By Rab Bruce’s Spider

Today saw the release of some very concerning statistics about life in the UK.

First was the announcement from the Trussell Trust that the use of Food Banks had increased by 2% during 2015, bringing levels to an all time high. That’s bad enough but the figures for Scotland were even more alarming, with a whopping 13% increase in Food Bank usage. Perhaps that is part of that Better Together Union Dividend we were told so much about in 2014.

As if this sad indictment of UK social policies wasn’t dreadful in its own right, I was appalled to hear a lady from the Trussell Trust being interviewed and almost bending over backwards in her attempts not to plame the Tory Government’s Austerity and Benefits Sanctions regime for the ever increasing reliance on Food Banks. Her evasive platitudes about the need for dialogue with Government and perhaps some minor tweaking of systems was quite bizarre. At first, I thought the lady might be an avid Tory herself, a conclusion which didn’t make much sense seeing as she was obviously concerned at the harrowing circumstances which force people to use Food Banks and, equally obviously, she knew the root causes of the upsurge. Then it occurred to me that she would need to be careful what she said because the UK Government has already made it clear that they will cut funding to any charity which is critical of their policies. That’s the sort of Government we elected, folks. Or, rather, the sort of Government we didn’t elect but got saddled with anyway thanks to the result of the IndieRef.

In a further demonstration of British Values, the other snippet of information was that UK Graduates from ethnic minorities are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than their White counterparts. Following on from the announcement earlier in the week from The Guardian newspaper that, of the ten of its writers who receive the most abuse via Readers’ Comments, eight are women and the two men are black, this news is yet more confirmation of the endemic racism at the heart of British society. It is no wonder that UKIP and the xenophobic UK Press find such fertile ground when they spread their hate.

These statistics show the sad state of the UK today but the very worst thing is that, in all likelihood, the only reaction from the majority of people will be to shake their heads and tut at how deplorable things are, then carry on as if nothing had happened. Because another claim this week was that the voters in Scotland are far more engaged in politics than voters in the rest of the UK. Conditioned by decades (some would say centuries) of media propaganda, British voters seem content to put up with things like the Panama Papers, Food Bank usage, corrupt and lying politicians, rising inequality, low pay, etc., as long as they are fed a diet of Royal Family photo opportunities and episodes of Downton Abbey or Strictly Come Dancing.

What will it take to change this? In Scotland, the IndieRef made people far more politically active and engaged but it doesn’t look as if the EURef will have the same effect throughout the UK because, so far, all we have heard is the same old scare stories and Uncertainty alarms which many Scots have become inured to but which, judging by the comments from BBC Question Time audience members, still resonate with voters elsewhere.

It is all very depressing and, quite frankly, it’s on days like this that we could do with some genuine good news.