Over summer, BroadAgenda is featuring a short series of profiles on amazing women and LGBTIQ + folks. You’re about to meet Professor Riyana (Mira) Miranti. She’s a socio-economist and development economist who is Convenor of the Indonesian Program at the University of Canberra’s Faculty of Business, Government and Law.
If you were sitting next to someone at a dinner party, how would you explain your work and research in a nutshell?
My work focuses on social equity, disadvantage and wellbeing.
What are you currently working on that’s making you excited or that has legs?
Teaching and doing research have always enticed me.
Teaching helps others to develop, learn and build a positive influence on future generations. All careers and knowledge begin with an education. Being a teacher also means that I always have the opportunity to learn which is a privilege.
I am currently working on a research project that analyses multidimensional disadvantage among children. Cumulative factors of disadvantage over time are associated with adverse outcomes in later life. So, it is essential to identify the protective factors from an early age. I’ve been working in this space for a while now.
Our previous work has been published here and here.
In addition, I’ve just recently published an article on women’s role during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing lessons from the developing country of Indonesia.
Many women bear the triple burden of productive, reproductive and community roles, with the weight of the reproductive and productive burdens increasing in recent times owing to the impacts of the pandemic. Many of the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic are those where women are more likely to work (low-skilled or informal sector), and so many women had their hours of work reduced or were fired.
Unlike previous crises that tended to produce the added-worker effect (a short-term increase in the labour supply of women whose husbands have become unemployed), the Covid-19 pandemic may have produced both the discouraged-worker and added-worker effects. The data also show the pandemic has had heterogeneous effects on women, especially between highly skilled and less-skilled women.
Digitalisation brings new opportunities for female entrepreneurship, not necessarily for less-skilled women, and the divide between genders in both urban and rural areas still needs to be bridged.
Many households, particularly female-headed households, are at high risk of falling into poverty during such crises. The long-term impacts of the pandemic will also put women’s lifetime earnings and mental health at risk, something that is still considered taboo to be discussed in the case of developing countries. If the impacts of the pandemic are not addressed properly, gender inequality will worsen in the long run as existing structural social and economic inequalities deepen.
Let’s wind back the clock a bit. Why did you go into this field? What was compelling about it?
I am an economist, but I did not plan to be. My first degree was in accounting from Indonesia, and I wanted a postgraduate degree in finance. However, faith and scholarship opportunities brought me to learn and fall in love with economics, particularly regarding human capital and poverty. Then, when I graduated with my PhD at the ANU and decided to stay in Australia, my job search brought me to a former research centre at UC (NATSEM).
Coming from a developing country of Indonesia, I naively thought there was no poverty like in my first country. How wrong I was! Since then, I’ve been researching the issue of disadvantage in Australia. There are so many diversities and issues I can learn within this field. At the same time, I am also still researching Indonesian economic development. I am grateful that I have been developing expertise in both countries.
What impact do you hope your work has?
As a teacher/lecturer, I would be delighted to see if my students understand what I teach, graduate and contribute well to society. In research, our collaborators often provide positive feedback on how they use or cite my work as part of their practices, so hopefully, that means that my work has an impact.
Recently, I was promoted as a full Professor, having climbed the academic ladder from Level A to Level E in 16 years.
I was very touched when people came to me and said this had inspired others, mainly as I am a migrant Muslim woman. Hopefully, this also means that I have made some impacts, and I’ll use the Professorial position to give back to our communities better.
Do you view yourself as a feminist researcher? Why? Why not? What does the word mean to you in the context of your own values and also your work?
That is an interesting question. Within my ‘disadvantage’ research, I did research on gender differences in the labour market, the division of labour and the role of unpaid market labour in households. I am not sure whether those work define me as a feminist researcher. My work has always been broader than looking at gender issues. However, reflecting on these words, all of my work will always start with gender analysis. This shows the importance of intersectionality of gender research with other fields.
What have you discovered in your work that has most surprised or enchanted you?
I love collaboration and engagements. I love meeting people. Through work, I am grateful to have the opportunity to collaborate with many people from Australia and other countries. Many of my collaborators are long-term collaborators, which shows how important trust, respect and collegiality are to ensure the sustainability of our academic activities.
I am sure this also applies outside academia, we collaborate with other people all the time, even with our children!
Is there anything else you want to say?
Follow your passions, and do what you love. When you do what you love, you will likely feel motivated and that you’re learning and contributing in your chosen field. You will be happier and believed that your efforts matter. So, have courage to do what you love and always be kind.
On January 16, congressional leaders announced that a bipartisan agreement had been reached on a far-ranging, $78 billion tax package. The proposed legislation is not only bipartisan but bicameral: It was negotiated between Jason Smith, a Republican representative from Missouri and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden, who is a senator chairing the Finance…
New research shows overwhelming support for scrapping the flat-rate daily standing charge on our energy bills, as thousands share their experiences of the energy crisis. It comes energy suppliers have hiked the fixed charges to around £300 – leading one campaign group to say they are causing “widespread energy starvation”. However, will the regulator Ofgem listen?
The standing charge is a cost that is included in each electricity and gas bill. It is a cost set by your supplier. It is also included in the energy price cap that we review and set every three months. Your supplier will charge you this cost each day, even if you do not use any energy on that day. The amount you pay will depend on your supplier and where you live within England, Scotland or Wales.
The charge covers the cost to maintain the energy supply network, take meter readings, and support government social schemes, for example helping people that cannot afford energy, and environmental schemes.
Of course, what standing charges also do is help energy firms make huge profits while leaving millions in poverty. However, people are growing wise to this effective con – as a new survey shows.
Campaign website Organise surveyed 45,000 of its members on standing charges. The results revealed the tough reality that many people across the UK are facing due to the energy crisis, compounded by unfair standing charges that disproportionately affect low-income households.
Leaving millions in fuel poverty
Organise’s research showed that standing charges impact adequate heating for 90% of people, with:
84% forced to cut heating, showers, baths, washing, and drying.
72% left in debt or unable to top up a prepayment meter.
Those on prepayment meters are one group hit hard by standing charges.
534,462 electricity customers and 269,351 gas customers were cut off between January and March 2023. However, this Ofgem data only covers 4% of households, so ignores millions of other low income struggling households. This includes the two million homes without gas supply that pay the higher electricity standing charges and unit costs.
Ofgem data shows low Economy 7 users suffering energy deprivation of only 2200 kWh per year versus 9300 kWh total for dual fuel.
Moreover, energy companies also use the standing charges from poorer households to effectively fund their own operating costs. This is a further kick in the teeth, given the poor standards of customer service companies provide and their marketing and advertising spend which is often wasteful.
The real-world impact of standing charges
Organise member Joan said:
I am having to be extra careful with my consumption, even though I have a disability which is made worse by the cold due to spasms. The standing charge on top of the crippling cost per unit of energy means I have no choice but to cut back.
Another member of Organise, Jack, said:
I do anything to keep the costs down, I’m disabled and housebound most of the time. I therefore do not put my heating on and spend most of my time in bed with an electric blanket on as it is the cheapest way of keeping warm. I also eat mainly microwavable meals as it’s cheaper than putting the oven on. Standing charges soon add up eating into what money I’ve put aside for fuel bills.
Standing charges also undermine energy efficiency by punishing low users and subsidising energy waste. This conflicts with government policy and Ofgem’s new statutory net zero duty.
Ofgem has previously resisted calls to reduce or remove standing charges, instead increasing them to pay the £2.7bn bill from supplier failures that many blame on poor Ofgem regulation. But increasing public pressure and a report from the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee has forced it to do a review of standing charges.
This is how you can get involved – but you only have a matter of days to do so.
Tell Ofgem to sort it out
Ofgem is coming under mounting pressure to scrap the charge, and has asked for input from consumers and other stakeholders to help them decide what to do.
The consultation closes on Friday 19 January. However, campaign group Fuel Poverty Action has organised an online template for you to complete. It will then send it to Ofgem on your behalf. You can fill the letter out here. Alternatively, Organise has a pre-composed letter you can sign here.
Fuel Poverty Action spokesperson Stu Bretherton told the Canary:
Standing charges bear a huge cost on families and individuals, at around £300 a month that’s wiping out the income of someone on Universal Credit. But that money doesn’t even buy you any energy, it’s a poll tax on something that’s an essential need and a human right. And we’re all forced to pay them even if cut off from your energy supply or forced to switch off the heating and everything else due to mounting energy debt.
Fuel Poverty Action says this is causing “widespread energy starvation”.
Outrageous and a scandal
Bretherton noted that:
It’s outrageous that people living in tiny flats pay the same as someone heating a mansion and swimming pool. This isn’t just unfair but goes against economic and environmental imperatives to invest in energy efficient housing and heating systems.
Fuel Poverty Action has long campaigned for standing charges to be abolished and replaced with a national Energy For All guarantee to ensure everyone has their essentials covered according to each household’s needs. Winning change on standing charges is a key step to fixing our upside-down energy pricing system, we’ve pressured Ofgem into this review, so we want to build as much engagement as possible with the consultation while the option is there.
So, if you’re quick you can get your views on standing charges into Ofgem. Energy companies are ripping us all off, but hitting the poorest the hardest. So, we must take action over this scandal.
A documentary video produced by supplier UK Radiators has revealed the financial and ethical implications of misinformation in the heating industry, impacting consumers across Britain. The boss of the company is urging for immediate action against what he calls these “deceptive practices” – because it’s costing consumers billions.
UK Radiators: exposing the great British heating rip off
UK Radiators is, on the face of it, a radiator supplier. However, the company has now branched out into campaigning. It has launched a short video documentary called The Lies Costing Britain £Billions – EXPOSED. It looks at the regulations surrounding radiators in the UK and whether manufacturers and retailers are adhering to them. Spoiler alert: they’re not.
Rob Nezard is the managing director of UK Radiators. He noted in the documentary that:
In order to comply with British standards, and to be sold legally in the UK, a radiator’s heat output must be tested by a notified body and the heat output advertised for the radiator backed by the test results. The unfortunate truth is that there are millions of radiators sold every year that have not been tested, and the heat outputs being advertised are overstated.
Why does this matter? Because it affects the efficiency of your heating system, and ends up costing you money in higher heating bills.
As part of the investigation, tests were conducted on five radiators purchased from five prominent retailers. The results were shocking.
Given the size of the retailers in question, the number of radiators sold per year and the lifetime of each radiator spanning over a decade, the unnecessary costs being put onto the heating bills of the British public are estimated to be in the billions.
As an example, the investigation found that manufacturers and retailers were exaggerating the heat output of one radiator by a staggering 38%.
Watch the full documentary below:
“We cannot allow these practices to go unchecked”
This situation highlights a critical failure in regulatory enforcement, allowing suppliers to operate without accountability. It’s not just about financial loss; it’s about consumer trust and industry integrity.
Nezard said:
As an industry leader, it’s our responsibility to advocate for transparency and consumer protection. We cannot allow these practices to continue unchecked. The documentary video aims to raise awareness of this issue and gain support for a petition that calls on the relevant government ministers to begin enforcing the regulations that are already in place.
UK Radiators is calling on the government to “do its job” – which currently it’s not.
Given we have been in a cost of living crisis for what seems like years, part of which has been spiralling energy costs thanks to the lack of action by government and energy companies – it’s a kick in the teeth to all of us that manufacturers and retailed are kicking us again by ripping us off with radiators.
You can sign UK Radiators petition calling on the government to act here.
The energy regulator Ofgem has just agreed that three energy firms can start forcing vulnerable customers onto prepayment meters again. It comes after the government put a quasi ban in place in February 2023. One campaign group has hit back at the move – saying Ofgem is once again putting “energy company profits” before customers. And overall, it shows just how spineless the energy regulator is.
Ofgem prepayment meters: an ongoing scandal
As the Canaryreported back in February, energy companies in the UK could obtain court warrants that allowed them to enter people’s homes and fit the pay-as-you-go (‘prepayment’) meters. This was when customers had fallen into arrears with their energy bills. They were then at risk of companies cutting their gas supply off if they fail to top them up.
However, an undercover investigation by the Times newspaper looked into this. It found that contractors working for British Gas sent debt collectors to “break into” homes and “force-fit” meters. This prompted uproar from the public and politicians – even though the practice had actually been going on since 1954.
So, the energy regulator Ofgem and courts stopped energy suppliers from forcing customers to have prepayment meters. However, as the Morning Starreported:
Ofgem introduced a self-regulating code of practice for energy providers enabling them to resume forced break-ins and installations.
Scottish Power has now reportedly secured warrants and broken into the homes of mothers with young children to force them onto prepay meters using the code. But the firm claims it was unaware of the customers’ circumstances and would not have installed a meter forcibly had this become clear.
Now, Ofgem has looked at how companies are dealing with that self-regulating code. It’s decided that three are suddenly so responsible that they can start forcing prepayment meters onto customers.
Ofgem confirmed today (Monday 8 January 2023) that EDF, Octopus and Scottish Power have been given permission to restart involuntary PPM installations after meeting the regulator’s set of conditions, which include conducting internal audits to identify wrongfully installed PPMs and committing to reinstating non-prepayment methods and offering compensation. Suppliers must also provide regular monitoring data to Ofgem, so that concerning trends on involuntary PPM practices can be identified early.
The regulator also announced that if suppliers install a PPM in a property occupied by someone in the ‘do not install’ category set out in Ofgem’s Supplier Licence Conditions, and have not followed the rules in full set out by the regulator to make sure a prepayment meter is appropriate, they are expected to reinstate a credit meter within 24 hours and compensate their customers appropriately.
Ofgem is reminding supplier CEOs that the rules must be followed to the letter to avoid a re-run of some of the practices seen last year where vulnerable customers in energy debt were being moved onto PPMs without their consent.
But who exactly does Ofgem consider a “vulnerable” customer?
A continuous supply needed for health reasons, including dependence on powered medical equipment.
An older occupant (aged 75+), without support in the house.
Children aged under two years old.
Residents with severe health issues including terminal illnesses or those with a medical dependency on a warm home (for example due to illness such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, sickle cell disease).
So, if you’re a lone parent with a child aged two years and one month – then you can freeze. If you’re aged over 75, but your council will not provide support workers for you due to funding cuts – then you can freeze. Oh, and so can anyone else who doesn’t meet Ofgem’s wafer-thin criteria of vulnerability.
But it’s OK! Ofgem has said energy firms have to make at least 10 attempts to contact a customer before they can force their way into their home and install a prepayment meter. That means that if you live with enduring mental distress which restricts your ability to deal with the authorities, strangers, or companies – then you can freeze too.
Happy new year from Ofgem
For his part, the director general for markets at Ofgem Tim Jarvis (we don’t know what his bullshit job is but we’re confident he’s never been on a prepayment meter) said:
Protecting consumers is our number one priority…
While nobody wants to see the practices uncovered last year repeated, we also know that allowing households to build up unsustainable amounts of debt isn’t the right thing to do either. Many households value the control that these pay as you go meters offer over bills and how they can help with budgeting, and suppliers must also be able to recover debt to make sure those costs don’t end up on everyone else’s bills.
‘Protecting customers’ is demonstrably NOT Ofgem’s priority – otherwise it wouldn’t allow energy companies to ever forcibly install prepayment meters.
