Happy Friday!

Autumn is upon us and there is no good news….

‘I have £7 in my bank account’: how the two-child benefit cap changed Britain. Honestly, it was a stupid idea. People have babies and honestly the decision to keep a baby is often about capacity, but I don’t know anyone who had an abortion because of the cost of a baby, and what about people who have babies and are working and it’s fine and then they find themselves claiming benefit. I’ve been there and it sucks but you never think you’ll be there. I know it’s annoying to feel your taxes are paying for someone to make poor choices but as a childless person, that’s life. I don’t necessarily support people having IVF on the NHS but my taxes contribute, I didn’t support the invasion of Iraq or Afghanistan, I don’t think MP’s should get subsidised restaurants or bars, but my taxes pay for that. In the global south there is a large amount of research that says the best way to alleviate poverty and all the subsequent bad affects is to give poor people cash. Here the idea that you deal best with the impacts of homelessness is housing first. The way to get people out of poverty is not punishment, give them the cash, I don’t care if some of the people receiving the cash are feckless, you can deal with that when 99% of the rest of them aren’t cold and hungry. Or and here’s a radical idea, let’s create a world where a man working a full time job earns more that £800 a week!

Nationwide to allow first-time buyers to borrow six times their earnings. Six times my salary still wouldn’t buy the one-bedroom flat I live in, the problem is the cost of housing, until we have a government that understands that, it’s not going to change.

‘Affordable’ shared-ownership homes cost residents more than half their wages. I’ve said for a long time that that shared ownership is all of the risk and none of the advantages.

Time for a noodle tax?: Doctor who sounded alarm on ultra-processed food urges tougher action. I do think that something needs to be done about this, but I also think that the problem isn’t food, the problem is capitalism. During the Industrial Revolution, there was writing bemoaning that because mothers weren’t at home that food became bread and jam. I’ve read articles talking about how much of the Industrial Revolution was dependent on colonialism, poor people couldn’t have bought the jam unless sugar was cheap. Why was sugar cheap? The problem is that everything is connected and capitalism requires a race to the bottom. Growing food, takes time, preserving food, takes time, cooking food, takes time and we’ll all so tired and so broke… It’s more than regulation, it’s going to take vision and commitment, and it’s going to cost….

Do you strive to be in control of your life? It might be holding you back …  I have mad control issues, because I understand that I do not and cannot control key parts of my existence. I seek to control the things I can, to understand what I cannot and I have therapy and prayer to help me discern the difference.

I want to be a stay-at-home mum, and feel angry that society won’t let me. I found this fascinating. I’ve always thought that I was born to be a 1950’s housewife, I wanted to be a parent. It didn’t happen, it sucks not having the life you think you were born for. I remember when Jo told me she was pregnant, I cried a lot. Not because I wasn’t happy for her, I am and I love her junior version. But Lu was pregnant and now Jo was and I just felt bereft. Things that saved me, faith, friends, I’m a fantastic godparent and aunt and this year, the knowledge that looking after Ma and a 14 year old while coping with a job, a flat and an allotment, would do me in. At the point the eldest nephew and the godchild were born I was unemployed and borderline depressed it was incredibly tough but you know, I also got to help, I was the second person that met Ms. T (I joked at the time I was going to imprint on her like she was a baby duck!). Life happens fast, if you’re really lucky you get a life you can live with. I would always advise looking for the good stuff, doing things for others and practice being grateful. Unusually for me, I have a bible quote that keeps me when I wobble one this. From 1 Peter (my favourite apostle) 5:6-7 ‘God’s strong hand is on you: he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; He is most careful with you‘. If it’s not Christian faith, find something that makes you feel like that, that you have a purpose and and a passion and do the best you can with everything else.