The Establishment parties will do nothing to solve homelessness until they tackle thestranglehold that the Money Power has on government. Until that day comes, the National Liberal Party calls for all of its members & supporters to do what they can to support the homeless. Probably the best way to do this is by helping local charities and initiatives that seek to tackle homelessness at a grass-roots level.

SINCE THE general election was called at the end of October the main Establishment parties seem to have been making every promise under the sun. No matter what the problem is – from Brexit to climate change and everything in between – they all claim to have the answer.

However, it seems to us that they’ve all had long enough to sort out the many social and economic problem that we face. And they’ve all failed. For instance. take homelessness, which surely must be one of our most pressing (and distressing) social problems.

We’re not even going to bother to point out what the Establishment parties say in their current manifestos about homelessness. There’s no point. Their manifestos would promise free unicorns if they thought it was popular and would get them votes. Their words are useless. The Labour Party and Tories have both been in power for years and years. Even the Liberal Democrats ruled the roost (as part of the Con-Dem coalition government) during 2010 – 15.

Yet they’ve all failed to tackle homelessness. Of course their spin doctors will tell you different – but the evidence is literally on the streets for all to see.

To understand the scale of the problem, one only has to consider a report fromWelfare Weekly – https://welfareweekly.com/a-homeless-person-dies-every-19-hours-in-austerity-britain/ – from earlier this year. It made the startling claim that a homeless person dies every 19 hours in austerity Britain.

The shocking figures were provided by the Museum of Homelessness (MoH) –https://museumofhomelessness.org/ – which is a ‘community driven social justice museum, created and run by people with direct experience of homelessness.’ Data for the MoH study was collected from coroners’ enquiries, media coverage, family testimony and freedom of information requests.

However, some campaigners in the London-based MoH believe that the figures could be much higher. Incredibly, around 30% of deaths since 2017 have occurred where people were living in emergency or temporary accommodation.

Speaking at the time of the report, MoH co-founder Matt Turtle noted:

“People affected by homelessness continue to die at a shocking rate despite the passage of the homelessness reduction act nearly 18 months ago.

We regularly hear from people who feel they’re safer on the streets than in hostels and this data shows why.

People are placed in inadequate, unsafe accommodation, whether badly run hostels or other forms of private rented accommodation, with all too often fatal consequences.”

The NLP presumes that the use of ”inadequate, unsafe accommodation”is a case of dealing with the problem ‘on the cheap.’ Maybe the Establishment feels that if they can get as many people off of the streets as possible, it’ll be a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’

Linking Britain’s homelessness crisis to austerity, Mr Tutle said:

“There’s much evidence that almost a decade of austerity policies has had a clear and direct impact on society’s most vulnerable.”

As we noted earlier, all of the Establishment parties have had plenty of time to tackle homelessness. Despite what they say in the run up to the general election they’ll not do a thing. It’s all platitudes and empty promises. And they’ll keep on doing this for ever and a day.

Meanwhile hundreds of people will either die in inadequate and unsafe accommodation or on the streets. The latter will probably be particularly so, especially this time of year as we hurtle towards Christmas when the nights are bitterly cold. The killing cold, to coin a phrase. It’s not exactly the most wonderful time of the year for the homeless.

With the above in mind, we have to ask ourselves why the Establishment parties can’t – or won’t – tackle homelessness and itsunderlying causes, such as austerity, mental health issues and abuse.

The NLP believes that, in order to truly sort out these problems, we need a complete system change.

Indeed, we believe that looking at people in purely monetary terms is the real cause of virtually all of our social and economic problems. To get to the real root of these issues we need a completely different mindset. We need to forget about profits, GDP and balance sheets.

But the Establishment parties won’t do this. They’re all pro-capitalist – even the ‘socialists’ amongst them! – and all seem to be in hoc to the bankers. None of them will make any attempt to break the stranglehold that the Money Power has on government.

They’ll keep on borrowing from the banks, accruing more debt and paying back millions in interest. They’ll do nothing to break this vicious circle – like authorising a national bank tospend – and not lend – money directly into the economy. This will ensure that Britain’s housing & homelessness crisis can be tackled once and for all.

Until that day comes, the National Liberal Party urges all of its members and supporters todo what they can in terms of supporting the homeless. We’re simply not in a position to help in a ‘trickle down’ fashion. Therefore, we have to help from the bottom up. And that means supporting local charities and initiatives that seek to tackle homelessness at a grass-roots level.

• ALSO Check out:

Social Justice & The Failure Of Capitalism http://nationalliberal.org/social-justice-the-failure-of-capitalism

News From Nowhere – Poverty & Homelessness in Britain & Éire http://nationalliberal.org/news-from-nowhere-poverty-homelessness-in-britain-eire