Energy firms have proven time and again that they can’t be trusted with this dangerous practice. Just two months ago, Scottish Power was granted warrants impacting families with newborn babies. We need an outright ban but Ofgem continually puts energy company profits first, even when doing so will put lives at risk this winter.
So, it’s a new year but the same old story from Ofgem. The poorest people in the UK can freeze so long as private energy companies’ profits are protected.
The UK is only country in the G7 where household budgets have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. That’s the verdict of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), as its analysis reveals that British families would be £750 a year better off if real disposable income had grown in line with other leading economies
UK living standards: lagging behind the rest of the G7
The UK is suffering the worst decline in living standards of any G7 country – according to new TUC analysis published on Monday 8 January. The analysis shows the UK is only G7 economy where real household disposable income per head hasn’t recovered to its pre-pandemic levels:
Real household disposable incomes in the UK were 1.2% lower in the second quarter of 2023 than at the end of 2019. But over the same period they grew by 3.5%, on average, across the G7.
The TUC estimates that if real disposable income in the UK had risen in line with the G7 average UK families would be £750 a year better off.
More pain ahead for households budgets
The union body warned that the contraction in UK household budgets is going to get worse – despite falling inflation.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts that real house disposable income per head in Britain will fall by an additional 3.4% by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
And according to the same forecasts household budgets won’t even recover to their pre-pandemic levels until the end of 2026.
The OBR said in November that UK households are suffering the worst period for living standards since modern records began in the 1950s.
Households in debt
The TUC says the Conservatives’ failure to grow the economy and deliver healthy wage growth has pushed many households further into debt.
Analysis published by the union body at the end of December revealed that unsecured debt (credit cards, loans, hire purchase agreements) is set to rise by £1,400 per household, in real terms, this year.
The TUC says working people have been left brutally exposed to rising costs and decimated household budgets after years of pay stagnation.
UK workers are on course for two decades of lost living standards with real wages not forecast to recover to their 2008 level until 2028.
The TUC estimates that the average worker has lost £14,800 since 2008 as a result of their pay not keeping up with pre-global financial crisis real wage trends.
The Tories’ damning record is to blame
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:
The UK is the only G7 nation where living standards are worse than before the pandemic. While families in other countries have seen their incomes recover – household budgets here continue to shrink.
This is a damning indictment on the Conservatives’ economic record. Their failure to deliver decent growth and living standards over the last 13 years has left millions exposed to skyrocketing bills – and is pushing many deeper into debt.
We can’t go on like this. Britain cannot afford the Tories for a day longer.
The median FTSE 100 CEO’s earnings for 2024 surpassed the median annual salary for a full-time worker in the UK by around 1pm on Thursday 4 January, according to calculations by the High Pay Centre think tank. It means bosses will have already earned over £34,000 this year.
High Pay Centre: CEO earns £34k in four days
The calculations are based on the High Pay Centre’s analysis of the most recent CEO pay disclosures published in companies’ annual reports, combined with government statistics showing pay levels across the UK economy.
As with last year, the executive pay data suggests that CEOs will have to wait until the third working day of 2024 to surpass the annual pay of the median worker.
Median FTSE 100 CEO pay (excluding pension) currently stands at £3.81m, 109 times the median full time worker’s pay of £34,963. This represents an 9.5% increase on median CEO pay levels as of March 2023, while the median worker’s pay has increased by 6%.
The figures come against a backdrop of calls from leading figures in the city and big business for UK CEOs to be paid more. In December 2023 Legal and General Investment Management adjusted their executive pay guidelines to permit firms they invest in to offer more generous incentive payments, while earlier in the year the London Stock Exchange Chief Executive argued that low CEO pay levels create a risk to the UK economy.
How other top earners compare
The High Pay Centre used other publicly available data to estimate how long it would take other top earners to surpass the median UK worker’s full time earnings.
Other FTSE 350 executives (comprised of FTSE 100 executives other than the CEO, plus CEOs and other executives of FTSE 250 companies), with a median pay of £1.32m, will need to work until 10 January for their pay to overtake the annual pay of the median UK worker. Moreover, a:
Partner at a ‘magic circle’ law firm, average pay £1.92m, would need to work until 8 January.
One at a ‘Big Four’ Accountancy firm, average pay £871k, would need to work until 16 January.
A top banker (so-called ‘material risk taker’) at one of the five FTSE 100 listed banks, average pay £807k, would need to work until 16 January.
Everyone in the top 1% of full time UK earners, making at least £145k, will have overtaken the annual pay of the median full time worker by 29 March.
‘Massive inequality’
High Pay Centre director Luke Hildyard said:
Lobbyists for big business and the financial services industry spent much of 2023 arguing that top earners in Britain aren’t paid enough and that we are too concerned with gaps between the super-rich and everybody else. They think that economic success is created by a tiny number of people at the top and that everybody else has very little to contribute.
When politicians listen to these misguided views, it’s unsurprising that we end up with massive inequality, and stagnating living standards for the majority of the population.
Action Against Hunger is gravely concerned by the declaration made in a new UN-led report, classifying hunger levels in areas of northern Gaza and for thousands of internally displaced people in the south as Level 5, or “catastrophic” – signifying a very high risk of famine.
Gaza: two areas at ‘catastrophic’ risk of famine
Overall:
A report produced by the UN, governments, and NGOs, including Action Against Hunger, has been published with the highest rating, Phase 5 or Catastrophe, for food security in two areas of Gaza.
Food shortages are so extreme that one in four households in Gaza suffers from starvation, alarmingly high rates of acute malnutrition among the youngest children and significant excess mortality.
Despite the extreme challenges, Action Against Hunger continues to work in some areas of Gaza distributing water, food, hygiene products or installing latrines.
In Gaza, 2.3 million people – half of whom are children – are facing an escalated and potentially fatal risk of hunger. The declaration comes from the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC), a food security framework used by the UN, food security and nutrition experts, and NGOs including Action Against Hunger.
The latter says the UN declaration must be a turning point, as there have only been four declarations of famine in recent decades: South Sudan (2017); Somalia (2011); North Korea (1995), and Ethiopia (1984). In Gaza, more than 90% of the population is in crisis phase (3) or worse.
In fact, more than 1.3 million people are in the emergency or catastrophe phase (4 and 5 respectively), while at least one in four households is facing acute catastrophic food insecurity conditions. This means that the lack of food is so extreme that they may suffer from starvation, alarmingly high rates of acute malnutrition among the youngest children, and high mortality rates.
Virtually every household in Gaza skips meals every day. Four out of five households in the north, and half of those displaced in the south, go days without eating a single thing. This situation could be reversed immediately with increased humanitarian access.
Israel’s ‘incessant shelling’ adding to the misery
Chiara Saccardi, regional head of Action Against Hunger in the Middle East, said:
The combination of incessant shelling, shortages of food, water, fuel, and the inability of humanitarian agencies to fully operate in Gaza has caused this desperate situation. The UN and humanitarian organisations have been warning for weeks about the need to remove barriers to aid entering Gaza to avoid this reality.
Noelia Monge, head of emergencies for Action Against Hunger, who recently returned from the region, said:
Everything we are doing is insufficient to meet the needs of two million people. It is difficult to find flour and rice, and people have to wait hours to access latrines and wash themselves. We are experiencing an emergency like I have never seen before.
Our organisation can continue to operate in Gaza because we have been working there for years. We have mapped where we can get supplies and we can mobilise local staff. But if trucks can’t get in and there is no fuel, food and water distribution will become virtually impossible.
Right now, safe humanitarian access to people in need is more critical than ever, but since the short seven-day pause in fighting ended on 1 December, the escalation of attacks, particularly in southern Gaza, has forced most humanitarian organisations to reduce their operations to an insignificant level compared to the scale of needs.
Disease and deprivation rapidly spreading
For the past two months, Action Against Hunger has been working in dangerous conditions to provide water, sanitation, and food assistance, but security and access have been severely restricted. Not enough aid is reaching Gaza, there are no supplies in the local market, and the organisation can no longer reach areas in the north due to fighting and lack of transportation. It is a desperate situation.
In addition to the lack of food and water, basic supplies such as nappies, wipes, and soap are also extremely limited.
Saccardi said:
Mothers are caring for their children with diarrhoea, sometimes with blood, but have no water, no wipes, and no nappies. People are angry, depressed, and desperate because of the situation they live in. They are very afraid.
The health system has collapsed, and attacks on hospitals have left much of Gaza’s population without access to any treatment. There are no basic medicines left. Cases of Hepatitis A have been reported, and diarrhoea and lice are common among the population. In overcrowded spaces with no water or sanitation facilities, this is just the beginning of a health crisis on the brink of explosion.
Ceasefire now
Action Against Hunger is once again calling for a permanent ceasefire, as a matter of the utmost urgency, if the international community is to prevent people from dying of hunger and disease. Children, the sick, and the elderly are most at risk. Action Against Hunger acknowledges the UN General Assembly’s non-binding resolution urging a humanitarian ceasefire as an important but incremental move towards potentially saving lives amid continuous bombardment and dire hunger.
The group said:
We must act now. Ending the conflict is a prerequisite for a meaningful humanitarian response in Gaza, as well as for securing humanitarian access and being able to deliver a massive, multi-sectoral response as soon as possible. We are no longer in the warning phase – we have reached the point of catastrophe.
With the winter solstice bringing the longest night of the year, think tank the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is warning that a chronic sleep deficit affecting people on low incomes could exacerbate existing and profound health inequalities affecting the UK. It is, of course, down to the so-called cost of living crisis.
Cost of living: impacting people’s sleep
The JRF has run a research project on poverty, which included looking at how deprivation affected people’s sleep. It found that:
46% of respondents in low-income households said the cost of living crisis had a negative impact on their sleep, according to the JRF’s latest cost of living tracker.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of those who said they were going without the essentials such as food, clothing or toiletries between May and October 2023 reported that the cost of living crisis was negatively affecting their sleep.
In contrast, 18% of respondents in households not going without essentials said their sleep was negatively affected by cost-of-living pressures.
Moreover, the latest findings from the JRF’s cost-of-living tracker raise fears of future health effects for the millions going without essentials such as food, cleaning products or the ability to keep warm.
Over three quarters of respondents who reported a negative impact on their mental (77%) and physical health (80%).
Respondents living in private or social rented housing (58% and 61%) were also almost twice as likely to have their sleep negatively affected than those who owned their homes outright (31%).
Wide-reaching effects
Grounded Voices, a research programme developed to better understand the day-to-day reality of people across the UK struggling to afford what they need, heard from a number of participants about the negative impact of the cost of living on their sleep.
One participant said:
If I’m worrying about money it will affect my sleep and how my day runs. It will affect how I take pride in myself, I might wake up in the morning and I’m not able to do like my makeup or my hair and things like that. It’s easy to get in a rut when you’re worried about money – everything else kind of is like outside noise.
Another added:
No question it has an impact on your mental health and your ability to process information and deal with other tasks, essentially because it dominates your thoughts.
You can sometimes run away with these negative thoughts and it can have a huge impact on life and long-term effects on your mental health.
‘Health inequalities are a shameful fact of life in the UK’
Maudie Johnson-Hunter, economist at the JRF who led on the research, said:
The cost of living has been high for a sustained period but recent years have also seen rising destitution and a fall in the real value of the benefits that are supposed to protect us when we fall on hard times. We have all experienced a bad night’s sleep and found it harder to get through the day afterwards, but for many families cold homes, worries about keeping food on the table and the lack of a secure income makes this an all too common occurrence.
Being on a low income already makes you more likely to experience worse mental and physical health than people who are comfortably off, and poor sleep is likely to compound this problem and make it harder to improve your health and that of your family.
Health inequalities are a shameful fact of life in the UK but the cost of living is adding a potential timebomb for the nation’s health. Official figures show that women in the least deprived areas are living more than nineteen years longer in good health than women in the poorest. This is wrong. Our social security system needs to be strengthened so that everyone is able to at least afford the essentials.
Lisa Artis, deputy CEO of the Sleep Charity, said:
These results come as no surprise. We have long been witness to rising levels of sleep poverty and sleep problems due the cost-of-living crisis. Amidst the silent struggles of those with the lowest incomes, sleep problems echo the harsh disparities of our world, where sleep should be a right and not a luxury. In the quiet desperation of restless nights, we find a call to action, urging us to build a society where the basic human right to peaceful sleep knows no economic boundaries.
Around three-quarters of a million people in Wales (30%) are living in cold damp homes; exposed to the health complications that come from living in fuel poverty.
Wales: an acute problem with cold, damp homes
The latest data from the Warm This Winter campaign reveals that the 30% of people in cold, damp homes in Wales is double that of the UK average – which is 16% of adults or 8.3 million people in total.
As well as the most vulnerable being more affected – such as those aged over 75, under six, or with a pre-existing health condition or disability – there are stark differences based on the type of energy bill households have.
Across the whole of the UK, a third of smart meter customers who have a prepayment meter (PPM) setting (32%) say they live in a cold damp home with 27% of those on traditional PPMs saying the same. Almost a quarter (22%) of standard credit customers are in cold damp homes, yet just 11% of direct debit customers live in such conditions.
The NHS warnsthat people with damp and mould in their homes are more likely to have respiratory problems, respiratory infections, allergies, or asthma. Damp and mould can also affect the immune system while living in such conditions can also increase the riskof heart disease, heart attacks or strokes.
Cold homes cancause and worsenrespiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, poor mental health, dementia and hypothermia as well as cause and slowrecovery from injury.
Get involved: sign a petition or join a campaign
Petitions with over 800,000 signatures have been handed into the prime minister calling for more action to bring down bills now and end energy debt to help end the cold damp homes crisis now facing the country – especially Wales. These include:
Over 88,000 signatures here asking for support on energy bills this Winter.
Debt Justice – Over 17,000 signatures demanding the government urgently act by bringing down bills and help families get out of debt. You can sign that here.
Fuel Poverty Action – over 660,000 signatures demanding #EnergyForAll – Everyone has a right to the energy needed for heating, cooking, and light. That petition is here.
Warm This Winter – Over 41,000 signatures here demanding the Treasury introduce an Emergency Energy Tariff to keep people warm this winter.
You can also get involved with campaign group Fuel Poverty Action. It has recently run a series of Warm Up protests across the UK – highlighting the appalling conditions people are living in, due to the government and energy companies’ unwillingness to control energy costs.
Fiona Waters, spokesperson for the Warm This Winter campaign, commented:
It is no wonder that the public are now signing petitions in droves and pointing the finger ofblamefor the crisis on Ministers who have failed to act to protect the public from this crisis.
Instead of help in the form of anEmergency Energy Tarifffor vulnerable households and a Help To Repayscheme for those in energy debt, the public will instead be faced with increasing energy bills on 1 January 2024.
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented:
The UK Government needs to get a grip on the cold damp homes crisis now facing thecountry, with people spending the festive period in Dickensian conditions and unable to staywarm this winter.
Without immediate action, the cost of this crisis will be felt by increased demand on thealready overstretched NHS.
Ultimately, a failure to protect people from living in cold damp homes will cost lives.
