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Tragic effect of recession
Bill Mullins
What a tragic waste of human life this economic crisis is creating! In the Socialist (issue 694), we read about the Warwickshire couple who committed suicide because they didn't have enough to live on and had been ignored by the social services for months.
Mark and Helen Mullins (no relation) walked ten miles into Coventry each week to collect food parcels from the Salvation Army. But they had no refrigerator to keep the food in so stored it in the garden.
How are an adult couple expected to live on £57 a week? That is all Mark got for Jobseeker's Allowance. Until a few years ago unemployed people got an amount far nearer a worker's wage when it was called unemployment pay. But we can thank the last Labour government for slashing this crucial benefit.
The crisis hits many sections of society. Recently Jack Shemtob, a Transport for London (TfL) manager, within minutes of being told he was redundant after 30 years, leaped to his death from the TfL offices.
Even a well-paid solicitor Vincent Buffoni killed himself when his company lost work and he could no longer afford to pay his son's £30,000 a year public school fees. His law firm had been hit by the recession and he had already mortgaged his home for £60,000 to pay the fees.
Each tragedy has its own dimensions but the crisis is leaving no part of society untouched - except those who will make a killing from the crisis, the bank/bond traders, the spivs who leech on other people's misfortune and the Rachmanite landlords who exploit the system's inability to build enough homes to meet people's needs.
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