But It Is Affordable – It’s Just Not As Convenient

And far too many people are lazy:

The government’s policy on obesity, announced on Sunday, sounds as though it’s tough on the supermarkets: they really must do better on the health front, ministers say

Calorie for calorie, a basket of healthy food costs more than twice as much as a basket of less healthy food, according to a report by the Food Foundation. That statistic sounds stark until you engage your brain.

If you engage your brain, that statistic just sounds like absolute bullshit. 

Even if supermarkets didn’t have racks of ‘buy it now’ yellow sticker meat, fish, fruit and veg, the cost of an average trolley full of processed ready meals is always going to be more costly than a trolley full of fresh meat, fish, fruit and veg. The missing ingredient here isn’t cash - it’s knowledge and desire to cook from scratch rather than stab a few holes in a film lid and stick it in the machine that goes ‘ding’. 

Processed food is cheap because that is the “process”: the relentless prioritising of the profit margin over every other consideration, such as nutritional value. What else are you going to use all that big, capitalist brain power for? Making food more colourful?

The range of breakfast cereals available on shelves suggest they long ago exhausted that option! 

The missing plank in this raft of suggestions is the only one that would make any difference: addressing the price of food. There is a reason that one in three children in deprived areas are overweight, compared with one in five in the general population – people on low incomes cannot afford healthy food.

Not at all - they can, easily. Countless tv shows have pushed this point, even Jamie Oliver (the Chav’s Chef) has tried, and to no avail. The simple fact is most people don't care, and cannot be bothered to cook - they want the convenience of processed ready meals, and to hell with the side effects of this attitude.

But If They Are Coming Here To Work...

NHS nurses from overseas are being “pushed into poverty” because of rules that deprive many people coming to work in the UK of welfare benefits for five years after they arrive.

...why would they need benefits?

They are being forced to borrow money, run up credit card debts and go without food because they are unable to make ends meet, according to a report from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

Ah. Because the NHS is employing them on the cheap. Despite the billions poured into it and its sanctimonious pontificating about 'poverty'. 

The nurses are on temporary visas, which means they are subject to the “no recourse to public funds” rule that bars them from claiming child benefit, housing benefit and universal credit for at least five years before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain. The RCN is urging ministers to scrap the rule, which it says is unfair because foreign-trained nurses cannot obtain the benefits despite paying income tax and national insurance.

Well, pay them more, then. Or start training people already here, and let them nurse in their own countries, who probably need them more. 

Last Friday, the United Nations said that it too wanted the rule axed for migrants.

Of course it did. And it too can GTFO.

Oh, C'mon, There Can't Be Much Doubt About The One On The Left...

...he's clearly not missed many meals! 

It’s been one of Cat Onyac’s better days. Her two children are concentrating on their crochet project, sitting in the sunshine at HvH Arts in north London. And they’ve eaten. “All the children get a hot meal,” she says. The family is at a summer scheme for children in Camden on the edge of Keir Starmer’s constituency, and food is just as important as learning photography, painting or music.

Salads might be a better option in summer, Cat...

“That means not worrying whether they’re going to eat or not,” says Cat, a single parent. “It helps reduce the shopping bill. I’m not worrying what am I going to make for them and are they going to be the only child who hasn’t had anything to eat?”

What are you doing with the child benefit you get then?  

It’s people like Onyac and her family who were on the minds of the seven Labour MPs who rebelled against the party last week and voted for an SNP amendment to lift the two-child benefit limit. That, along with the benefit cap, the effects of inflation and the roll out of universal credit, pushed 700,000 more children into poverty over the past 14 years.

No, it didn't. They are talking about relative poverty, not absolute poverty.  

I'm Not Very Good At Sums...

...but even I can spot that these things never add up:

Children need nourishing school dinners more than ever before, as many families struggle with the cost of living, a leading expert has warned. BBC News has been speaking to families and schools as they try to tackle the problem.

The Raza family​...

*rolls eyes* 

... - dad Ali, mum Simran and their eight-year-old daughter, Alishah - live in one of Bradford's back-to-back, two-up-two-down terraced houses. The heating is off upstairs to help manage rising bills and Ali tells me: "We're just managing, and not very well."

So, what do you do for a living, Ali? 

Ali is a self-employed wholesaler. He mainly buys fruit and vegetables in bulk before selling them on - but there is a limit to what small local shops are prepared to pay, so as costs rise his profits decrease.

And have you considered that if this Del Boy of the Cabbages lifestyle won't support your family, you could maybe get a better paying job? 

It means they can only afford to buy school lunch for Alishah once, or sometimes twice, a week. Each meal at her school, Dixons Marchbank Primary, costs £2.10.

Weekly child benefit is £21.80 per week. Where's the rest going? 

As Simran prepares pasta and a salad for Alishah's evening meal, she says she wishes they could afford more frequent school lunches, as sometimes Alishah does not eat her packed lunch of cold leftovers.

She's not hungry then, is she?