Cold, damp homes: a risk to people’s health
Dr Isobel Braithwaite said:
This data shows a shockingly high prevalence of cold and damp homes in the UK, whichposes a grave risk to the public’s health. These conditions are severely harming the health ofthe most vulnerable in society: from young children; people with heart and lung conditions; toolder people, and this situation is unconscionable in 2023.
These impacts are being driven by political choices, and action is urgently needed toaddress the causes of this health crisis, both to protect vulnerable households with thecampaign’s proposed emergency measures, as well as longer-term action with home retrofitschemes.
Kay Ballard from Debt Justice who was part of the petition hand in said:
Lack of government support and energy company profiteering means that this Christmas I have a choice between going into debt or living in a cold damp home. It is an impossible choice and only government action can solve the crisis.
Stuart Bretherton from Fuel Poverty Action said:
Over 660,000 people have endorsed our demand to ensure everyone’s essential energy needs are met, it’s not radical. There’s more than enough money in energy firm profits and subsidies to guarantee an adequate level of Energy For All to keep everyone warm and safe.
By Lyle Barker and Dr Koldo Casla In July 2023, the Human Rights Local project partnered with ATD Fourth World UK to release a pivotal report, ‘Poverty, Child Protection, and the Right to Protection and Assistance to the Family in England.’ Rooted in extensive research, the report highlights the urgent need for comprehensive reforms in England’s child protection […]
By Lyle Barker and Dr Koldo Casla In July 2023, the Human Rights Local project partnered with ATD Fourth World UK to release a pivotal report, ‘Poverty, Child Protection, and the Right to Protection and Assistance to the Family in England.’ Rooted in extensive research, the report highlights the urgent need for comprehensive reforms in England’s child protection […]
The following is a shortened, lightly edited excerpt of a speech given by Australian politician, diplomat, gender equality advocate and author Natasha Stott Despoja AO, at the National Foundation for Australian Women annual dinner, 2023. Natasha is currently a Professor in the Practice of Politics at the ANU. She’s also an elected member of the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
What an honor to address this dinner with some reflections on the state of gender equality in Australia and globally.
I use the reference to the Matildas during this difficult time globally, as one of the great highlights of this year has been the successful Women’s World Cup which brought our nation together and highlighted women’s leadership and prowess.
Tonight, I pay particular tribute to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women tonight, especially those who championed The Voice.
It was a profound experience to be on the Prime Minister’s Referendum Council and see the painstaking work and collaboration that went into the Uluru Statement from the Heart and – like many of you – I express my despair at the result.
From an international perspective, it was concerning to see how my UN colleagues reacted. The specificity of the referendum was lost, but the general message of the rejection of the rights and recognition of Indigenous Australians is a narrative that understandably has currency in some multilateral spaces.
My not-for-profit work these days involves protecting and advancing the rights of women and girls in UN Member States as a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). I have just returned from State Party dialogues with countries ranging from Uruguay to France, Albania to Malawi.
Regardless of the differences, no country has achieved gender equality, including Australia.
Yet, no country or community, regardless of its circumstances, can reach its full potential while drawing on the skills of only half its population.
This session was particularly daunting: I spoke with families of the hostages in Israel as well as Palestinian and Israeli feminist NGOs terrified about the welfare of their friends and people as well as the disproportionate impact of war and terror on women and girls.
We continue to see examples of the deterioration of women’s human rights globally: and the impact and prevalence of Conflict Related Sexual Violence in conflicts such as the Middle East, Afghanistan, DRC, Sudan, Ukraine.
Despite the crises occurring globally, and the backlash against women and girls, our seat at the table is still missing, especially in peace negotiations.
This is in spite of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions on ‘Women, Peace and Security’ which acknowledge “the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building” and insisted on the increased participation of women in all stages of a peace process, including peace negotiations.
We know there is a strong correlation between peace agreements signed by female delegates and durable peace and yet, seven out of every ten peace processes do not involve women mediators or signatories.
In the multilateral sphere, we are not only dealing with countries which have been slow to advance gender equality, we are now confronted by countries actively backtracking.
The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, has warned about the “pushback and backsliding”, the “systematic countering of women’s rights and gender equality”.
On IWD, the UNSG Antonio Gutteres said, “the patriarchy is fighting back”, warning it would take 300 years to achieve gender equality at the current pace.
The covid pandemic also exacerbated existing inequalities and made the lives of those already marginalised — including the poor, people with disabilities, and women and girls, much worse.
Before COVID, approximately 244 million children were out of school, mostly girls. Now, the education of almost 1.5 billion young people is at risk.
As a result of the pandemic, over the next decade, up to 10 million more girls will be at risk of becoming child brides.
These examples remind us that everything is relative and of course Australia is doing comparatively well. But, the enduring comment I get from my UN colleagues about Australia is that they are surprised that we are not doing better!
The reality remains that when it comes to gender parity in Australia: women are still paid less for the same work, are more likely to engage in part-time and casual work, carry the primary responsibility for care-giving, for both children and parents, and retire with less superannuation.
These situations are compounded for women from poorer, diverse and Indigenous backgrounds and for women with disabilities.
Women represent less than 36% of board positions, there are only 10 female CEOs of ASX 200 companies; women comprise 20% of the ADF workforce and until recently, Australia had fewer women in its highest ranks of government than nearly every OECD country.
Yet, we know that an increased number of women in leadership roles leads to improved distribution of resources, better maintenance of public infrastructure, better natural resource management, and actually has a positive effect – right down to measures as simple as profit and loss.
Companies with more women in senior management teams have about 30% higher profit margins than those with lower gender diversity.
The business case is compelling. As Sam Mostyn and the Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce has made clear, a tax system that eliminates “negative gender biases” could unlock $128 billion lost annually to inequality.
Apart from this being the fair thing to do, increasing women’s leadership and voice are the right thing to do.
Research also shows women in leadership positions changes perceptions regarding the roles and aspirations of girls (including reducing the time girls spend on household chores in developing countries), results in more girls attending school and becoming equipped, themselves, to play leadership roles, including in conflict prevention.
We can’t be what we can’t see.
When I became a Senator, so many messages came from young women, saying that “if I could do it so could they”.
That was more than 27 years ago, and the federal parliament was around 14% female, and I was sure that we’d have gender parity long before now.
I take heart in recent changes: there are more women than ever before, 4% of MPs are of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, and we have more diverse cultures and backgrounds reflected and represented. The Senate is now 53% female.
I was serious about changing public perceptions around who was a politician (male, white, privileged, older) and worked with others to change the policy landscape for women generally, and the culture of the parliament specifically. I dealt with ridiculous stereotypes, unsolicited comments and touching, double standards and discrimination.
Being a younger woman underscored these experiences, but no woman is exempt, and these experiences are compounded for women of color, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, lesbian and trans-women and for women with disabilities.
All of whom have been profoundly under-represented in our decision-making institutions and whose injustices deserve bolder attention. Along with those of older women, the fastest growing group moving into poverty.
But, as my CEDAW colleague, Nicole Ameline reminds us, it is not just about numbers – and of course reflecting the difference and diversity in our population – but we need serious ‘disruption’ when it comes to decision-making institutions and ‘systems’.
Left to right, Jane Madden, President of NFAW, Zali Steggall MP, Natasha Stott Despoja, Aunty Violet Sheridan, Ngunnawal elder, Stephanie Copus Campbell, Ambassador for Gender Equality, Zoe Daniel MP, Sally Moyle, Vice President of NFAW and Mary Atkinson, Ngunnawal elder. Picture: Supplied
This is the rationale behind Madam Ameline’s GR 40 which calls for a “paradigm shift towards parity as a key norm in support of the realisation of women’s rights to equal inclusive and meaningful representation in decision making systems at all levels of the CEDAW Convention”.
These changes are those that the National Foundation for Australian Women has been calling for since its inception.
Your admirable goal of advancing and protecting the interests of Australian women in all spheres, including intellectual, cultural, political, social, economic, legal, industrial and domestic has been pioneering.
And, importantly, you goal is to ensure that the aims and ideals of the women’s movement, and its collective wisdom, are handed on to new generations of women.
It is an honor to be the dinner speaker for this pioneering feminist organisation which I have watched and been honored to connect with since it began. I have admired its founders, including the late Pamela Denoon, and its members. NFAW is one of the most important bodies in contemporary feminist herstory.
Your work on a gender-lens on budgeting and social policy, the women’s archives and other projects have made Australian women’s lives better and have guided and held accountable governments of all persuasions. I thank you.
We still have a long way to go before we have a more gender equal future. 300 years is shameful statistic.
But it is not easy when 59% Australians believe that gender equality has mostly or already been achieved.
Only 26% disagreed that women are more naturally suited to be the main carer of children and elderly parents – 37% agree with this statement, and 37% are ‘on the fence’.
Just 53% agree that it is important for Australians to stand up for gender equality in other countries. I am particularly proud of the work that Australia does, especially in partnership in the Pacific.
We have to tackle the historically-entrenched beliefs and behaviours that drive gender inequality, and the social political and economic structures, practices and systems that support this inequality.
That means we have to make changes in all the areas in which we live, love, learn work and play!
Speaking of play… it brings me to sport, and my initial comments. A feature of our State Party dialogues has been the increasing acknowledgement of the role of women in sport. In many areas it has undergone some of the most exciting gender revolutions in recent times.
I cried on the inaugural night of the AFLW back in 2017. And has the same feelings as I watched the opening night of the WWC2023. The WWC 2023 was the biggest women’s single-sporting event in the world with ticket sales smashing the previous Women’s World Cup ticket record.
As a consequence, we have seen greater investment in women’s football and an emphasis on gender equality. And we may be sceptical about some countries. In 2018 women couldn’t enter a stadium in Saudi Arabia and now there’s investment in a national women’s team.
I loved watching young girls and boys, mostly in their Sam Kerr shirts, at the game and clamouring for photos and autographs.
I loved this Matilda effect.
I do note that there is an actual Matilda effect: it is a bias against acknowledging the achievements of women scientists whose work is attributed to their male colleagues.
Australia celebrates a goal during the International Friendly Match between Australia and Canada at Allianz Stadium on September 6, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. Picture: Shutterstock
And who would have thought the actions of a man would overshadow the greatness of this event? Football boss Luis Rubiales’ forcible kiss of Women’s World Cup player Jennifer Hermosa — was an abuse of authority and reminded us how women – even in the highest echelons of their sectors or professions – can be subject to inappropriate and abusive actions.
But these actions were called out and condemned globally. Increasingly, I take great heart from the brave young and diverse women calling out bad behaviour and holding perpetrators to account.
I think NFAW’s mission to ensure that the aims and ideals of the women’s movement and its collective wisdom are handed on to new generations of women is in good hands.
But the price of feminism is eternal vigilance, something NFAW has been aware of for decades.
There are many hard won rights that we must protect and advance, in spite of the global backlash.
Friends, this is not a women’s problem: this is everybody’s business.
And I thank you all for being a part of this mission!
Picture at top: Natasha Stott Despoja during a welcome reception at ANU, in Canberra, ACT, Australia, 05 September, 2022. Photo: Tracey Nearmy/ANU
The UK has suffered a sharp decline in its performance in the latest round of influential international academic tests, wiping out recent progress, as the widespread disruption caused by Covid continued to take its toll on education, the Guardian reports.
Yesterday, when he was being interviewed at the Resolution Foundation conference, Keir Starmer was asked by Zanny Minton Beddoes, the editor of the Economist, if he could say in what way his policies were different from the Conservatives’. Starmer was able to provide a half-decent answer, but he did not entirely dispel her suggestion that in many areas the policy overlap is getting more and more pronounced.
Today’s announcement is an admission of years of Tory failure on both the immigration system and the economy, as net migration has trebled to a record high under the Tories since they promised to reduce it at the last election.
Labour has said repeatedly that net migration should come down and called for action to scrap the unfair 20% wage discount, raise salary thresholds based on economic evidence, bring in new training requirements linked to the immigration system, as well as a proper workforce plan for social care. Immigration is important but the system needs to be controlled and managed. But whilst the Conservatives have finally been forced to abandon the unfair wage discount that they introduced, they are still completely failing to introduce more substantial reforms that link immigration to training and fair pay requirements in the UK, meaning many sectors will continue to see rising numbers of work visas because of skills shortages.
What that means is, if you’ve got a shortage occupation, not just health and social care workers – that might be also engineers, might also include now bricklayers – employers will still be able to recruit at less than the threshold. And yet the government is still doing nothing to tackle those skills.
We think the Migration Advisory Committee should look at this very swiftly before it is introduced, particularly at the impact this is going to have on British citizens who fall in love across borders.
Campaign groups Fuel Poverty Action, Unite Community, and their allies held nationwide protests this weekend, carrying out ‘Warm Ups’ to demand action on fuel poverty. People occupied British Gas offices, protested outside Scottish Power, and engaged their local communities.
However, not everyone was receptive to the groups’ demands. Security at a South London shopping centre removed activists, simply for ‘warming up’ – albeit with a rather large banner reading ‘Cold Homes Kill’.
Fuel Poverty Action: we need ‘energy for all’
Fuel Poverty Action has carried out Warm Ups for over a decade. Activists enter buildings or public spaces in order to warm up as a group. They do this on the grounds of being unable to do so at home due to unaffordable energy prices and the poor conditions of housing. Of course, Fuel Poverty Action and others are also making points about the cost of energy and how it leaves countless poor people struggling.
The actions are in support of the Energy For All campaign. Launched by Fuel Poverty Action in 2022, it demands that every household is guaranteed enough energy for safe and adequate levels of heating, lighting, cooking as well as protecting additional needs like medical and mobility aids. It would be paid for by ending fossil fuel subsidies, redistributing energy company profits, and higher tariffs on household energy use beyond necessities.
Unite Community launched the Unite 4 Energy For All campaign in November to support the demand, in collaboration with Unite the Union’s campaign to nationalise energy.
So, between Friday 1 and Sunday 3 December groups organised over 30 events as far afield as Southend-on-Sea, Portsmouth, Gateshead, and the Isle of Arran – raising awareness of the scourge of fuel poverty and the government and energy companies’ willful inaction.
Warming Up energy companies
On 1 December a Warm Up took place at Scottish Power HQ in Glasgow for the second winter running. Participants condemned warrants granted to the energy giant a month ago to forcibly enter the homes of families with newborn babies and install prepayment meters:
Meanwhile, protestors entered and occupied a British Gas office in Cardiff for 30 minutes, the amount of time they say it takes the company to make half a million pounds in profit:
Then, on 2 December Fuel Poverty Action ‘Warmed Up’ at OVO Energy’s HQ in Bristol. They bedded down with blankets, sleeping bags, and hot water bottles to symbolise millions of people struggling to keep warm this winter:
Further Warm Ups took place including at the Arndale Centre in Manchester and Kirkgate Market in Leeds:
Stuart Bretherton from Fuel Poverty Action’s Energy For All campaign said:
The energy system, with its high standing charges, forced imposition of prepayment meters and other inequities, literally punishes people for being poor. Energy starvation this winter means that lives will be lost if we don’t see concrete action from this Government. People are ‘warming up’ to demand our human right to energy is respected and delivered. There’s plenty of money in energy company profits to ensure access to clean and affordable energy for all.
However, one Warm Up in South London on 2 December was too much for a shopping centre’s security team.
