By Aamer Anwar
Cameron wasn’t shy bouncing out of the doors of Number 10 to pronounce what a great moment the royal birth was for the nation.
He did the same with Andy Murray and the Olympics but as the PM rejoiced over a child being born to rule over us, 700 others were born into poverty, that’s one in five children born into poverty every day in the UK.
We will hear much over the coming months and years of the strains of the royal couple, as they try to balance their ‘duty’ to the nation and give the Prince as normal a life as possible.
But in fact many parents could testify to the burdens and struggles they face as they try to give their children a normal happy life.
Kate and William’s team of nannies, chauffeurs, millions in the bank, several palaces and holidays a year will go a long way to making the prince’s childhood a happy one, all the while our ‘joyful’ PM is busy making life as difficult as possible for families trying to cope with daily rises in living expenses just as the brutal cuts take their toll.
As for Kate, had any other woman not really done a day’s work in her life, was living it up on welfare in a big house or two, there would be outrage and demands for cuts in her benefits. Royalists will condemn me as ‘despicable’ but how is it that those who are so vociferous about asylum seekers, immigrants, single parents, benefit scroungers, are so unhappy when others pontificate about the Royals and their ‘something for nothing culture’ ?
After all it’s not just the Queen, her 4 kids and 8 grandchildren are also paid for by you and me. Prince Phillip hasn’t worked since 1951; Millions are handed out each year to Princes Andrew, Edward, the Dukes and Duchesses of Gloucester, Kent, Princesses Anne and Alexandra as well as the rest – Why?
My mum, a Royalist, never stops telling me how good they are good for tourism. I have never heard of a single one of annual 30 million tourists coming to this country because they thought they were invited to the Palace for tea.
France used the Guillotine in the 1790’s to get rid of their Royals, but it didn’t stop tourists visiting the Palace of Versailles or Paris.
When you look at the top twenty UK destination spots, only one royal residence – Windsor Castle – makes it to no.17 but even that was beaten by Windsor’s LEGOLAND at no.7.
Meanwhile Glasgow has the 3rd highest rate of child poverty in the UK, with an estimated 36,367 of its children living below the poverty line. Nationally another 300,000 children slipped into poverty last year and such children are more likely to suffer from chronic illnesses and infant mortality.
The Coalition claims it will end child poverty by 2020 but the children’s charity Barnardos believes that there will be one million more children living in poverty by then.
Our PM celebrates a Royal birth one day and cracks down on ordinary families the other. Some families living in poverty are barely able to survive on just ‘£12 per day per person to buy everything they need’.
Maybe Cameron should explain how it is possible to pay for food, rent, heating, electricity, insurance, phones, toys, clothes, electricity and transport.
Maybe he should give a speech on what the poor should do when they need to get a sick child to a doctor and a chauffeur is not sat outside?
Or what a family does in that unexpected emergency when the heating or fridge breaks down and they are unable to move into their second mansion until it’s fixed or replaced?
Or how to look their best when they are desperate to get that job but a designer or hairdresser is not on hand?
We’ve heard a great deal about scroungers daring to have satellite TV, I would like to see Cameron survive one week cooped up with his 3 children without satellite TV unable to take them anywhere for the lack of money.
Tories that want ‘Welfare Cash Cards’ to force the poor to buy essential goods, should just go for the full Bhoona and tag them all.
Track them, set off an alarm if they try to buy a packet of fags and the Tories could even sell the contract to their friends in G4S.
I’m sure that ‘sterilisation’ will raise it head one day at this rate!
Anyway in about a year as the impact of the Bedroom Tax kicks in, the young Prince George will take his first steps having the run of 20 rooms in the newly refurbished Kensington Palace (cost £1 million) as well as several other palaces.
So the next time a Nation ‘rejoices’ it would be good to spare a thought for those who struggle to give their children everything, yet have to make do with nothing.
Scottish Defence League Stopped in Glasgow
Glasgow united yesterday to keep the far-right Scottish Defence League out of Pollokshields.
Following opposition from the local community and the Police, the Council voted overwhelmingly against their right to march.
The English version of the SDL had shown exactly what their defence of the nation meant when they rallied in Birmingham a week earlier – abusing the memory of Drummer Lee Rigby, they got drunk, Seig Heiled, shouted racist, homophobic and religious abuse and then threw bottles and missiles, attacking the police.
I support the right to free speech but it’s not absolute and carries responsibilities which these thugs never adhere to, promoting hatred, violence and their brand of Neo-Nazism.
That’s why it’s a real shame that Edinburgh City Council have lost the plot and agreed to the SDL marching through Royal Mile bang in the middle of the International Festival.
What kind of message do they want to send to the world by allowing these racist thugs to parade through our capital city. These same thugs who claim to care about the murder of Lee Rigby, celebrate racist attacks on Muslims and bombings of Mosques. Their bile and hatred is there for all to view on social media.
As for Police Scotland how is it that they can run a text book operation backed by the community in the West of Scotland yet let the community down in the East? The fact is that the English Defence League will mobilise to bring their battle hardened thugs to Scotland in an attempt to wreak havoc.
Yesterday’s Unite Against Fascism rally against the SDL in Pollokshields was the best way to commemorate the memory of Kriss Donald murdered by racist thugs, as the community black and white, Muslim and non-Muslim stood side by side in solidarity, peace and unity.
The recent memorial unveiled in Motherwell to remember the International Brigade who left our shores to fight Franco’s fascism, with its slogan ‘Non Pasaran’ will be just as relevant next month in Edinburgh when thousands protest against the SDL.