worst child or family poverty in the UK, nor has it had in the last 50 years. I have seen families of 8 living in a 2 up 2 down with no bathroom ,a toilet in the yard and no furniture except in the so called sitting room. sleeping on matresses on the floor and taking it in turns to sleep because there are not enough matresses. Families that didn't bath from one month's end to the next, kids and adults with ringworm and scurvy, no food in the house, never saw fruit from one week to the next.
A 6 yr old boy walking around the town in the pouring rain at 3 AM because "It's not my turn to sleep.
I get annoyed sometimes when I think of what I've seen in this country and hear people shouting about poverty. I realise it is hard for them but they are luckier than they will ever know.

Leaving aside the argument as to whether Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK, what is classified as poverty in the UK is light years away from poverty elsewhere (as presumably in Azerbaijan?). I have never been there but I could show you places in Uganda or Malawi or India where you would weep at the way some people have to live. For me it was a life changing experience.

[SLUDGE FACTORY]

Leaving aside the argument as to whether Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK, what is classified as poverty in the UK is light years away from poverty elsewhere (as presumably in Azerbaijan?). I have never been there but I could show you places in Uganda or Malawi or India where you would weep at the way some people have to live. For me it was a life changing experience.

There is no argument, Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK

Some of the upper Bridgend valleys are amongst the poorest areas in Europe

The fact that there are kids starving to death or walking miles for water in parts of Africa means that there are kids worse off but isn't it very worrying that in the UK there is such a gulf in wealth ?

Kids in poverty in the UK die from malnutrition

Many more die from starvation in Africa but this isn't a race to the bottom

[xsnaggle]

There is no argument, Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK

Some of the upper Bridgend valleys are amongst the poorest areas in Europe

The fact that there are kids starving to death or walking miles for water in parts of Africa means that there are kids worse off but isn't it very worrying that in the UK there is such a gulf in wealth ?

Kids in poverty in the UK die from malnutrition

Many more die from starvation in Africa but this isn't a race to the bottom

Bullshit, it doesn't!!And as I said hasn't had for at least the last 50 years to my certain knowledge.

[xsnaggle]

There is no argument, Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK

Some of the upper Bridgend valleys are amongst the poorest areas in Europe

The fact that there are kids starving to death or walking miles for water in parts of Africa means that there are kids worse off but isn't it very worrying that in the UK there is such a gulf in wealth ?

Kids in poverty in the UK die from malnutrition

Many more die from starvation in Africa but this isn't a race to the bottom

Believe me, whatever the linked report might say, what ever some people have to put up with in the Bridgend valleys is nothing compared to what I mentioned. And I wasn't describing 1 house to make a point, I mean house after house street after street, each one just as cold dirty shabby and rundown as the next. And I had to live with the consequences for month after month, yeas after year, the consequences of people living in those condition for the whole of their lives.
I'm not going to argue with you because we all know you must know more about social suffering than everyone else on here. I just hope you never have to witness what I saw to make you realise you're not always right, much as it might hurt your ego.

[Gofer Blue]

There is no argument, Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK

Some of the upper Bridgend valleys are amongst the poorest areas in Europe

The fact that there are kids starving to death or walking miles for water in parts of Africa means that there are kids worse off but isn't it very worrying that in the UK there is such a gulf in wealth ?

Kids in poverty in the UK die from malnutrition

Many more die from starvation in Africa but this isn't a race to the bottom

Of course - the food bank I am involved with is testament to this. I know it doesn't fit with your thinking but what xsnaggle and me are trying to say is that there is no comparison between what we define as poverty in the UK (Wales, Bridgend or wherever) and poverty in places like Uganda or India where I would argue the wealth gap is much bigger and of course there is no DWP type assistance for the poorest in those places. I think I'm right in saying that more than 1 billion people are "living" on one dollar a day. I could give lots of examples which I have personally witnessed which would be unheard of in the UK but as you say this is not a race to the bottom. A visit to Uganda (i.e. the real country not the safari parks and the other touristy stuff) might change your perspective I think.

[xsnaggle]

Of course - the food bank I am involved with is testament to this. I know it doesn't fit with your thinking but what xsnaggle and me are trying to say is that there is no comparison between what we define as poverty in the UK (Wales, Bridgend or wherever) and poverty in places like Uganda or India where I would argue the wealth gap is much bigger and of course there is no DWP type assistance for the poorest in those places. I think I'm right in saying that more than 1 billion people are "living" on one dollar a day. I could give lots of examples which I have personally witnessed which would be unheard of in the UK but as you say this is not a race to the bottom. A visit to Uganda (i.e. the real country not the safari parks and the other touristy stuff) might change your perspective I think.

I agree about places in Africa but the place I described is in UK.
I've seen grown men so dirty that there is literally black between their toes, men who haven't bathed for months, either because there is no hot water because the haven't the money to heat it up or because they have become so acclimatised to their living conditions that they don't notice any more. Just looking at some is enough to make you want to retch, and a lot of the women are just as bad.

I don't even want to think about this any more.

[xsnaggle]

Leaving aside the argument as to whether Wales has the worst child poverty in the UK, what is classified as poverty in the UK is light years away from poverty elsewhere (as presumably in Azerbaijan?). I have never been there but I could show you places in Uganda or Malawi or India where you would weep at the way some people have to live. For me it was a life changing experience.

I wasn't refwerring to Azerbaijan but there is enough poverty there. And i agree with you about Africa.
But I was talking specifically about UK.

[life on mars]

I wasn't refwerring to Azerbaijan but there is enough poverty there. And i agree with you about Africa.
But I was talking specifically about UK.

By the way chaps the thread started as Duke of Edinburgh dies

[delmbox]

By the way chaps the thread started as Duke of Edinburgh dies

this is what he would have wanted