Bromley: warming up in the freezing cold
In the Glades shopping centre in Bromley, members of Bromley and Croydon Unite Community, South East London People’s Assembly, and campaign group the Chronic Collaboration staged a protest and community engagement session. As well as occupying a space in the ground floor, they dropped a large banner off the first floor which read “Cold Homes Kill” – attracting a lot of attention from shoppers:
However, around 10 minutes into the group’s action, and security were immediately getting involved – telling activists that the Glades was private property, and they couldn’t protest or speak to shoppers about fuel poverty there:
Undeterred, and somewhat ironically, Unite Community, South East London People’s Assembly, and the Chronic Collaboration took their Warm Up protest outside into the cold. So, instead of a shopping centre they commandeered Bromley’s Christmas tree:
The groups engaged with shoppers over the Energy For All campaign – with hundreds of people taking leaflets, and dozens signing letters to the government calling for it to act over fuel poverty:
‘We will be back’
Paula Peters is chair of Bromley and Croydon Unite Community. She told the Canary:
During the occupation of the Glades, security came along and told us it was private property and we were to leave. The action was peaceful and we were speaking to shoppers who were taking leaflets and signing Unite fuel poverty petition cards.
We were also warming up – as many of us activists included disabled people on pre-payment meters who simply can’t afford to heat their homes.
Security didn’t care about that, they chucked us into the freezing conditions outside.
The resolve of the activists yesterday was determined. We will be back for a future protest action very soon to highlight fuel poverty. While people are dying, suffering as a result of corporate greed we will keep campaigning.
‘Stand up and fight’
Nicola Jeffery is the founder of the Chronic Collaboration – a chronically ill and disabled peoples’ rights group. She told the Canary:
Fuel poverty is a growing problem in the UK. Yes that’s right, the UK – which is also one of the richest nations in the world. Over the last 13 years Tory governments have forced on its most vulnerable people continuous cuts under a policy of austerity. This has had a serious impact on chronically ill and disabled people, including affecting their health.
As a result of rising bills and forced pre-payment meters, many are unable to properly heat their homes causing them to be in fuel poverty.
Many people who struggle to heat their homes look for support locally. In some areas there are ‘warm banks’ available for people to use. Unfortunately, they are very few and far between and if you are chronically ill or disabled this isn’t always accessible or an option, leaving many struggling alone.
We have ourselves experienced fuel poverty. As a undiagnosed chronically ill and disabled single mother, I was forced to live for nearly two years in receipt of just child benefit. This meant that I literally had £20 a week to live on during that time, £10 on gas and £10 on electric. I was lucky that I could rely on my friends and family for food and support. Others are not so lucky and need so much more support then they are getting.
We at the Chronic Collaboration fully support Fuel Poverty Action and Unite Community’s collective effort. The government should act on fuel poverty – but it won’t. So, it’s up to all of us to stand up and fight.
‘Fuel poverty is costing human lives’
As Peters summed up:
The Warm Up action in Bromley and the banner drop in the Glades shopping centre were of vital importance to stress two things.
Firstly, the tragic impact of skyrocketing energy bills in a cost of living crisis, meaning millions of people are not able to switch the heating on, which is impacting on people’s health. Tragically, every winter fuel poverty is costing human lives.
Cold homes are killing people, and while people were Christmas Shopping in Bromley we wanted them to see that – hence the banner drop in the Glades.
Secondly, the leader of Bromley Council and Tory councillors in 2022 flatly refused to provide the funding for charities and social enterprises to have warm hubs in council wards in Bromley; the council leader said he wouldn’t waste the money on gas and electric, and told residents to warm up in Bromley libraries instead.
For many residents the nearest library is 1.5 miles away and only open 2-3 days a week due to Tory cuts. Their callous attitude shows what they think of residents – they simply do not care if people are cold and hungry.
This attitude from Bromley council is also entrenched across much of the political class in the rest of the UK. So, governments and councils will continue to abandon people. However, groups like Fuel Poverty Action, Unite Community, and the Chronic Collaboration will not stand idly by. More actions are expected throughout the rest of the winter.
Featured image via the Canary, and additional images via the Canary, Bromley and Croydon Unite Community, and Fuel Poverty Action, and video via the Chronic Collaboration
With the recent outbreak of conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and Russia, the Nagorno-Karabagh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, along with the continued conflict in Syria and Yemen, it’s clear that peace – or the lack of – is a global issue on many people’s minds.
In their latest global peace report (2023) – in which they provide a review of 163 countries – we saw the “ninth consecutive year that global peacefulness has deteriorated”.
Over the last year, peace decreased by an average of 0.42% per country, with 84 countries marked as more peaceful than in 2022, and 79 countries recording a deterioration of peace.
The global peace index (2023) (Source: Institute of Economics and Peace, 2023).
So, what lies behind the statistics?
Well, improvements and deteriorations were driven by changes a range of overlapping factors, including:
Conflict: the prevalence of internal and external conflict, along with the number of related deaths
Politics: the rate of military expenditure (% of GDP), political instability and relations with neighbouring countries
Displacement: the number of refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs)
Terrorism: current ranking on the political terror scale and the impact of terrorism
Weapons: the number of weapons imported and exported
Crime: the homicide rate and levels of violent crime and access to small arms
In this research, Iceland remained the most peaceful nation (a ranking held since 2008), followed by Denmark and Ireland.
Likewise, Afghanistan remained the “least peaceful nation” for the eighth year in a row, followed by Yemen and Syria.
These are countries that have found themselves in both groupings repeatedly. And with the outbreak of conflict, it’s no surprise.
Whilst terrorism-related deaths in the MENA region continue to decline (down by 23% in 2023), the largest increase of deaths has been in sub-Saharan Africa, with a rise of 8%.
In fact, the Sahel region of Africa has become the “epicentre of terrorism”.
In this region, 43% of deaths related to global terrorism occur.
Moreover, we’re also seeing the rise in ecological threats and the cyclical relationship to violence, including terrorism and conflict.
This is and will continue to have a monumental impact on populations, and the level of conflict:
“…without concerted international action, current levels of ecological degradation will substantially worsen, thereby intensifying a range of social issues, such as malnutrition and forced migration.
Current conflicts will escalate and multiply as a result, creating further global insecurity.
IEP estimates that by 2050, 2.8 billion people will reside in countries facing severe ecological threats, compared to 1.8 billion in 2023, with 1.1 billion of these people living in countries with low societal resilience.”
As communities are becoming increasingly displaced and lacking in critical resources, conflict and instability will inevitability increase.
The reality is this: if we want peace, we need to focus on more than ending conflict and violence (what’s known as “negative peace”).
Instead, we need a local, national and international effort towards “positive peace” – a holistic sustainable effort to prevent (rather than respond to) conflict.
To do this, we must build egalitarian resilient communities and transparent, accountable nations to collaborate on a global scale.
In short, if we want peace, we need to help communities thrive.
We have to tackle the rise of global terrorism, address the rise in climate change, promote intercommunal dialogue, address poverty and inequality – including gender inequality – and work on all levels.
This includes engaging at grassroots (community) level, with civil societies (expert organisations) and governmental and intragovernmental powers, to drive critical change.
Of course, this requires holistic change globally. And change starts with us!
Whatever our background, we can all make a difference.
How? Read on to find out!
1. Develop dialogue and human rights frameworks
Building dialogue among different communities is critical to building positive peace (Image credit: Freepik).
Inter-communal dialogue based on common shared values (our shared humanity!) is critical in building stronger relationships in our communities, regions, nations and globally.
Working across religious and cultural divides by communicating with each other and carving shared spaces, webuild a common sense of citizenship to come together and prevent conflict when disagreements and tensions rise.
By understanding individuals and communities’ diverse needs, we can better understand different lived experiences and carve more equitable spaces.
Promoting diversity and inclusion, and ensuring a broader sense of identity and citizenship, we can fight exclusion and develop the tools and understanding to prevent and respond to disagreements and larger-scale conflict:
“For decades the fields of conflict resolution, mediation and peace studies had been overlooking the positive political role that religion could play in all stages of peacebuilding.
Today there is growing attention to the contribution that religious peacebuilding can make to the stability, security, and justice of many divided societies around the world… through political application of religious ideals like reconciliation, forgiveness and mercy.”
We therefore need to amplify the role of intercommunal dialogue – including interfaith and intercultural dialogue – to unite among shared values, against (perceived) notions of difference.
These values however must lie within a framework of human rights (shared dignity and humanity).
In this way, we can build a mutual foundation of common values and unite to promote diversity (amongst all faiths and none).
We can therefore critically understand and promote the mutual rights of each and every one of us when building initiatives, policies and projects.
We can also confidently in collaboration reject harm, respecting and promoting cultural and religious diversity.
In this way, we can confidentially counteract religious extremism and harmful socio-cultural norms together, ensuring that we do not excuse harm under extreme variations of cultural relativism.
Local, regional, national or international, the sky’s your limit!
Plus, if you’re already a keen dialogue practitioner, why not apply for the KAICIID fellowship programme in intercultural and interreligious dialogue to expand your networks, resources and knowledge?
Keep an eye out on their website for submission deadlines.
Spread a counternarrative by promoting dialogue and humanism in religion, challenging dogmatism and extremism.
Create positive communities, talk with others inside and outside of the community, and speak out against hate.
Critically: report hate to relevant organisations and authorities (find out more here)
Support dialogue in peacebuilding:
Check out these great organisations working for peace in Israel-Palestineand support their crucial work through advocacy and fundraising.
Wherever your interest lies, we part of a positive solution!
Share positive stories, meet new people and promote peace not division
Promote human rights and peace education:
Promote the importance of human rights in practice, not just theory!
Expand your knowledge in human rights (perhaps by taking a course) and incorporate human rights into your work (implementing policies based on equity, inclusivity and no harm).
Dialogue is a key step to preventing conflict, with human rights building a key common framework of equality, justice and human dignity.
2. Challenge corruption and promote transparency
If we don’t tackle corruption, we can’t promote peace.
Bribery, nepotism, corruption are the anthesis to sound business, equity and well-functioning governments – and to peace:
“Corruption harms the poor and vulnerable the most, increasing costs and reducing access to basic services, such as health, education, social programs, and even justice.
It exacerbates inequality and reduces private sector investment to the detriment of markets, job opportunities, and economies.
Corruption can also undermine a country’s response to emergencies, leading to unnecessary suffering and, at worst, death.
Over time, corruption can undermine the trust and confidence that citizens have for their leaders and institutions, creating social friction and in some contexts increasing the risk of fragility, conflict, and violence.”
So, to tackle the issue of global poverty, inequity of systems and to drive real change, we need accountancy, transparency, development and growth.
This requires action across society, on all levels.
We need to call businesses to account for how they treat their employees.
We need to ensure that governments are investing money where they should be, that justice systems are fit for purpose and that grassroots communities are able to protect the most vulnerable people in our societies.
This includes people at increasing risk of modern slavery and displacement (see point #3) and gender-based violence (see points #3 and #4) as poverty and inequality meet the increasing drivers of climate change (see point #3) – amongst various other phenomenon.
It’s a task of monumental scale, but we can’t just sit back and do nothing.
Here’s how we can start.
Take action:
Call for accountability:
Report corruption wherever you see it. Call for investigations amid the misuse of power and the abuse of systems – be it locally, nationally or internationally.
Call people and systems to account. Report, fight and expose
Model the change:
Be the change in your own networks.
Whatever your work, position or line of work, ensure your systems are fair, transparent and open to feedback (as well as legally compliant!)
And this is having a monumental impact on communities worldwide – in particular the world’s most vulnerable.
In 2022 alone, a staggering 32.6 million people were displaced as a result of disasters.
98% of these were weather-related, such as floods, storms, wildfires and droughts.
And these are increasing the impact of poverty and risk of conflict.
As crops fail, livestock perish and people lose their livelihoods and homes, families and communities are left displaced – in search of food, shelter and work.
Such disasters/climatic changes aren’t a one off, they act as a “threat multiplier”:
“Not only did climate-related disasters trigger more than half of new reported displacements in 2022, but nearly 60 per cent of refugees and internally displaced people now live in countries that are among the most vulnerable to climate change.”
This will help communities to fight the effects of climate change, decreasing the rate of displacement, scarcity of resources, and ultimately conflict.
Climate change is about both the planet and people – and stemming the effects are critical to building and maintaining peace.
4. Fight global gender-based inequality
Peace requires gender equity – across the board.
Where poverty thrives and crisis hits, women are worst affected.
In any crisis (be it climate-related and/or conflict-related) – women and girls are always disproportionately affected.
At increasing risk of sexual violence, human trafficking and forced marriage (including child marriage), in times of conflict:
Teen girls are 90% more likely to be out of education
70% of women will experience gender-based violence
This however, simple falls in line with overall trends on gender inequality across the board.
We also know that when women are involved in peacekeeping efforts, peace is more likely to be sustainable:
“Female participation in both conflict prevention and conflict resolutionenhances security interests.
Studies have found that a significant inclusion of women and civil society groups in a peace negotiation makes the resulting agreement 64% less likely to fail and 35% more likely to last at least fifteen years.
…full and meaningful participation of women in peace operations broadens the perspective on conflict management, allows for more inclusive political resolutions, and, in the end, improves international peacebuilding strategies…”
So, when it comes to positive peace (preventing conflict) – we need to dismantle the political, social, cultural, religious and economic barriers that discriminate women and harm society as a whole.
These are barriers that both limit women’s participation in conflict prevention/resolution and also result in a disproportionate impact on conflict on women and girls in crisis situations (pre-, mid and post-conflict).
Take action:
Support education for women and girls:
Education is crucial for fighting the duality of poverty and gender inequality.
Women with an education are less likely to fight poverty (see point #5), and have greater means to leave abusive relationships.
When girls go to school, they’re building their future and fighting illiteracy, poverty and harmful practice such as child marriage.
Differently abled girls, menstruating girls and girls in rural communities all need access to quality education – which requires not just a change in attitudes, but the right resources.
Stand up against the social, cultural, religious and cultural norms that stigmatise and exclude women and girls from education, income-generation, community building and decision making.
From period shaming, victim-blaming of survivors of assault, exclusion of women from religious spaces and unfair burden of caring/household responsibilities, women and girls are denied the right to participate and contribute equally to build safer more equal societies.
They perpetuate misogynistic attitudes harmful to women and girls and to society as a whole.
Speak out, stand up and support crucial projects, such as Grandmother Project who are critically fighting FGM and promoting girls’ education
Empower women financially:
Help women to empower themselves financially by supporting microfinance projects, enabling them to fight the effects of gender-based inequality, challenge gender-based discrimination/harmful norms and stand up in their communities and societies.
This will ultimately help develop more inclusive peaceful societies for all.
Finally, call on your MP to ensure that the UK government puts gender at the heart of crisis-responsive policies.
5. Take action against poverty
Poverty is often a major factor behind the eruption of conflict.
As we’ve already seen, if we want to build peace and prevent conflict, we need to fight corruption, to work to ensure the mutual respect of human rights and to fight gender inequality and the increasing impact of climate change.
And so, a huge factor is also: fighting poverty.
Why?
