| Substandard, mediocre, low-grade people people pointing the finger and showing contempt to a family in need of help. (Painting by Henry Tonks) |
Poor:
Of a low or inferior standard or quality, substandard, below standard, below par, bad, deficient, inferior, mediocre, low-grade, second-rate, third-rate, miserable, wretched, deplorable, pitiful, inadequate, luckless, unhappy, hapless, ill-fated, ill-starred, pitiable, pitiful, wretched, poverty-stricken, impoverished, necessitous, beggarly, in penury, penurious, impecunious, indigent, needy, needful, in need/want, badly off, low-paid, in reduced circumstances, destitute, hard up, short of money, on one's beam-ends, unable to make ends meet, underprivileged, deprived, penniless,
These are just some of the dictionary definitions of the poor, none if any adequately Describe the millions of economically disadvantaged people who live in the UK today. Yet this is the word the MSM and the political elites use to describe them.
Until the beginning of the 21st century such an insulting way to describe human beings had been relegated to the dustbin of history, yet today it is once again in common use.
Pray tell me are the people who set up the Grenfell Action Group deficient, inferior, mediocre, I think not, although those words adequately describe the Kensington and Chelsea Council leader Nick Paget-Brown and his deputy Rock Feilding-Mellen who was responsible for housing, property and regeneration.
That these words are now used daily to describe working class people on low incomes is due to the contempt and class prejudice we are held in by the so called authorities. It's one of the main reasons Grenfell Tower burned down, killing well over 80 men, women and children, as one campaigner from the Grenfell Action Group told the Financial Times:
“It was not that we stayed silent, but that they never responded. It was not just that they ignored us, but that they viewed us with contempt.”
Was this man inadequate, pitiable and pitiful? Far from it he and his comrades were tenacious, they refused to relinquish their core position which was Grenfell Tower was a fire trap. They were determined, dogged, single-minded, strong-willed, tireless, indefatigable in the campaign to attempt to get Kensington and Chelsea Council to act.
Arrogant, substandard, third-rate, wretched, and deplorable behaviour, describes perfectly the Tenant Management Organisation (KCTMO) which had responsibility for the tenants welfare in the borough yet refused to act, despite being being warned again and again by residents of the block that their homes were a deathtrap.
So why has the words the poor been reintroduced, why is it used again by the political and media elites in common parlance? Since 2010 we have had Tory led governments who have demonised those living on low incomes in much the same way as the elites did in Victorian Britain.
People were not in dire straights because of personal misfortune, or social circumstances beyond an individual's control, such as unemployment, sickness, disability, low wages, austerity and zero hours contracts.
Poverty according to the Tories was a direct result of a person's character, their laziness and indolence, and nothing could be further from the truth. Poverty in the UK is a direct result of Tory policies. In an attempt to cover this up the MSM uses words like 'the poor' as if that alone is enough to explain a human beings straitened circumstance.
Their shere contempt, ignorance, and class prejudice was best summed up when George Osborne as Chancellor of the exchequer said this in 2012:
“Fairness is about being fair to the person who leaves home every morning to go out to work and sees their neighbour still asleep, living a life on benefits.”
Not a flicker of compassion, not a thought for the sick or disabled, it reeks of ignorance and contempt for ordinary working class people's lives, nor a smidgen of understanding about the daily hardships many face.
Welcome to 19th century Britain.
