Let Them Eat Cake! Poverty, Hunger and the UK State

Hunger, food security and welfare policies: Issues and debates in First World societies

“…More to the point, perhaps, if legitimate criticisms can be made of the data on hunger it is also necessary to be aware of the ways in which governments are prone to manipulate official data. For example in the UK, Craig & Dowler (1997) noted that in the early 1980s the government introduced twenty-nine measures in which official counts of unemployed were altered, thereby considerably reducing the official unemployment count.…”

“…Between 1990 and 1992 one in eight Australian households were estimated to be living below the poverty line. In the UK, Craig & Dowler (1997) suggest that the existence of hunger can be inferred from the statistical information on welfare benefits and they quote from the 1994 study by the National Children's Home (1994) report that 'over 1.5 million families in Britain could not afford to feed their children an 1876 workhouse diet at present Income Support levels'. Moreover, Craig & Dowler (1997) note that 'there is much concern in medical and some government circles that members of poor UK households are more likely to be ill, to die in infancy, or at an early age when adult, than those in richer households'.…”

“…Whilst there is evidence from the UK to suggest that those seeking to manage on welfare incomes are efficient managers of their food budgets, the unassailable fact is that when food expenditures have to be weighted against the increasing price of rent, utilities, clothing and other essentials it is the food bill which invariably suffers. Healthy eating, which means access to nutritious food and to a vaned diet, as Craig & Dowler (1997) note, is expensive.…”

“…In 1993, New Zealand's Public Health Commission argued for the adoption of the UN definition of food security, reasoning that the elimination of poverty depends on the purchasing power of households (Uttley, 1997); however, in Australia, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (1994), undernutrition is believed to be uncommon (Wilson, 1997). In the UK the national Nutrition Task Force established a Low Income Project Team in 1994 to address the dietary problems of low-income people (Williams & Dowler, 1994;Craig & Dowler, 1997). Community food security is emerging as an important policy goal in the USA.…”

“…One important mechanism for asserting the right to adequate food lies in international covenants which governments have ratified and public action should focus on making national, state and provincial governments accountable in terms of international law. Despite the fact that, as the Canadian (Riches, 1997) and UK (Craig & Dowler, 1997) case studies show, governments will object to the international monitoring of their welfare policies, the opportunity exists for citizens' groups to raise the issue of social and economic rights with the UN monitoring committees. This could prove to be an important tool for maintaining public pressure and for requiring government accountability.…”