Because poverty is a major driving factor behind the prevalence of harmful gender-based norms (see point #4), ill health and the exclusion of people in decision making and civil society.
Individuals and communities living in poverty are also further disproportionally affected by the increasing effects of climate change and risk of displacement (see point #3).
Taking also these factors into account, we’re left seeing the increased risk of conflict .
And of course, the further exclusion of women (see point #4) (remembering that women are also in fact key to building inclusive sustainably peaceful environments in pre and post-conflict rebuilding processes).
Poverty is complex, yet key part of the solution:
“…extreme poverty is … increasing in countries affected by fragility, conflict and violence (FCV)…by 2030, up to two thirds of the world’s extreme poor will live in these situations.
These challenges threaten to reverse efforts to end extreme poverty, and they affect both low- and middle-income countries…
Violent conflict has spiked dramatically since 2010 — conflicts now drive 80% of all humanitarian needs and reduce gross domestic product (GDP) growth by two percentage points per year…
Social and economic exclusion, climate change, gender and other inequalities, demographic challenges, illicit financial flows and other global trends contribute to this complexity.”
It’s fundamentally clear that if we want to prevent conflict, we need to fight poverty.
And if we want to fight poverty, we need to fight conflict.
Communities need equitable, inclusive, safe and thriving societies to build and promote dialogue, stem the effects of climate change, fight corruption and ultimately prevent conflict.
Take action:
Challenge discrimination:
Speak out against the discrimination which traps people in poverty, makes them vulnerable to radicalisation and/or recruitment in armed groups, and builds tension in communities (see sections #1 and #2).
Donate towards, volunteer with or share information at projects supporting refugee children’s education to help these children get the critical education every child needs and help break the cycle of poverty.
Prevent the recruitment of child soldiers:
Poverty and lack of opportunities are major drivers behind the recruitment of child soldiers.
Help end this abuse by supporting dedicated work to prevent the recruitment of child soldiers by strengtheningchild protection systems, promoting peacebuilding and increasing access to education and work opportunities.
Tackle the attitudes behind gender-based discrimination and violence (see section #4)
Promote and support education (for children and adults) and livelihoods/business (see section #4)
Protect workers rights (see section #2)
Fund climate-resilience projects (see section #3)
In this way, we can tackle the cycle and roots causes of poverty and inequality which make individuals and communities vulnerable to conflict.
Peacebuilding is an ongoing process. A process that we need to be active in building and sustaining.
As a planet, we need to look beyond non-violence, towards wider building positive peace globally.
This means going beyond the idea of simply a “lack of violence” (known as “negative peace”).
Instead, real sustainable peace (“positive peace“) means developing and strengthening societies based on mutual dialogue, equity, diversity and inclusion.
Higher levels of peace have been proven to lead to:
Stronger resilience and adaptability
Better environmental outcomes
Higher measures of wellbeing
Better performance on development goals
Higher income per capita
Better business environments
(Source: IEP, 2023)
Most critically however, positive peace exists in societies that are more just and are fairer.
These are societies which should have the critical tools, resources and systems in place to embrace pluralism, promote equity and therefore de-escalate potential conflict.
From breaking the gender bias, supporting displaced communities and fighting for people and planet, we can all make a difference on many levels.
Whether locally, nationally or internationally, through your work, volunteering or simply in your day-to-day life, the time is now!
Plus, don’t forget we’ve got the world at our digital fingertips!
Be part of the change.Today.
Credits:
This blog was produced inline with participation requirements on the IEP Ambassador Programme (2023).
The Institute for Economics & Peace(IEP) is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit think tank dedicated to shifting the world’s focus to peace as a positive, achievable, and tangible measure of human well-being and progress. We aim to create a paradigm shift in the way the world thinks about peace.
A protest over fuel poverty is set to take place in one of south London’s highest-profile shopping centres, the Glades. It’s of little wonder activists are organising it, though – given Tory-run Bromley borough council has refused point blank to help people this winter.
Warm Ups: taking direct action against fuel poverty
There’s going to be a protest at Bromley’s The Glades shopping centre on Saturday 2 December:
As energy bills are set to rise 5.1% in January, & the government has not provided any support with energy costs, come & us & @PeoplesSELondon & many others as we #WarmUp Saturday 2nd December 2023 11 am to 1pm Glades shopping centre pic.twitter.com/O6ONz2T0Qe
— Bromley and Croydon Unite Community (@and_unite) November 24, 2023
Fuel Poverty Action and its allies will be holding ‘Warm Up’ protests across the country on Friday 1 and 2 December, working with trade unions, tenants groups, and the climate movement. The actions are in support of the campaign group’s ‘Energy For All’ campaign. It’s demanding that every UK household is guaranteed the essential energy needed for life and dignity – with the hope of eradicating fuel poverty in the process.
Warm Ups involve entering and occupying spaces to keep warm together due to unaffordable bills at home. Last winter, the group coordinated two-days of national warm ups in December and January. These helped to win the temporary ban on forced prepayment meters.
Past warm ups have been carried out in Westminster, Holyrood, energy company HQs, banks, libraries, and department stores. Training and guides to organising warm ups can be found on the group’s website.
However, in one London borough activists will be warming up against a Tory-run council that is refusing to support people.
Bromley: Tories letting people freeze
In Bromley, opposition councillors tried to get the Tory-led council to give support to people this winter. as My Londonreported:
A motion was raised to create a £400,000 fund to support charities operating “warm banks” in the borough at a Bromley Council meeting on Monday (October 10). If approved, 100 warm centres could have applied for heating bill grants of up to £2,500 each under the plans.
The plans would have seen charities and social enterprises being able to set up four to five warm banks in each of Bromley’s wards. However, the Tories on the council effectively poured scorn on the idea. As My London reported:
Councillor Colin Smith, leader of Bromley Council, said five centres per ward would be a “waste of electricity” and “waste of gas” and one to two hubs would be more preferable…
It was suggested that residents could keep warm in libraries which are within a mile and a half of 95per cent of residents. Cllr Smith said: “The council’s 15-strong fleet of libraries will be acting as warm places over the course of the winter,” before adding that they would be a “good place to start”.
The Tories’ claimed the council didn’t have enough money to fund warm banks, either. However, the £400,000 costs for the warm banks represents just 0.16% of Bromley council’s entire net budget for 2023/24. Moreover, the idea that poor people should go and sit in a library all day to keep warm is insulting. Plus, with libraries specifically staff may be going on strike – because the Tories outsourced the running of them to a separate company that is not paying staff properly.
So, activists will be holding Bromley council to account – as well as the UK government and energy companies, both of whom have overseen spiralling costs to consumers while the corporations rake in huge profits:
— Bromley and Croydon Unite Community (@and_unite) November 27, 2023
‘Cold homes are killing people’
Paula Peters is a disability rights activist and member of both Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) and Bromley and Croydon Unite Community. She told the Canary:
Ofgem are rising energy prices by 5.1% in January 2024, with millions unable to heat or eat this is corporate greed causing further misery. Older people are using their bus passes to ride the buses all day and keep warm as unable to heat their homes.
48% of disabled people in the UK are in energy debt. Rationing powering of equipment, turning off peg feeding, ventilators and turning off the fridge to keep insulin cold putting their lives at risk.
Our message on Saturday is this cold homes are killing people.
As part of the fuel poverty day of actions on 1 and 2 December 2023 across the UK, Bromley and Croydon Unite Community Branch supported by South East London People’s Assembly and allies are having a public warm up in the Glades shopping centre Bromley from 11am to 1pm on 2 December 2023, to highlight fuel poverty and that millions of people are having to use shopping Centres, libraries, town halls, and public transport to warm up.
Please join us on Saturday in Bromley.
If you live in Bromley, get yourself down to the Glades at 11am on 2 December – and send a message to the Tories in both the council and Westminster.
Immigration has been a touchstone of United States political debates for decades, and several cities claim to be at a “breaking point” as they struggle to absorb and support arrived migrants. But is there really a border crisis? And why are cities like New York unable to cope with the influx of migrants when their numbers are not unusual by historic standards? Have the Biden administration’s…
The people of Gaza could be facing an even worsening crisis – on top of Israel’s assault, which has killed over 13,000 people – due to worsening weather conditions and winter setting in. That’s the assessment of Action Against Hunger.
Gaza: crisis on top of crisis
Imminent rainwater will add to sewage flowing in the streets, increasing the risk of disease according to NGO Action Against Hunger. The aid agency has been distributing water to civilians, but not enough to cope with the scale of demand
Action Against Hunger says that current rainfall will add to the sewage already flowing through the streets. Rainwater mixed with sewage is likely to lead to an increase in disease and possible outbreaks, which will spread rapidly due to overcrowding in displaced persons’ shelters.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) agrees. As Al Arabiyareported, it:
said on Friday [17 November] it was very concerned about the spread of disease of Gaza as weeks of Israeli bombardments have caused the population to crowd in shelters with scarce food and clean water.
“We are extremely concerned about the spread of the disease when the winter season arrives,” said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
He said that more than 70,000 cases of acute respiratory infections and over 44,000 cases of diarrhea had been recorded in the densely populated enclave, figures higher significantly higher than expected.
In overcrowded shelters in Khan Younis, the international charity has staff supporting civilians facing the highest levels of humanitarian need. Over 750,000 people have fled to the south of Gaza following intense conflict, with 1.5 million people displaced overall. Many of the displaced people rely on water assistance in shelters:
Action Against Hunger’s field staff said:
Lack of access to water is creating a breeding ground for skin allergies and diarrhoea, which easily spread given the crammed conditions in the shelter. Delivery of water happens every five days – even then people only have one bottle of water to wipe their bodies.
All the water tanks in our house are damaged, so we can hardly store water anymore. We have ended up recycling water from cleaning or washing. With the storms and rain coming, many people living in crowded areas will be unprepared for the drop in temperatures and flooding. If we do go outside, we are greeted by a flood of sewage in the streets, which will become even worse when the rains come.
Critical health consequences looming
Action Against Hunger has distributed 5,200 litres of clean water to around 1,700 people sheltering at a primary school in Gaza City, an average of roughly three litres per person. While these provisions curb the risk of fatal dehydration for civilians in Gaza, water supplies are running dangerously low since the conflict began on 7 October.
The WHO recommends between 50 and 100 litres of water per person per day are needed to ensure that most basic needs are met, while an absolute minimum of 15 litres is required in emergency situations. This includes clean water for drinking, cooking, and personal sanitation and hygiene.
In fact, there are only about three litres of water per person per day to meet the Gazan population’s needs. This raises fears of dehydration, kidney failure and other critical health consequences, particularly for children.
With Gaza’s water infrastructure crumbling under the scale of the conflict, people are relying on fuel to transport aid which includes water. Fuel has entered Gaza for the first time since 7th October, but in extremely reduced amounts to the scale of need and only for transport of trucks.
Action Against Hunger is calling for an immediate ceasefire to ensure the protection of civilians and the unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid, including access to water, sanitation, fuel and food. The organisation has been working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since 2002, opening an office in Gaza in 2005.
The rain has been almost constant these early months of 1996. Great storms from the US have arrived even to here, the Caribbean coast of Honduras, thousands of kilometers to the south. At times in Tela, the run-off courses thigh-deep.
And every day, it seems, some piece of news about those Northern-owned Fruit Companies has flooded the papers. A banana war has begun between them and the European Community. Accusations and denials gust through the pages of El Tiempo and La Prensa.
In February, I read in La Prensa of some campesinos who have taken over lands of the Tela RR Co. The Company official’s words echo through my mind: “I’m glad the military used no force. I’m glad the government respects private property rights.” I’d like to hear those campesinos’ stories. Tacamiche. I can’t find this village on any maps.1
Another gust flutters the pages of the dailies in my hands. The Honduran government has said no to any attempt by the Tela RR Co. to decrease train service. The poor need an inexpensive means to travel, argue the politicians. I pull out the maps again.
The Ferrocarril Nacional owns the lines from Puerto Cortés to Baracoa, and beyond to San Pedro Sula. The Company, the one from Baracoa to Tela—as well as others running deep into the fincas. There are really three Chiquita trains: one that makes a trip through those plantations between El Progreso and La Lima; The Machangay, a weekly service from that Port to the emerald hearts of their lands, carrying merchandise to the Company stores; and, in part, from Puerto Cortés to Tela.
If I can’t find Tacamiche, I can surely find a railroad.
The weather, for the first time in weeks, is sunny—and muggy. But I won’t be prepared for the storm that will cast me in a whirlwind for the next thirty-six hours.
*****
In the cracking dawn, I gather with many others for a train to Baracoa, then on to Tela. Opposite this Portón Nº 7, is the shell of a building. Its brick and concrete crumble under today’s dry sky. The metal date is still intact: 1922. Its former name is a faint shadow: Hyller Ralston and Son.
A thin-limbed ladino wobbles from one person to another, showing off his pride. From his front pocket, he pulls out an ancient, long-barreled revolver.
The train arrives. The rush is on. Quickly the cushioned seats in the lone first-class car are taken. I opt for a wooden one in second. There are three of these wagons, as well as four fruteros converted to passenger use, two baggage cars, and the locomotive.
Our journey begins, clattering through the awakening city, over a bridge spanning a laguna. Shanties built upon stilts above the marshy ground. In the window of one, a woman washes dishes. The sink hangs off the sill. Soiled water drains to the swamp below.
Though it is still early, the swelter grows. I tuck my journal into my back pocket, leaving the scenes of small rustic settlements and molded Company towns that slip by my window.
Through the fruteros, stepping over people’s legs stretched out to the center bench. Perdone … con permiso … To the first baggage car to buy a soda. But the entrance is jammed with passengers and bundles of firewood. I return to my seat, stepping over legs, defeated.
“What’s the matter?” The words cut through my self-pity. I hadn’t noticed someone’s eyes were watching me on my unsuccessful quest. An Afro-Honduran man studies me with deep brown eyes.
“Oh, I thought of getting a gaseosa. But the way is blocked.” I shrug and begin turning towards my car.
“What flavor would you like?” He gets up from his place.
“Oh, no,” I shake my head, single braid wagging. “It’s all right, señor.”
“No, I insist. Sit down, please.” He offers the bench with an open hand. “What kind would you like?”
“Grape would be fine, please.”
Within minutes, he returns. One chocolate-colored hand embraces the bottle.
“How much do I owe you?” I reach into my pocket after taking the lukewarm soda.
He smiles. “Nothing. It’s my treat.” He sits next to me.
This is Eduardo, going home to San Juan, a Garífuna village near Tela. He farms some land there, in the mountains. For more money, he fishes a few months at a time, out of Puerto Cortés.
Flashes of sunlight through the slats of this frutero dance within the car. We talk about the railroads here, and their owners. Our conversation flows to the banana companies: who they are and where they rule.
West of Tela is Chiquita-land with bananas and citrus. It used to be United Fruit. East of Tela—La Ceiba, Trujillo—belongs to Standard Fruit, or Dole. It mainly grows bananas and pineapples. Nueva Tela and Lancetilla were United’s territory.
“And there are others, too. A new one, also from the United States. … No, it’s independent from the other two.” Eduardo blows the smoke of his cigarette. It swirls in the sunlight slipping in. “There was some old company, Italian.” He shakes his just-beginning-to-grey head. “I don’t remember the name any more. It, too, used to be on the coats. But it got bought up years ago.”
