Picture from the Oneness Ministry Website
Today we find out up to 16% of Scots (or more) are ate from food parcels in 2016/7.
Trussell Trust state today they gave out 145,000 food parcels in Scotland to "people in Crisis" in that period - yet Trussell Trust "branded" foodbanks are less than half the food banks so double that figure to 300,000 - but this is an estimate which may be too low and no one in Scotland is gathering any figures for all the other food parcels issued by the majority of food banks across Scotland.
Why do the Scottish government and councils - the five political parties in power NOT gather official figures - because they do not want Scotland to realise the scale of the vast amount of Scots eating from food parcels - because the Scottish Parliament took responsibility for "people in crisis" in April 2013 when Cameron devolved the money and the power from the DWP to the Scottish parliament.
I say Trussell Trust "branded" foodbanks as Trussell Trust do NOT run any food banks in Scotland (they run 2 in Salisbury).
Trussell Trust operate a "franchise business" - not the food banks - where Trussell Trust go round churches (their target market because people "trust" churches they say) to persuade volunteers to set up a Trussell Trust Business Franchise, like McDonalds or Dominos - but worse as it relies on starving people not people who want to pay someone else to cook their dinner.
Church volunteers must sign a business contract to set up their Trussell Trust business and pay Trussell Trust £1,500 fee up front to set up their business franchise - and then pay Trussell Trust £360 a year - or Trussell Trust remove all franchise support (these franchise fees may be higher now as these are 2013 figures.
The business contract states they MUST use the Trussell Trust "brand".
Trussell Trust business growth relies on
people being starved of money by their bosses and by politicians
Working families not only buying food for their own families but for lots of other families too
Church volunteers paying Trussell Trust franchise fees up front and then annually.
Gordon Brown kicked the Trussell Trust out of job centres in Salisbury after they were touting for business to try roll this out across the UK - so the Trussell Trust Director, Chris Mould, went to also work for the Shaftesbury Partnership (set up by Cameron's "big society" policy tzar, Nat Wei, before Cameron got elected).
Mould was working alongside Conservative Party welfare policy writers at that time - and as soon as Cameron got power he immediately stated the Trussell Trust can go back into job centres across the UK.
With Trussell Trust director working in the company set up by Cameron's big society policy tzar, a company with a revolving door for Tory party members, (Mould like Blair says he is a Labour party member) - is that why Cameron's policy became to withdraw benefits and abolish the DWP social fund with a recommendation councils and the Scottish Government send people to Trussell Trust foodbanks instead of giving people financial help when he devolved the DWP social fund to councils in England and the Scottish Parliament?
As this policy guaranteed massive business growth for the Trussell Trust that Chris Mould planned - with Ian Duncan Smith stating in 2015 that Job Centre advisors will be based in food banks - so the Trussell Trust is the cheap and nasty "job centre" for the Tories - their big society plan ?
On that back of politicians across the UK refusing people the help the DWP Social fund used to provide, Trussell Trust income has risen 10 fold between 2013-2016.
In 2013 Trussell Trust income was £680,000 - by 2016 it was £6.8 million on the back of politicians in every party, every council in England and the Scottish parliament and every Scottish council - every Scottish party starving "people in crisis" the DWP used to make sure could borrow small interest free crisis loans and pay back a rates they could afford - even if they are working - Scottish parties deciding they were no longer going to help the millions of people who did this every year to ensure they did not need a food parcel.
In England alone in 2009/10 2.69 million people relied on small DWP crisis loans - with people in Scotland doing the same - the MSPs deciding the people of Scotland should be denied this from 2013 with their new "Scottish Welfare Fund".
In 2013 David Cameron shut down the DWP social fund and devolved Scotland's share to the SNP government with a recommendation they send people to foodbanks.
SNP took Cameron's advice and set up the "Scottish Welfare Fund".
The SNP government decided, they did not want to set up a National system as it has always been, and while they want a National Police Force their government did not want responsibility for the poor and dumped responsibility on to every single local council.
But the SNP government decided they wanted a National Policy where they dictated the rules every council must follow - their official government "guidance" between 2013-2016 was anyone sanctioned by the DWP was NOT to get any help from their Scottish Welfare fund - the reason they gave - they
"do not want to undermine the DWP sanction regime"
- despite their crocodile tears in Westminster
Mhairi Black, a member of the DWP committee in Westminster - who did not show up for the committee meeting to hear the evidence of the shocking PIP system for the disabled - appeared on breakfast TV claiming it is terrible the Westminter government using "guidance" for sanctions and how terrible these sanctions are - it should not be "guidance" she claimed - while she said nothing about her own party leaders, Sturgeon and Salmond refusing people in Scotland any help if they are sanctioned by the DWP as their "guidance" states their government do not want to undermine the DWP sanctions regime -
Mhairi Black hiding that incovenient truth from TV viewers across the UK - where her government orders every council not to provide any financial help to those sanctioned - but if they have children you can give help only for the children- their parents allowed nothing but a food parcel voucher if they are lucky - maximum 3 a year.
Yet what right has the SNP Goverment to dictate how many food parcels starving peple are allowed - as the SNP government does not provide the food - ordinary Scottish people buy the food and donate it free - yet the political parties in Scotland dictate the rules on how the food we donate free is given out - when they washed their hands of all of us.
So this is why 16% of Scots are eating from food parcels - while Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond's guidance is what decides if you get any help and what help you get after they had the DWP social fund transferred to their control - it is official Scottish government policy - not Westminster - to send everyone to foodbanks while refusing them help from the fund - while Nicola give £millions to the food bank businesses (as they have Trussell Trust fees to pay).
To understand why 16% of Scots now eat from foodparcels and the background to how this was rolled out, read the article I wrote in 2011, the first I had ever written, Well Trousered Philanthropists, Tory Party Chums and Food Parcels for the Poor, when I tried to warn the nation that millions were to be sent for food parcels by government order - exactly what happened sadly as no national newspaper and not a single MSP would warn Scotland despite being told in 2011 this was the plan - the MSP's staying silent instead choosing to go with the Westminster plan - five Scottish parties one Tory "Reform Scotland" agenda together.