Food poverty in UK has reached level of 'public health emergency', warn experts

[kpete]

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 people’s 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]

1. K&R for exposure...

it looks like their politicians are as delusional as ours.

[MyNameGoesHere]

2. Well on the bright side

revolutions were never started by well fed and happy people.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I don't think people in government realize that hunger is a national security issue.

If they keep starving people over there, the British government is going to have a lot of trouble on their hands.

[adirondacker]

5. I'm thinking this is going to have to happen to wake them up....

'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]

9. I think you're right.

That's the only language the elites understand. Voting isn't doing the trick.

[valerief]

4. Just like the U.S. At least, the UK gets free healthcare. nt

[Berlum]

6. This news undoubtedly sets RepubliBagger hearts to beating

[totodeinhere]

7. Meanwhile the royal family gets fat and sassy off from the UK taxpayers' dime.

There is something wrong with this picture.

[mwooldri]

8. So saddening.

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

[KauaiK]

10. This is appalling....