I take a swig of my grape gaseosa, listening to his melodic voice.
He wrinkles his brow, eyes squinted in thought. “And there was another—Cuyamel. It worked west of Puerto Cortés. It got bought up, too. There aren’t any fincas that way any longer.”
I wipe my mouth. “Why’s that, don Eduardo?”
He shrugs. “I suppose because the soil’s not as good. Lots of small plantations there, though. Some are collectives, others private. They grow bananas, sugar cane, yucca and the like.” His flicked ash falls through a hole rotted in the wooden floor.
I place the bottle between my feet. “Just on the other side of the river there, in Guatemala, the Company has many large fincas.”
“Oh, yeh.” His smile is bright. “They’ve got some very good land there.”
“You know, don Eduardo,” I look him in the eyes, “it’s good to meet someone who knows so much about the bananeras. So many Hondurans have told me differing things. Like Tela had belonged to Estandard Fruit.”
He laughs quietly. “Well, I know some, because I’ve travelled so much around the country.” He falls serious. “Plus, if I don’t know something, I say I don’t know, instead of pretending I do and misinforming.”
I nod, picking up my soda. I sip the last of it.
“And I used to work for the Company many years ago.”
I glance at him. His eyes are gazing at something in that past. “When was that?”
“Oh, ’51 to ’66.” He drags his cigarette.
“Wasn’t there some sort of big strike back then? In ’53 or ’54?”
“Fifty-four.” His head moves plaintively up and down. “You had to conform.”
“And how was it?”
Eduardo turns to me. “Low pay. Had to conform. Step out of line, and you were out.” He tromps his bud. “I decided to get out of that. Went to work in other agriculture and fishing. I devote myself to that now.”
I hold the empty bottle up. “Well, I guess I should go return this.”
On my pass back through, Eduardo nods towards the landscape. “We’re already coming into Tela.”
I peer out between the slats. We’re entering the railyard. This train clatters by the old Tela RR Co. building and decaying frutero cars.
“Don Eduardo, thanks for the soda—and the lessons.”
He nods de nada with a smile.
I go to my second-class seat to retrieve my knapsack. I watch our approach through the open window. We have pulled onto the fractured pier, and now backing along a spur line. Beneath a bridge, the river swirls black-green and tan-grey. We arrive at the Old Tela station.
I lose sight of Eduardo in the crowd on the road leading past the cheap-dive hotels and market. The mud is crusting into ruts. The late-morning sun is strong.
I have no interest in spending even a night here. The five weeks I’d spent in February, going into March, was enough. I head straight for the bus terminal. I’ll go to La Ceiba, the cradle of Standard Fruit. Then on to Trujillo.
*****
A thin wind whirls dust and litter around my feet. I step through the rear door of this school bus. It is dim inside. Most seats are already taken.
A young ladino, perhaps mid-20s, offers the one next to him, in the back here. As soon as I sit down, he says with a big smile, “So, are you from the United States?”
Oh, boy, this is going to be a long ride. “I’m from Alaska,” I respond flatly.
“Oh.” Disappointment washes over his bony face. “I thought …”
A heavy silence drifts between us.
I look away. I feel a hollowness in the pit of my stomach.
“Well, I work at Estandard Fruit.” He pulls out his worn leather wallet and hands me his identification card. “In a packing plant. Four years now.”
Bewilderment washes over my face. “That’s strange. On the train from Puerto Cortés just now, I met a man who used to work for the Company. He said wages were low and one had to conform.”
This young man nods enthusiastically. “Oh, yeh.”
He leans over the back of the seat, pulling off his ball cap. He fans a banana box in the cargo hold behind us.
“What you got there?”
“Oh,” he sits back down with a clunk. “A hen, a rooster—and five chicks. I have my own piece of land now and setting up livestock on it.”
“Once you get it established, are you going to leave the Company?”
The cock crows.
The man’s head bobs with a slight grin. His eyes twinkle.
“So, how much do you earn?”
“Oh, 25 lempiras a day. Per month, 750.”
About minimum wage here. At the present exchange rate, that would be about $70US per month.
“I saw in the newspapers that the minimum wage will be increasing soon.”
He shakes his head. The sunlight shimmers on his black hair. “I’m not so certain.”
“Why’s that?”
“Lawyers of the big companies are fighting it.”
I’d read that, too.
He reaches back to fan his chickens again. “I have to keep my investment cool,” he says with a laugh.
I smile at him.
That sunbeam is so warm. This has already been a long day. I begin nodding off….
I awaken, my shirt damp with sweat. It’s hellaciously hot. I reach for my water bottle.
My seatmate is cooling his chickens once more. He grins fincas are fading into miles of pineapple groves along either side of the highway. We are nearing La Ceiba.
*****
Once settled into this city, I wander through the central park. Caimans and turtles are keeping cool in their tank beneath the massive rubber tree. And I wander across the Avenue to the railroad park in the Company town. Under an ancient mango tree, a couple trysts. A slight breeze rustles its lance-shaped leaves. A mosaic of leaf-shadow and sunlight dances on the brick path.
I’m reading the sign by the old San José locomotive. A man walks up behind me. He watches me write, I see from out of the corner of my eye, and the holstered pistol he wears.
Many times during my journeys, I have found my fascination for trains intermeshing with the history of the banananeras.
I turn around to face him. “Excuse me, sir. Do you work here?”
“Sí, senora.” This ladino studies me: long hair in a single braid, blue jeans, tennis shoes. His face is official. “I work vigilance in this park.”
“Pues, perhaps you can help me. I am writing a book on train journeys. I understand there might be cargo service to La Ceiba. Is that true?” I’ve long wanted to travel these lines around here. But a previous visit to Sambo Creek proved it couldn’t run very far east.
“No, Estandard Fruit doesn’t ship by train any longer. It uses trucks. All the lines now belong to the government. There is, however, a special tourist train every day.”
“What hours does it run, señor?”
“From seven in the morning until about six in the evening. Every hour and a half or so.” His arms are crossed. He watches me jot this down.
“And where does it go to?”
“To a pineapple plantation about a kilometer from here.”
Hmmm, this could be a fun ride. “How much does it cost, sir?”
“Seventy centavos each way.” He turns to a taller, stockier man who just walked up to us. He also wears a pistol.
“The railroad station here in the park. Is it the original passenger station?”
The first man shakes his head. “No, it’s out in a neighborhood …”
“Quite a distance from town,” his co-worker interjects.
“It’s now in bad disrepair,” the skinnier one finishes.
“Was this, then, the station for the Company town and headquarters?”
They shrug.
The brusquer one responds, “The main Company headquarters has always been elsewhere.”
I raise an eyebrow. That’s different. “Where is that, señor?”
“I don’t remember the name of the place. But this,” he nods his head towards the white cookie-cutter buildings, “was a local branch, until two years ago. These offices now handle tourism for this park, and for Cuero y Salado.” Cuero y Salado is a natural reserve about 30 kilometers west of La Ceiba—as the vulture flies.
I look at him questioningly, “Why did it move?”
“Well, with the change of president two years ago, the Company pulled out majorly from the area. The previous administration had been funding a new port for Estandard Fruit east of here. But with the change, Estandard said no. So, now the new government has had to abandon the port. It’s not completely built.”
“Pues, why did the Company decide to pull out of the project?”
“Oh, the new government only cares about,” his broad face scrunches, “its ‘moral revolution.’” His stubby fingers quote those last two words. “It doesn’t care about the country itself. Just look at the condition of the roads along this coast.” He spits on the ground.
“When did Standard stop using La Ceiba as a port?”
The first man looks at his partner before responding, “1986.”
“You’d said Estandard had majorly pulled out. In what ways?”
The second ladino wipes his mouth. “Sí, it’s dropped more and more operations. This port …”
“… the railroad,” adds the other.
“The port project.”
“Oh, and it closed down big pineapple fincas to the west.”
“And those African palm plantations outside of town. To whom do they belong?”
The two men look at each other. The larger one answers, “They’re mostly Honduran companies.”
“Well, we should be getting back to work.” The thin man elbows his co-worker.
“Sí, we have to make sure no-one steps on the grass or anything. Adiós, señora.”
I stroll across the park, to the Avenida, down to the old pier. This is a quieter Sunday than two years ago. No boats await to go to the Bay Islands. A few families sit on the edge, dangling and swinging their legs. A man pulls up his hand-held line. A silver fish flips on the hook. Until dusk, I lean against a mooring, listening to the music of languages around me—Spanish, English, Garífuna. The sunset colors sparkle the blue-green water.
A few clouds speckle this new morning. The sun is already an hour or so old. It plays through the leaves, swaying in a now-and-again breeze.
I sit under the arbor. That finca train should come some time. I must have missed the first one. The time passes. I write. Three women catch their ride to work. I light a cigarette.
A man comes up to me. His Quimipro ball cap casts his serious eyes in shadow. “Excuse me. May I have a cigarette, please?” He sits next to me, blowing the smoke slowly. “Are you waiting for someone?”
“The tourist train. And you?”
“Oh, a lift to Estandard Fruit.”
“Do you work for it?” My flicked ash scurries across the path.
He shakes his head. The scattered sunlight catches on his high cheekbones. His skin is pale. “No, for Blanquita. I used to work for it, though.”
I put my journal under my thigh. “Really?”
“Sí.” He drags his cigarette. “I began there when I was 8. I trained as a locomotive mechanic. I worked ten years for the railroad—two under Estandard, the rest with the government, until it closed down operation of the lines. From there, I went to work for Blanquita, as a processing assessor.”
“And Blanquita. Who does own it?”
“Pues, it’s Honduran-owned and independent. But the real owner is Estandard Fruit. It’s just another arm of it.” He gazes at his hands, then takes another puff. ·The African palm plantations mostly belong to Blanquita. Some, though, are independent farmers who sell the fruits to it.”
“Are the Standard offices here in La Ceiba?” I step on my butt.
“Sí. Those buildings over there.” He points to the large white ones across from the railroad park. “It also has other offices. Out on the fincas, in Puerto Cortés, and Puerto Castilla.”
“Why doesn’t it use the port here anymore?”
With his long, bony fingers, he flicks his remnant into the grass. “It’s obsolete. Can’t handle the big cargo container ships. Now it’s only used to send produce out to the Islands.”
“I heard the government had been building a new port for Estandard. But the project had to be abandoned because the Company pulled out.”
His features become sharper. “It’s a lie.” He glances out to the parking lot. Nothing yet.
And I watch the railroad shed on that other side. Nothing yet, either.
I lean forward, arms on thighs. “Why doesn’t Standard use the railroad any longer?”
One hand rubs a knee of his black pants. “Because of the irresponsibility of the workers.” He looks up. “The Company would hire people to unload boxes from the train when it arrived at the pier.” He nods down towards the seafront. “The workers would stack the boxes four or five high. Many bananas got damaged—more easily done the riper they get. Pues, there were many complaints from the US and Europe. The Company was losing lots of money. So it had to end.”
A silence blows between us. We both study that lot.
His eyes fall to his work-worn hands. “Plus, the workers were mañoso.2”
I wrinkle my brow. “Mañoso? What does that mean?”
“Pues, for example. There’s a pineapple finca to the west of here,” he turns and points that way. “Montecristo Piñales. It’s very large. Has permanent employees. Well, they’d report in in the morning, then request to see a doctor. They had a pain here,” he points to his side, “a pain there,” to the head, “everywhere. The doctor would write up a one-week excuse, and Estandard would pay wages for that week.” He looks at me. “It wasn’t just one worker who did that, but many. It cost the Company a lot of money.” He straightens up, his gaze fixed out there. “The plantation is still operating, but with different workers. All of them were replaced. Con permiso.”
He walks off to the parking lot, to a pick-up truck pulled in. I watch him greet a man. They drive away.
I wait for my train a while longer, passing the time scribbling notes in a small red notebook. The leaf-mosaic waltzes over the page, over my hand.
It is now almost 10 a.m. Still no train. I decide to pack it in and go to Trujillo.
*****
During this bus trip, no conversation interrupts my contemplation of the countryside. West of Savá is a kilometers-long banana plantation. White plastic wraps the racimos. Arrow-straight dirt roads lead into its depths. Workers bow under the already-heavy heat of this day. A yellow-red sun warns not to collect fruit.
I pick up today’s La Prensa from my lap. An article catches my eye, about the Port of Cabotaje.3 This is the one we’d talked about in La Ceiba. Yes, it was built by the previous government. There’s a lack of funding from this new administration to do the necessary dredging of channels to keep it clear.
My pen jolts with the rhythm of the bus. My usual chicken scratch is now almost indecipherable. I glance out. We have now left Savá. Fincas of African palm patch the roadside. I turn my attention back to the story: “… and with the pull-out of Standard Fruit Company, this port lost its importance in the country.”
But there is no mention of why the Company pulled out.
I fold the paper, giving it back to its owner, and stuff the little notebook in my pocket. We are now near Tocoa. “The Cradle of Agrarian Reform,” proclaims a faded sign. Citrus groves blanket the countryside.
*****
Over the next few weeks, those northern storms once more arrive to this coast. The rains muddy the streets of Trujillo. Many days, gusts of wind flutter the pages of the newspapers.
Tela RR Co. executive Fernando Sánchez (formerly the US consul to this country) makes an offer to the government. The Company will invest $100 million US in finca infrastructure and increase previously fallen banana production by 40%. However … Honduras must decrease taxes by 50 US cents per exported box.4
More accusations in the Banana War. This in relation to the Stalinsky case. A two-page letter-ad runs, written by a former Chiquita employee. It details the dirty work he claims the Company asked him to do.5
And Standard Fruit will be returning to Nicaragua, after having left in 1982 (… during the Sandinista Revolution, which instituted an agrarian reform and new labor laws …).
The drizzle of conversations, too, continues. From public library to the clutter of a museum. From dim market to café. On street corners …
My little book becomes drenched with the rains….
ENDNOTES
1 Four months later, The New York Times (22 July 1996) would publish an article on this.
Somalia has recently seen the worst flooding it’s had in a century. Dozens of people have been killed, and 1.6 million people have been affected. Moreover, the flooding has cut off communities from essential healthcare as the prevalence of waterborne diseases increases. However, another devastating consequence is that the prices of staple goods has increased by 35%.
Somalia: soaring food costs due to flooding
According to Action Against Hunger, food prices soared in the first few weeks of Somalia’s flooding. The international charity’s Food Security and Livelihoods team confirms that common foods like rice, oil, sugar, and flour have increased by 35 per cent, and vegetable prices are also on the rise. The main road from Mogadishu was washed out by the floods, and many vehicles are reportedly stuck in the road.
As a result, many food supplies are not making it to the flooded towns – significant damage to crops, roads, homes, and other infrastructure is particularly affecting districts in Baidoa, Bardere, Luuq, and Galkacyo.
The soaring costs of goods is likely to exacerbate food insecurity across Somalia, a country that has been experiencing climate change-induced droughts that has already pushed millions of people into hunger. El Nino, the recurring weather phenomenon, is one of the reasons why this year’s rains are so heavy.
