{"id":282,"date":"2022-09-02T15:58:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/?p=282"},"modified":"2022-09-02T15:59:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-02T15:59:29","slug":"cost-of-living-crisis-a-looming-catastrophe-as-beanz-meanz-parting-with-1-a-tin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Cost of living crisis a \u2018looming catastrophe\u2019 as beanz meanz parting with \u00a31 a tin"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a while, but I\u2019ve been completely scunnered by the worsening state of the UK as a handful of the population decides on their replacement for what is beyond a doubt the worst prime minister in living memory.<\/p>\n

However, I don\u2019t intend to dwell on my contempt for the Tories. They will \u2013 eventually \u2013 get what they deserve.<\/p>\n

I will say I was disappointed, disgusted even, with Ian Blackford the other day drooling in an interview about how he loves the \u2018cut and thrust\u2019 of Westminster \u2013 this coming from someone who has told me umpteen times how he and the other SNP MPs were desperate to get out of \u201cthat place\u201d. In response I told him that the SNP MPs had become too settled in the Commons, which he fervently denied. Just thought I\u2019d mention that.<\/p>\n

Over the past few years I\u2019ve written a fair bit about a New Scot I\u2019ve had a fair amount of contact with \u2013 Mark Frankland, who runs the First Base Food Bank in Dumfries, as well as being a published author.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He told me earlier this week that the cost of\u00a0living crisis and social emergency is set to worsen as supermarkets ration the amount of groceries food projects can buy or are given in donations, and he\u2019s urging Holyrood to step up to the plate.<\/p>\n

The coming winter is a \u201clooming catastrophe\u201d, unlike anything we have seen \u201csince Hitler was strutting his stuff\u201d, he says.<\/p>\n

And in an open letter to the Scottish Government he urged them to meet the challenge in the same way as they did in March 2020, \u201cwhen the pandemic threatened to tear apart the social fabric much like it is doing in China right now\u201d.<\/p>\n

Frankland says the Scottish Government made quick and decisive decisions then, like making funds available for front line charities to meet the needs of self-isolating communities, and made the cash available quickly with the minimum of red tape.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it worked \u2026 better than anyone could possibly have imagined,\u201d he says. \u201cAll over Scotland, new community projects joined with existing projects like First Base and by hook or by crook, the vulnerable were looked after.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe all proved it could be done and it was done. It was done in double quick time and it was done unbelievably well. And it was done by an army of volunteers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u201cYou guys provided the funding and the community did the rest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frankland says that in his \u201c60+ years\u201d he has witnessed two huge \u201c\u00a31 a \u2026 moments\u201d \u2013 when he was 18 during the 1979 winter of discontent when petrol increased to \u00a31 a gallon.<\/p>\n

\u201cEighteen years later, an older and still broke me got to know how it felt to pay \u00a31 a litre for the first time. This summer I had my third ‘pound a \u2026’ moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was online in Tesco Groceries ordering the weekly First Base delivery and there it was right there on the screen. As bold as brass. Heinz Baked Beans. Not 440g any more. Only 415g now. \u00a31 a tin.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuite a moment. And it seemed clear neither Heinz nor Tesco were in any mood to water it down. I mean they could have bottled it and gone for 99p. But no. They clearly were intent on sending a message.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Frankland says that by autumn, anyone relying on Universal Credit with the average cost of domestic power forecasts to reach \u00a370 a week will be left with \u00a33 to feed, clothe and clean themselves.<\/p>\n

He says projects such as Fareshare, which helps supply food banks, will suffer as supermarkets ration what charities can buy and increase sales of reduced \u201cyellow ticket\u201d items, for which people have started queuing up every night.<\/p>\n

But he says the network of volunteers that exploded into life early in the pandemic is still there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know how to deal with a huge crisis. We proved we could do it in 2020. We can do it again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a legacy of the pandemic, every council in Scotland now has a relationship with the community groups who stepped up when everything was grinding to a halt \u2026 provided us with the funds we needed in the pandemic. You can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a plea to the Scottish Government, he adds: \u201cAnd you guys? Well, you need to do exactly the same job you did in 2020. You need to make sure no emergency food project ever has to turn people away due to a lack of food.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt didn’t happen when 2000 people a day were dying of Covid in the darkest days of 2020.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t need to happen in the darkest days of the coming winter. You have two months to \u2026 be ready for the worst.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when the tsunami hits, you can be ready to press the button and the community will do the rest. Please don’t blow it.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can read more of Mark\u2019s blog here: http:\/\/marksimonfrankland.blogspot.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a while, but I\u2019ve been completely scunnered by the worsening state of the UK as a handful of the population decides on their replacement for what is beyond a doubt the worst prime minister in living memory. However, I don\u2019t intend to dwell on my contempt for the Tories. They will \u2013 eventually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregrussell.scot\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}