A CHRISTMAS CAROL 2020

 Over the past decade while the Tories have been in power we have seen an exponential growth in poverty – however it is defined; that is not opinion, it is fact. We have seen a rise in what is known as the gig economy where workers are often paid no more than survival pay with a lack of any other benefits from their employment such as sick pay. We have seen increasing numbers of people sleeping rough, sofa surfing or in hostels. We have seen an exponential growth in the numbers resorting to food banks. Schools and other institutions report increasing numbers of people having to choose between putting a meal on the table for children or heating the home. We have seen an exponential growth in the number of people needing to apply for various kinds of benefit – and at the same time we have witnessed successive Tory administrations tightening the purse strings.

Only a few days ago Sir Michael Marmot published his long awaited report “Fair Society, Healthy Lives” which is scathing about the growing inequalities in this country and their impact upon the most vulnerable. Earlier this year a professional footballer, Marcus Rashford, himself born into poverty, named and shamed the government and had to drag them kicking and screaming to acknowledge the growing problem made worse by the economic effect of Covid 19 and pay for meals for school children. A week ago I watched an item on the BBC news about two Burnley vicars: Father Alec Frost and Pastor Mick Fleming who vividly and distressingly described the lives and problems – especially in relation to putting a meal on the table - facing many in that town. So, powerful was the message of the broadcast that over a quarter of a million pounds has been raised by donations to help these men in their endeavours in supporting those in the front line of poverty in England 2020. And finally, earlier this week it was UNICEF that recognised what our own government could not or were unwilling to recognise; namely, we do indeed have a problem of poverty in the UK. The organisation launched its first domestic emergency response in the UK by setting up various funding projects aimed at helping children and their families in need of help.

That was the final straw for Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg – a man so far removed from any kind of reality, so lacking in understanding, empathy and compassion it is difficult to comprehend or attach to him any of the usual descriptors of the human condition. (Remember, Reece-Mogg is the same gentleman who after the Grenfell Tower fire disaster said those who perished only died because they did not show his - Mogg's - common sense!).When questioned about the UNICEF project in the Commons he was scathing in his response saying that UNICEF should be “ashamed of itself” for “playing politics” by (for example) offering to provide breakfasts for some of the poorest in society in Southwark, London. Presumably Reece-Mogg also believes that the two Burnley vicars should cease “playing politics”, as should Marcus Rashford – and clearly, the Marmot Report will not be on the Reece–Mogg reading list this Christmas.

As I watched Reece-Mogg protesting about UNICEF’s actions I did not see the gaunt, almost Dickensian like second rate politician who has somehow managed to become one of the many unacceptable faces of not only the Tory party but of England 2020. Instead of Mogg I saw another Dickensian character, a man who Mogg can be very easily mistaken for both in looks and opinions. As I watched, it was Mogg's lips that moved but it was Ebenezer Scrooge's voice that I heard in one of the great extracts from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”.

On Christmas Eve two gentlemen enter Scrooge’s counting house, their mission to raise donations to help the poor in the area at Christmas time. The conversation that follows tells us all we need to know about Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens' great tale, but it also reflects with frightening accuracy Jacob Reece-Mogg and Tory Britain. If you substitute the name Scrooge and insert Reece-Mogg in its place Dickens’ main thrust still holds perfectly true!:

“At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge (Reece Mogg),” said one of the gentlemen, taking up a pen, “it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.”

“Are there no prisons?” asked Scrooge (Reece-Mogg).

“Plenty of prisons,” said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.

“And the Union workhouses?” demanded Scrooge (Reece-Mogg).

“Are they still in operation?”

“They are. Still,” returned the gentleman, “I wish I could say they were not.”

“The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?” said Scrooge.

“Both very busy, sir.”

“Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,” said Scrooge. “I’m very glad to hear it.”

“Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,” returned the gentleman, “a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?”

“Nothing!” Scrooge replied.

“You wish to be anonymous?”

“I wish to be left alone,” said Scrooge. “Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don’t make merry myself at Christmas and I can’t afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.”

“Many can’t go there; and many would rather die.”

“If they would rather die,” said Scrooge (Reece-Mogg), “they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. It's not my business, it's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!".

Welcome to Tory Britain 2020 - as foretold by Charles Dickens in 1843. It is perhaps worth noting that the Tories were in power in 1843 (Prime Minister Robert Peel) when Dickens published his great tale - little it seems has changed in Tory ideology or compassion in the intervening 177 years. St Paul preached that: “Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” - clearly none of those virtues applied in the world of Ebenezer Scrooge but today, nearly two centuries, later they are receiving short shrift still in the Tory party, in the world of Jacob Reece-Mogg and in the hearts and minds of the Tory faithful. Now, in my eighth decade on the planet, I often today wonder if society has moved on at all in the intervening years? Sadly, I fear that society and we haven't.