Families in Somalia, who recently suffered through a prolonged and severe drought, already had limited access to food, income, and other resources to survive before the floods. Now, the floods have made health services, schools, and markets difficult to reach. Agricultural lands that had dried out in years without rain washed away easily in the deluge. People have nothing left for themselves and their loved ones. 32 deaths have already resulted, impacting more than 1.6 million people, and displacing nearly half a million people from their homes.
‘We do not have food’
In Baidoa, Khadijo Ali Mohamed, a 28-year-old mother of four living in Gofgalol displacement camp, lost all of her belongings including food, mattresses, and kitchen tools. Action Against Hunger teams met her at the camp. It is home to more than 300 displaced people including pregnant women, children and the elderly. Compounding this crisis, her husband fell ill in the middle of the night.
“The fever was not subsiding and we had no way to take him to the hospital at that hour of the night. Even now, we do not have food,” said Khadijo Mohamed. She and other residents of the displacement camp have been forced to flee to other areas of the town. The rains kept falling, even after they washed away homes, vehicles, and – tragically – people.
Vulnerable displaced families are exposed to precarious circumstances, as they relocate to find higher ground – areas that may be dry, but where clean water is scarce and sanitation conditions are inadequate. Baidoa, in particular, is an area prone to waterborne diseases such as acute watery diarrhea. The floods aggravate this already challenging situation.
Vulnerable to disease
Action Against Hunger emergency officer, Ibrahim Abdirahman, warns that contaminated water poses a significant threat to public health, especially when it rains. “Waste picked up from all over the town by the flooding goes into wells, and this increases chances of infection,” explains Abdirahman, who also responded to the cholera emergency last year in Baidoa.
When it rains, mosquitoes often breed and malaria cases increase – this impacts vulnerable families and children under five years old.
As part of its emergency response, Action Against Hunger’s team has begun to decontaminate water points, in addition to providing water treatment tablets, distributing hygiene supplies, and educating people on the importance of good hygiene practices to prevent disease outbreaks in the communities.
Somalia: more rain forecast
Action Against Hunger Somalia has also secured a £4m bilateral grant from the British Embassy in Mogadishu. The grant, which is set to run for six months, will help provide crucial life-saving support in health, nutrition and WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) to close to one million vulnerable Somalis impacted by the adverse effects of El Niño in South Central Somalia.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the upcoming days are expected to bring even more rain to communities across Somalia. Action Against Hunger warns that needs are likely to increase.
As heavy rain could continue to fall in Somalia, Action Against Hunger’s health teams are visiting communities and providing critical support. In addition, the organisation is providing emergency cash assistance for the most vulnerable families, so they can buy food, medicine, and other essential supplies.
Fuel Poverty Action is planning ‘Warm Up’ protests across the country on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 December, working with trade unions, tenants groups, and the climate movement. The actions are in support of the campaign group’s ‘Energy For All’ campaign. It’s demanding that every UK household is guaranteed the essential energy needed for life and dignity – with the hope of eradicating fuel poverty in the process.
Warm Ups: taking direct action against fuel poverty
Fuel Poverty Action has carried out warm ups for over a decade but is calling for its biggest mobilisation yet, as households are crippled by energy debt this winter.
In Autumn 2023, Fuel Poverty Action announced plans for allies and supporters to ‘#WarmUp This Winter’. The grassroots group is calling for nationwide Warm Up protests on 1 and 2 December to demand energy bills are brought down for good.
Warm Ups involve entering and occupying spaces to keep warm together due to unaffordable bills at home. Last winter, the group coordinated two-days of national warm ups in December and January. These helped to win the temporary ban on forced prepayment meters.
Past warm ups have been carried out in Westminster, Holyrood, energy company HQs, banks, libraries, and department stores. Training and guides to organising warm ups can be found on the group’s website.
Energy bills have still doubled
Stuart Bretherton, Fuel Poverty Action’s Energy For All campaign coordinator said:
Last winter, energy bills were at the forefront of headlines and people’s minds. But while the news cycle has moved on, energy bills are still double what we paid two years ago and over 5 million households were in energy debt before this winter even began. We’re not accepting mass poverty as the new norm. The UK Government is passing the buck when there’s concrete policies they can adopt today to reduce poverty and save lives, so direct action is the obvious step for us to push them to do so.
The protests will put immediate demands to the government to protect lives this winter by making the ban on forced prepayment meters permanent and ditching regressive standing charges, which bear the largest costs for poorer households. It follows Fuel Poverty Action’s protest outside the Department for Energy Security over the return of energy companies being able to force people to have prepayment meters. You can read the Canary‘s report on that protest here:
Along with longer term measures like upgrading poor quality housing and heating systems, and ultimately guaranteeing every household enough energy to ensure essentials needs are covered, as outlined by the Energy For All campaign.
An ‘unjust’ system
Holly Donovan, a Unite Community member and spokesperson for the national Unite For Energy For All campaign said:
Energy For All is a much needed reform to our energy pricing system. Under our current system those who use more energy pay less per unit than those of us who are tightening our belts and cutting down on energy use. This is clearly upside down, unjust and a very simple thing the government could address to help households in the greatest need.
The Energy For All campaign launched in 2022 with a petition signed by over 660,000 members of the public. Fuel Poverty Action followed this up with a manifesto endorsed so far by almost 250 organisations, community groups, businesses, and elected officials.
The proposal for energy company profits and subsidies to be redirected, and higher tariffs on luxury household energy use, in order to supply every home with enough energy for adequate levels of heating, lighting, cooking, and so on goes far beyond what other campaigns and parties called for last winter.
Uniting against fuel poverty
But in less than two years, the idea pioneered by a small movement is being actively campaigned for by groups ranging from Unite Community to 350.org. Through this mobilisation, Fuel Poverty Action hopes to unite allies of all different backgrounds, experiences and causes.
Lucia Harrington, Fuel Poverty Action’s lead organiser said:
Energy For All encompasses so many of the issues we face today and that’s why we’ve received such wide-ranging support from trade unions, tenants groups, the climate movement and MPs. It’s not a choice between meeting people’s needs and saving the planet, we can do both by reversing a system that puts profit first and punishes people for being poor. We need actions across the country this winter to drag this government into fulfilling its duties to prevent deaths from cold and damp this winter.
If you’d like to organise a local Warm Up, email e4a(at)fuelpovertyaction.org.uk or visit the dedicated website here.
Featured image via Fuel Poverty Action and additional image via the Canary
Inflation has fallen to 4.6% – down from 6.7% in September, official figures now show. However, a think tank has effectively warned this means nothing in the real world. Meanwhile, the government is also reportedly considering cutting people’s benefits in real-terms now inflation has fallen.
Inflation: food prices UP 30% in 2.5 years
With today’s news that inflation is at 4.6%, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s (JRF’s) latest cost of living tracker found a third of all families on a low income – 3.8m households – had to sell something they owned just to cope with rising costs. This is virtually unchanged since May 2023 when inflation was almost double what it is today – 8.7%. Meanwhile, at the same time the government is considering a real-terms cut to benefits.
In October 2023, half of all low-income households – 5.9m – reduced meals, skipped meals altogether, or just went hungry – the highest since the JRF began its surveys. A quarter of low-income households said they had borrowed money just to buy food.
This is shocking but not surprising. Using today’s ONS data, JRF calculates overall inflation is 20% higher than in April 2021. Food prices are around 30% higher and energy prices are still up by around two thirds compared to then. Benefits are only 13% higher.
CPI is the change in prices compared to one year ago and today’s fall is mostly the result of the last big energy price hike being 13, rather than 12, months prior to the most recent data.
‘Indefensible’
Responding to today’s inflation figures, JRF chief analyst Peter Matejic said:
The people who had to take on debt in order to eat, or the people who took something they cherished to a pawnbroker just to buy warm clothes for their children, are not feeling the financial security Rishi Sunak promises. They live in a world where their income, in many cases, simply doesn’t cover costs while the Government talks about cutting their support further.
Ministers claim that getting inflation down will make everyone’s money go further but, even after this fall, prices are still far higher than they were last year, rising at more than twice the Bank of England’s target rate. People are still having to go to great lengths just to afford everyday essentials and often are going without.
It’s indefensible that the Government is reportedly considering cutting the benefits of struggling families worried for their future, with news stories suggesting it plans to use today’s figures, instead of last month’s, to fiddle the figures and hide a big cut.
In the upcoming Autumn Statement benefits must be increased in line with inflation and Local Housing Allowance (LHA) must be unfrozen to support private renters with their housing costs. The Chancellor should also take steps to ensure that Universal Credit, at a minimum, always enables people to afford the essentials.
So, what is the government considering doing about benefits?
The UK government is considering using October’s inflation number for next year’s rise in working-age benefits, two people familiar with official thinking said, a move that would hit low-income families.
Ministers are waiting to see Wednesday’s inflation data before deciding how much to lift support for the roughly nine million households on working-age benefits from April. Convention is that the September data is used but the government has refused to make that commitment. Using October’s inflation rate – predicted to come in about 2 percentage points below September’s – would save roughly £2 billion… a year.
This would actually be a real-terms cut – as economics professor Jonathan Portes pointed out:
This would then not be an inflation uprating – it would be a real terms cut in benefits to the poorest purely to finance tax cuts for the better off (very much in the Cameron spirit, of course). https://t.co/lCBfmjbVAz
All eyes will be on chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement on Wednesday 22 November, where he will reveal whether or not his government will cut people’s benefits.
Transport costs are keeping five million people (8% of the UK population) below the poverty line, a think tank has found using new research.
Transport poverty: a new method of measuring this
The figures come from a first-of-its-kind model (see notes) for tracking transport poverty, developed by the Social Market Foundation (SMF). The SMF’s metric found that out of a total of 13 million individuals in poverty today, relieving them of these costs would lift five million (8% of the British population) above the poverty line.
The SMF defines transport poverty as occurring when households spend so much on private and public transport that it pushes them below the poverty line.
According to the SMF, cars are the most expensive mode of getting around, costing the median British household over £5,650 per year in upfront costs, maintenance, fuel, and additional fees. Yet despite over £100bn spent on cuts and freezes to fuel duty have made little impact on transport poverty, the SMF finds.
Barely changing anything
The total impact of those policies over the past dozen years has been to cut transport poverty by just 0.3 percentage points according to its model. Although driving is expensive, less than a fifth of that expense is caused by government taxes and charges, thus even a drastic cut to fuel duty will not alleviate families’ transport poverty the SMF notes.
Far from persecuting motorists, the SMF suggests that the government has coddled drivers, inadvertently hurting them with policies that end up encouraging car use arguing that the bigger issue is a lack of investment in alternatives to driving, keeping people reliant on costly cars.
For every 10% increase in public transport journey relative to motoring in England, the average household pays over £400 more for transport each year – as they are forced to use the most expensive mode of transport (cars) in order to reach key services.
Rising prices, increased poverty
Unlike ‘fuel poverty’, which is a well-established concept and is used by national and devolved governments to shape their policies, there is no robust equivalent for understanding the causes, locations, and depth of poverty due to transportation costs. Despite the high toll these take on household budgets, government has not yet introduced a metric for it, which could be used to help policymakers better target policies, the SMF argues.
The findings come against a backdrop of rising costs and over a decade of cuts to public transport. Latest ONS figures show a rise in bus and coach costs by 6.7% over the last year. Also last year, almost 10% of bus networks in the UK were cut, and some towns have lost entire bus access.
The regions that rely most heavily on cars and have suffered the worst public transport tend to have the highest transport poverty rates. Its analysis found that the North West has the most individuals in transport poverty (800,000), though a higher proportion of people in the North East (12.5%) and West Midlands (11.9%) are affected. This compares to just 4% in London. (See notes)
More to be done
Most recently, the Government has announced that bus services in parts of England will get a one-time £150 million boost by re-routing funds from the scrapped Manchester HS2 leg. It comes with a promise to address transport issues that “matter most to people”, in the prime minister’s words.
Whilst this funding is welcome, the SMF urges the Government to use its transport poverty metric to ensure funding is directed where it is most needed and can have the greatest positive impact on transport poverty.
In the long term, if the Government is to eliminate transport poverty the SMF recommends the following measures:
The Department for Transport should begin tracking transport poverty, using the metric the SMF has delivered, and determine a cost ceiling beyond which households are considered in need of support with transport costs.
Policymakers should allow fuel duty rates to rise or replace fuel duty with road pricing to provide a stable source of funding (See notes for details of SMF’s preferred road pricing system)
Direct new funding and devolve decision making at the local level, to deliver on both short-term (bus networks) and long-term (passenger rail) plans of increasing in public transport infrastructure.
Consider and introduce policies – like direct tax subsidy or social leasing – to increase access for electric vehicles by reducing the upfront costs
‘Quantifying the problem’, finally
Gideon Salutin, Researcher at Social Market Foundation, said:
Transport is the single greatest household expense for rural homes and the second biggest for urban ones. But we still don’t understand those struggling to pay for it the way we understand other forms of poverty like housing and heating. Understanding and tracking transport poverty is a long overdue endeavour.
Fuel duty gets all the headlines, especially now that so many policymakers have convinced themselves that they have to defend motorists from fictional attacks. Yet it is far from the best tool at their disposal if they really want to help the hard pressed. Our research shows that transport poverty can be rigorously tracked, and therefore can be alleviated – but only by investing in public transport and making alternative private transport like electric vehicles cheaper.
Silviya Barrett, from national charity Campaign for Better Transport, said:
We’ve known for a long time that a lack of good, affordable public transport is forcing people into expensive car ownership which puts a huge strain on household budgets, so it’s good to see this research quantifying the problem. We support the report’s conclusion that government investment in public transport is more beneficial to improving people’s life chances, helping households with the cost of living and levelling up the economy than lowering the cost of driving.
You can read the SMF’s full report, Getting a measure of Transport Poverty, here.
On August 5, 2023, advocates for people experiencing homelessness in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, scored an upset victory. They opened a 20-bed shelter for short-term guests in a donated building that once belonged to a dentist and his wife. The private facility fills a gap that the town ignored for years, despite a prolonged housing crisis that continues to push people onto the streets.
Campaign group Fuel Poverty Action held a protest outside the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DfES) on Wednesday 8 November. Clearly, the DfES was rattled – as security ended up locking all the doors. However, Fuel Poverty Action’s protest still highlighted a ongoing scandal: energy suppliers forcing people onto extortionate prepayment meters.
Prepayment meters: an ongoing scandal
As the Canaryreported back in February, energy companies in the UK could obtain court warrants that allowed them to enter people’s homes and fit the pay-as-you-go (‘prepayment’) meters. This was when customers had fallen into arrears with their energy bills. They were then at risk of companies cutting their gas supply off if they fail to top them up.
However, an undercover investigation by the Times newspaper looked into this. It found that contractors working for British Gas sent debt collectors to “break into” homes and “force-fit” meters. This prompted uproar from the public and politicians – even though the practice had actually been going on since 1954.
So, the energy regulator Ofgem and courts stopped energy suppliers from forcing customers to have prepayment meters. However, as the Morning Starreported:
Ofgem introduced a self-regulating code of practice for energy providers enabling them to resume forced break-ins and installations.
Scottish Power has now reportedly secured warrants and broken into the homes of mothers with young children to force them onto prepay meters using the code. But the firm claims it was unaware of the customers’ circumstances and would not have installed a meter forcibly had this become clear.
