John Pilger: Britains Class War on Children
November 26, 2020
In this abridged article published by the London Daily Mirror & based on his
1975 film, Smashing Kids, John Pilger describes class as Britains most
virulent disease, causing record levels of child poverty.
A British family from the film Smashing Kids, 1975. (John Garrett)
By John Pilger
When I first reported on child poverty in Britain, I was struck by the faces
of children I spoke to, especially the eyes. They were different: watchful,
fearful.
In Hackney, in 1975, I filmed Irene Brunsdens family. Irene told me she
gave her two-year-old a plate of cornflakes. She doesnt tell me shes
hungry, she just moans. When she moans, I know something is wrong.
How much money do you have in the house? I asked.
Five pence, she replied.
Irene said she might have to take up prostitution, for the babys sake.
Her husband Jim, a truck driver who was unable to work because of illness,
was next to her. It was as if they shared a private grief.
This is what poverty does. In my experience, its damage is like the damage
of war; it can last a lifetime, spread to loved ones and contaminate the
next generation. It stunts children, brings on a host of diseases and, as
unemployed Harry Hopwood in Liverpool told me, its like being in prison.
This prison has invisible walls. When I asked Harrys young daughter if she
ever thought that one day she would live a life like better-off children,
she said unhesitatingly: No.
What has changed 45 years later? At least one member of an impoverished
family is likely to have a job a job that denies them a living wage.
Incredibly, although poverty is more disguised, countless British children
still go to bed hungry and are ruthlessly denied opportunities..
What has not changed is that poverty is the result of a disease that is
still virulent yet rarely spoken about class.
Study after study shows that the people who suffer and die early from the
diseases of poverty brought on by a poor diet, sub-standard housing and the
priorities of the political elite and its hostile welfare officials are
working people. In 2020, one in three preschool British children suffers
like this.
In making my recent film, The Dirty War on the NHS, it was clear to me that
the savage cutbacks to the NHS and its privatisation by the Blair, Cameron,
May and Johnson governments had devastated the vulnerable, including many
NHS workers and their families. I interviewed one low-paid NHS worker who
could not afford her rent and was forced, to sleep in churches or on the
streets.
At a food bank in central London, I watched young mothers looking nervously
around as they hurried away with old Tesco bags of food and washing powder
and tampons they could no longer afford, their young children holding on to
them. It is no exaggeration that at times I felt I was walking in the
footprints of Dickens.
Boris Johnson has claimed that 400,000 fewer children are living in poverty
since 2010 when the Conservatives came to power. This is a lie, as the
Childrens Commissioner has confirmed. In fact, more than 600,000 children
have fallen into poverty since 2012; the total is expected to exceed 5
million. This, few dare say, is a class war on children.
Old Etonian Johnson is may be a caricature of the born-to-rule class; but
his elite is not the only one. All the parties in Parliament, notably if
not especially Labour like much of the bureaucracy and most of the media
have scant if any connection to the streets: to the world of the poor: of
the gig economy: of battling a system of Universal Credit that can leave
you without a penny and in despair.
Last week, the prime minister and his elite showed where their priorities
lay. In the face of the greatest health crisis in living memory when Britain
has the highest Covid-19 death toll in Europe and poverty is accelerating as
the result of a punitive austerity policy, he announced £16.5 billion for
defence. This makes Britain, whose military bases cover the world, the
highest military spender in Europe.
And the enemy? The real one is poverty and those who impose it and
perpetuate it.
John Pilgers 1975 film, Smashing Kids, can be viewed at
http://johnpilger.com/videos/smashing-kids
John Pilger is an Australian-British journalist and filmmaker based in
London. Pilgers Web site is: www.johnpilger.com.
