Workers Solidarity Movement

Recent figures uncovered by the Irish News show that almost 41 million of taxpayers’ money was handed over to our local NI politicians in salaries and allowances - including childcare -while the assembly was suspended between April 2003 and May 2007. Yet, only a few weeks ago we listened to the SDLP leader pleading ‘poverty’ and warning of ‘millionaire clubs’ only forgetting to mention that he was born with a silver spoon and remains so. As well as his wage as an MLA and MP (excluding expenses topping at least 150,000 a year) he has a large list of privilege and perks including his part time wage as a GP and rental from several properties including his farm.

On the other side of the fence / class divide is the rest of us who are being hammered to the ground in every direction from welfare reforms, to jobs and closing down of hospital wards. Yet they expect us to remain silent and merely register our protest every four year through the charade of representative democracy or the straightjacket of marching from A-B. We even have the popular Stephen Nolan show to let off a bit of steam and serve his ego.

The reality we are left with is that Belfast and Derry are rated in the top ten of UK cities as the most socially and economically deprived according to a new survey by the campaign to end child poverty, continuing a generational legacy which Stormont past and future won't alleviate.

In West Belfast including the Falls and Shankill these figures are a lot worse, with one in two children living below the poverty line. The area is rated as the fourth worst in the UK wide survey, with 46% of children living below the poverty line - only part of the picture when you include other indicators of mental illness and a lower life expectancy rate compared to richer areas less than a mile away.