Now, the government is considering lifting the current pseudo-ban – even thought energy companies are already forcing prepayment meters upon people, regardless. So, Fuel Poverty Action went to the front door of the DfES to make it loud and clear this would be unacceptable.
Fuel Poverty Action’s protest
The group delivered a giant (and impressively-created) prepayment meter to the DfES – highlighting the scale of the problem:
Right now outside Dept for Energy Security and Net Zero, a GIANT prepayment meter has been delivered as part of Fuel Poverty Action protest against planned forced fitting of meters this Winter #EnergyForAll#BanForcedPPMspic.twitter.com/4Egpc6h0NU
Prepayment meters, and energy companies forcing them onto people, are a huge problem. In 2022 alone:
Energy companies forced 600,000 people to have meters.
3.2 million people ran out of gas or electric at least once.
Older, chronically ill, disabled, and low-income people were targeted.
Campaign group the Chronic Collaboration was supporting Fuel Poverty Action. It highlighted on X some of the major issues with prepayment meters for chronically ill and disabled people. It noted that:
One million households on extortionate & poverty-inducing prepayment meters have a chronically ill and/or disabled person living in them
Last year, around 130,000 homes with a chronically ill and/or disabled person in them were running out of gas and/or electric at least ONCE A WEEK due to prepayment meters.
And the Chronic Collaboration also noted that 24,000 prepayment homes with a chronically ill and/or disabled person in them went without power for two days or more. Overall, the group said:
Being chronically ill &/or disabled costs you at least £975 a month MORE to live to the same standard as a non-disabled person.
Paula Peters from campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) was also at the protest. She noted how Rishi Sunak reportedly splashed out huge sums of money on energy to heat his private swimming pool – while poor older people are forced to sit on buses or go to warm hubs all day just to keep themselves heated in winter:
Fuel Poverty Action wants the government to ban energy companies from forcing people to have prepayment meters. It is also calling on the government to ban energy company standing charges – which cost us all £25 a month before we even use any gas or electric.
‘Energy For All’ this winter
Overall, the DfES clearly felt rattled by Fuel Poverty Action’s protest – as security ended up locking the doors to the building:
The protest was an effective display of the issues surrounding prepayment meters. However, this is just the start of Fuel Poverty Action’s campaigning this winter. As well as its ongoing #EnergyForAll campaign, it is holding two days of nationwide actions on 1-2 December. Called ‘Warm Ups‘, Fuel Poverty Action says these local events:
are a way to highlight fuel poverty and bring about change. They are based on the principle that if we can’t afford to heat our own homes, we have a right to go into any public space and keep warm there – and talk to passers-by, hold a speak-out, or a discussion, or a party! Or just put on woolly hats and gather outdoors to speak our minds!
The group will be releasing more details on these soon. For now, though, Fuel Poverty Action and its allies sent a clear message to the government and the DfES over prepayment meters: that they won’t be allowing energy companies to continue to force them onto customers without a fight.
Featured image and additional images via the Canary
A United Nations (UN) poverty expert has called on the CEOs of Amazon, DoorDash and Walmart to address allegations that inadequate pay, hostile union-busting tactics, and the misclassification of workers as “independent contractors” are trapping workers in poverty. “I am extremely disturbed that workers in some of the world’s most profitable companies — in one of the richest countries on earth…
As fossil fuel major Shell has once again announced obscene profits and shareholder pay-outs, the UK government has issued a new round of oil and gas licences. This time, the company has topped the tables for the number of new awards.
Of course, the news comes as winter looms and UK households brace for another cold season with extortionate energy bills – of which Shell’s profits could pay for around seven million households’ worth.
Shell’s staggering profits and shareholder pay-outs
On Thursday 2 November, Shell published its third quarter profits.
The fossil fuel giant posted profits of £5.1bn. This adds to its near £11.6bn already this year alone, taking its total to £16.7bn. Meanwhile, the company declared shareholder distributions of £4bn. Again, it builds on £9.3bn announced in the first half of 2023. It took its total shareholder pay-outs to over £13bn.
Naturally, Shell’s announcement comes at a time when the UK is reeling from the devastating impacts of Storm Babet and in the grip of Storm Ciaran. Of course, scientists have linked the climate crisis to the increased frequency and severity of autumn and winter storms in the UK.
Accounting company PwC has estimated the insurance costs of Storm Babet for residential and commercial properties at anywhere between £450-650m. Therefore, just the shareholder pay-outs Shell made this quarter alone could pay for this damage at minimum, six times over.
Fuel poverty versus fossil fuel riches
To make matters worse, while Shell’s profits pile up, UK electricity and gas prices remain sky high. Shell’s staggering figures stand out once more against the backdrop of soaring energy bills. UK households face another winter of exorbitant energy costs. Analyst Cornwall Insight has estimated that average energy bills will rise by 3.5% in January.
Already, the average household energy bills between October and December will be 50% higher than in winter 2021/22. Compounding this, the Tories have dropped financial support available to households. Specifically, the government has scrapped the Energy Bill Support Scheme – a £400 winter discount on energy bills it implemented last year.
Shell’s shareholder dividends for 2023 so far equate to more than the cost of financing this in full. What’s more, it would still leave plenty left over to cover all 1.6m people the Canary’s Steve Topple calculated the government has left out of this year’s cost of living payments.
Alternatively, its dividends for 2023’s first three quarters could pay the average energy bills of over seven million homes. This is more than a quarter of all UK households, and over the 6.3 million households non-profit National Energy Action has estimated rising costs will push into fuel poverty this winter.
New oil and gas licences
So, in the same week the company announced booming profits, it also took the lion’s share of new oil and gas licences.
On Monday 30 October, the UK government issued its first tranche of new offshore oil and gas licences. These are part of over a hundred the government previously announced in July that it plans to greenlight for this round of licensing.
In all, it announced 27 new licences, spanning 64 blocks. Shell won the most – with 11 licences across 28 blocks. The majority of these are exploration licences, alongside two for developing wells. In addition, Shell has also obtained one licence it will merge with another it already holds.
The total size of these blocks together equates to over 5,500km². Of this, Shell’s blocks cover some 3,500km² – over 17 times the size of Equinor’s climate-wrecking Rosebank blocks. However, since these are primarily exploration licences, the amount of oil and gas contained in the new areas is yet to be determined. It means that not all these blocks will necessarily lead to production.
Even so, the sheer scale of the newly licensed area for oil and gas exploration flies in the face of international climate targets. The International Energy Agency (IEA) had previously warned that the world should develop no new oil, gas, or coal projects past 2021 if it plans to meet net zero by 2050. Given this, its latest licensing round drives another nail in the coffin global decarbonisation goals.
Windfalls for fossil fuel majors
Of course, Shell’s new oil and gas licences will bring in further profits for the energy major. Crucially however, it’ll also help to reduce its tax bill too.
Specifically, the company will benefit from a key loophole in the Energy Profits Levy – otherwise known as the windfall tax on oil and gas. Ostensibly, the government implemented the windfall tax to claw back fossil fuel majors’ outsized profits. Moreover, the government suggested that the revenues would be used to fund measures to address the cost of living crisis.
When the Tories introduced the windfall tax, it inserted a clause called the “investment allowance”. This stipulates that companies that invest in the UK’s North Sea oil and gas can claim tax relief on these investments. Essentially then, they evade paying the full windfall tax. It’s part of the Tories’ drive for increasing UK oil and gas to shore up its domestic energy security.
As plenty have pointed out however, this is bogus. This is particularly the case since UK offshore oil and gas does not automatically supply UK demand. Instead, like all oil and gas, it goes on the international market. On top of this, a recent Uplift analysis highlighted that during the last six licensing rounds since the Tories took power in 2010, new blocks have produced just 16 days worth of gas.
Notably, the windfall loophole means that for every £1 a company spends on new oil and gas, the government will provide tax relief of 91p. Given this, its new haul of North Sea oil and gas licences will help the company lower its windfall bill. Naturally then, Shell has also ditched its decarbonisation plans and ramped up oil and gas production this year.
Cozy relationships, freezing homes
A new investigation by Desmog in October found that the oil and gas industry had engaged in an intense lobby campaign to weaken the windfall tax. Predictably, Shell was among the North Sea fossil fuel players involved. It did so partly through trade body Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), alongside direct meetings with ministers. Crucially, the outlet noted that:
The new research indicates this ‘loophole’ came about following a surge in meetings and lobbying between OEUK and its member companies with the government
Of course, this cozy relationship is nothing new. It is a by-product of fossil fuel finances flowing into Tory pockets. As Shell comes out on top, it’s worth remembering the fossil fuel major boasts significant ties to politicians in high places. Most notably, Shell is a top client with prime minister Rishi Sunak’s father-in-law’s firm Infosys.
In short, climate-fuelled storms have wrought destruction, while oil and gas prices have sent household energy bills through the roof. Yet, at the same time, the Tories have gifted Shell new licences and a tax break, as its profits swell.
It’s Tories’ class war 101. They couldn’t give a crap about people facing exorbitant energy bills, or communities losing homes and livelihoods to extreme climate-intensified weather. As the poorest UK households face one crisis after another, polluters should pay up. Instead, in Tory-wrecked UK, the fossil fuel industry gets a free pass to make an unconscionable fortune, while millions suffer.
Feature image via Will Lane/Wikimedia, cropped and resized to 1910 by 1000, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Villagers in western Cambodia where a mass outbreak of HIV took place almost a decade ago are facing increasingly poor living conditions and have asked government authorities to renew efforts to help them.
Nearly 300 people in Sangke district’s Roka commune in Battambang province, contracted HIV – the virus that causes AIDS – from reused unsterilized syringes. A judge in 2015 sentenced Yem Chhrem to 25 years in prison for practicing medicine without a license in Roka between 1996 and 2014.
Government workers and civil society organizations often visited the commune to distribute food and other assistance in the two years after the outbreak was discovered, a 66-year-old HIV-positive Roka resident told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
But that attention has fallen off in recent years, and in the meantime many infected villagers have become too frail to work, she said.
“Nowadays, only young people are OK. But old people like me or my younger brother, are so sick,” she said. “We face a severe shortage of everything.”
Yem Chhrem is escorted by Cambodian police officials at a court in Battambang province on Oct. 20, 2015. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison for practicing medicine without a license in Roka between 1996 and 2014. Credit: AFP
Several villagers told RFA that a non-governmental organization distributes 40 kilograms (88 pounds) of rice per family and other food items every three months.
Medicine also provided
HIV-positive villagers are also given antiretroviral drugs that help keep the virus under control – but also have kept younger villagers from going to neighboring Thailand or elsewhere to find more lucrative work, according to one 55-year-old resident.
Her 19-year-old son works in construction in the provincial capital, but earns a small and unreliable wage, she said.
“He is afraid to go far away from home to find a job because he needs the medicine, and the medicine is distributed to patients once a month,” she said.
RFA couldn’t reach Battambang Provincial Health Department Deputy Director Sou Sanith on Thursday.
A relative sits by the covered body of Nach Ros, the fifth villager to die of HIV/AIDS in Roka commune in western Cambodia’s Battambang province, Feb. 25, 2015. Credit: RFA
Some 51 people have died from HIV-related causes since 2015, Roka commune chief Sim Pov said.
There are currently 246 people living with HIV in Roka, including 36 children, and many of them are indeed living in poverty, she said. Commune authorities have been working to add them to a government program that gives them a monthly subsidy, she said.
However, that subsidy hasn’t been enough to pay for basic living expenses, according to Yin Mengly, coordinator for the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, or Adhoc, in Battambang and Pailin provinces.
The government should also seek some kind of long-term employment for the villagers, he said.
“We should not discriminate and or forget these people. We should take care of them,” Yin Mengly said. “We must not forget that they are also humans like us.”
Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Khmer.
Rishi Sunak’s Tory government has approved the lifting of the cap on bankers’ bonuses. This means that the rule which saw firms limiting bonuses to a maximum of twice a person’s salary is being scrapped. Predictably, there’s been uproar – not least because the decision looks like a political one.
The policy change was initially announced by former chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng in the infamous September 2022 mini-budget of the Liz Truss premiership.
Current chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Sunak have kept the policy. Or rather, the Bank of England’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority have said they will lift the cap – and the Tories have greenlighted it. It will come into effect on 31 October – and also hit this financial year’s pay packets for bankers.
As the Financial Times (FT) reported, government thinking is that it will make the UK more competitive and give firms greater flexibility. Without a shred of irony – considering the government brought the cap in to try and stop rogue bankers from taking financial risks – the PRA also said it would give firms more financial stability.
Predictably, non-bankers have hit back.
‘Obscene’ Tory move
Luke Hildyard, executive director of thinktank High Pay Centre, toldSky News:
The UK already has more millionaire bankers than the whole of the EU put together yet our economy is stagnant and our public services are in crisis.
Whether or not the bonus cap was an effective policy measure, we can’t rely on the outsized incomes of a handful of super-rich bankers trickling down to lift slumping living standards for the wider population.
Trades Union Congress (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak said:
This is an obscene decision.
City financiers are already enjoying bumper bonuses. They don’t need another helping hand from the Conservatives.
At a time when millions up and down the country are struggling to make ends meet – this is an insult to working people. Rishi Sunak has shown once again that he is more interested in feather-nesting the super-wealthy than helping struggling families. Rampant inequality will do nothing to boost growth or competitiveness – it will just hold our economy back.
This is why we need to have a national conversation about taxing wealth properly in this country. It is time for those at the top to pay their fair share.
And others have hit out, too. Lawyer and campaigner Peter Stefanovic blasted the Tories on Twitter, pointing to newly-released destitution figures:
On the same day we learn the shocking news that one million UK children experienced destitution last year we hear Rishi Sunak is pushing ahead with Liz Truss plan to scrap cap on millionaire bankers' bonuses. Has the penny, finally, dropped https://t.co/fkdqTh6tic
As the Canary previously reported, since 2017 governments have presided over a 148% increase in destitution. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that, in 2022, 3.8 million people were destitute at some point, up 61% since 2019. This figure includes around one million children – up a whopping 88% since 2019.
However, most shockingly, these figures represent a 186% increase in destitution for children. Looking at the detail, the JRF found that it was marginalised communities that successive governments had been failing the most. For example, 62% of people who were destitute were chronically ill or disabled.
‘Brutal and arrogant’
So, when the rest of us are on our knees, the Tories decide to reward millionaires. Journalist Dave Sumner Smith summed it up – calling the Tories’ move “brutal and arrogant”:
Announcing the scrapping of limits on bankers' bonuses on the same day it's revealed that the number of destitute people has doubled in the last 5 years.
Of course, speculation is rife as to why Sunak has kept this policy which was formed under Truss. Some pointed out it might be to “appease” her wing of the Conservative Party. Others noted the Tories were running the country for the “benefit of bankers”. What’s also likely is that Sunak is eyeing support for the Tories from the financial services sector in the next general election.
Let’s not forget that it’s the Tories’ fault the economy is failing in the first place – and by giving bankers a free-for-all, Sunak has done nothing to appease the notion that he serves only the interests of the rich.
Saturday 2nd December 2023 
Time for this government to pay its debts!
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