To those who wish to penalise poor people, cold and hunger are signs of a perfect system | Frances Ryan

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

55% : The pandemic showed dramatic state intervention could be mobilised in a time of crisis - and it would be hard to argue vast hikes in food and energy prices do not constitute another.
51% : That move itself came after a decade of cuts and freezes to social security.
48% : It is accepted that hunger is an aberration for working families, but somehow justified for those who claim social security; that it is quite right for a certain level of suffering to come with being on benefits, but would naturally be wrong happening to "other" people.
44% : Cutting social security in real terms in the middle of a cost of living crisis is, in many ways, the natural end point for this narrative, a darkly cruel turn of events that is only possible in a political culture that long ago lost its hold on decency or even common sense.

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