Life & Work Magazine
Life & Work Magazine


16 mins

Justice for all

HERE’S an image of our times, especially as we move towards Christmas. It is not a conventional religious image; it consists of a photograph of a cardboard box illed with things to eat. The notice on the side of the box simply says “foodbank”.

Welcome to Britain in this festive season, in the year of Our Lord 2018. The bank that likes to say ‘yes’ these days is the local food bank.

One of the major issues creating the present crisis is the cutting of welfare beneits in a time of austerity. Set that against the background of spiralling heating and travel costs, and the demand for emergency food supplies grows.

It is interesting to note that a surprisingly high proportion of food bank users are people who are actually in employment – some part time, some full time, most on the minimum wage or lower, or on zero-hour contracts.

Former Prime Minister and son of the manse Gordon Brown has been calling for a halt to the rollout of the “cruel and vindictive” Universal Credit scheme, warning it will plunge a record ive million children below the breadline.

In trials, the new beneits system has already plunged families into debt and rent arrears.

Gordon Brown predicts that left unchecked, UC could lead to a repeat of the Poll Tax iasco that triggered riots and toppled Margaret Thatcher.

Son of the manse Mr Brown says that after 50 years in politics, he never expected to see poverty and hardship returning on such a terrible scale.

He says: “With the convulsions of Brexit in March and Universal Credit four months later, we face a summer of division and despair.”

In this comparatively wealthy country of ours, no one should be forced to make a choice between having something to eat or putting the heating on.

Our society is blighted by inequality. It is scandalous that in one of the most highly developed countries in the world, there are children who go to bed hungry, and elderly people who cannot aford to turn their heating on – while many other people live in luxury.

It is the poor who are paying the biggest price for an economic recession that was triggered by the wealthy and powerful. And several big corporations are still managing to pay minimal taxes.

Now some readers may be disappointed that I am raising what seems to be a political issue in an article about Christmas. I would argue that such disappointment is based on a misunderstanding of the Christian faith.

The Christmas story has been sanitised and romanticised beyond recognition. Yet at the heart of its narrative is a poor couple heading for Bethlehem in order to register for something akin to a poll tax. The doors of hospitality will be closed against them.

It is scandalous that in one of the most highly developed countries in the world, there are children who go to bed hungry, and elderly people who cannot aford to turn their heating on – while many other people live in luxury.

Back to the foodbanks. In Scotland, many churches are involved in helping to ill and distribute the boxes.

One minister in Falkirk, the Rev Stuart Sharp, who is much involved in the food programme told Life and Work: “We are very humble and grateful that we have this opportunity to serve others, but this is not the sign of a big society. It’s the sign of a society that is fundamentally broken and lawed.”

We need charity, yes, but the best Christmas gift would be justice for all.

This article appears in the December 2018 Issue of Life and Work

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  COPIED
This article appears in the December 2018 Issue of Life and Work