Fear and loathing for the dispossessed

Last year, two people decided that the grind of poverty, the lack of a positive welfare support system in the UK, and the increasingly shrill demonising of anyone who relied on state benefits, was too much and killed themselves.  It was and remains a heartbreaking and harrowing story.  It has not left me, and it comes into my conscious mind at all sorts of times, especially when I am able to make some of the choices they were not able to make.

I blogged about Helen and Mark Mullins in November last year.  Remind yourself of the story here.

 'I think the system is very unkind ....You have
those who have the power to do this to you and
 those of us who don't have the power to resist
 it' - Mark Mullins

I have this morning carried out a quick Google search to see if I could find out what has happened since last October.  To find out if there has been an inquest.  To find out if we have managed to recover our collective sense of decency.  To find out if we are still in thrall to the fear and loathing inspired by the coalition government's policies.

I was unable to find anything other than the many reports and blogs filed last October and November.

At the same time, this morning's media has been overflowing with comment, analysis and gasps of amazement at the latest arrogance to emerge from the cesspits of the UK banking sector.  Barclays bank has been exposed as having been playing seriously silly buggers, fiddling and massaging interest rates, to make themselves look good, ensure obscene bonuses continue to be paid, and help Chief Executive Bob Diamond to continue to pull down a £multimillion salary.  The bank has been 'fined' [guess who will really pay that].  No-one has been fired or resigned.

.. a Prime Minister who actively demonises the
dispossessed in our society and seeks to strip
away what little shreds of dignity they have left
 - David Cameron, Bullingdon Club photo, back 
row, second from left

I believe there is a direct link between the factors which led Helen and Mark Mullins to kill themselves and such as the arrogance of Barclays, the self-centredness of the all too many tax dodgers like Jimmy Carr, the amnesia of Rupert Murdoch and his many acolytes, and a Prime Minister who actively demonises the dispossessed in our society and seeks to strip away what little shreds of dignity they still have left.

Many more people will die, quietly, causing little fuss, and with their remaining shreds of dignity scraped away by the insatiable and vulture-like greed of those who already have more than enough.  Unless those of us still living, still holding on to some shred of dignity, some sense of decency, keep the memory of Helen and Mark Mullins alive in our actions, our words and our deeds.