Newcastle councillor James Bannister embroiled in Twitter row over Labour MP's use of word 'starving'

“The trouble with the foreign countries who receive our aid is that they become completely dependent on it and see it as a right. As a consequence, this has a stifling effect on their progress as aspirational economies, thus deadening their will to advance. In addition, the corruption which is endemic in the human race as a whole and more especially in these African countries, ensures that the cash is earmarked for any project which takes the dictators' fancy. Needless to say, helping their own people out of poverty comes bottom of their shopping lists.”

“Can someone report this Tory Tw*t to the police for a) Using a photo not of his ownership, whoops that `ll be a 101 and a civil matter, answersthat one. b) The cruncher is this image of a child dying in Africa in such a perverse manner and used in such a perverse manner by the said twit not somehow totally obscene, not just totally perverted, do these images not carry a scale on the sex offenders scale if displayed and stored on a computer, would it not be right and proper that the said twit of a Councillor was in fact investigated that his first instinct was to publish an image of a dying child in Africa. Certainly had the child been white would we not look at these actions of said twit of a Councillor a little differently, it matters not that he`s a Tory scum bag, it could have been any sort of Councillor, it matters not that posters on here blame whoever for the fact that we now have in deprived parts of the country food banks run by churches and volunteers to ensure that some of the kids whether it be "relative poverty" or not get a meal at least once a day. With a 15% increase in the cost of food predicted by the Tories how far will the £50 odd quid in benefits go, we cant all look like MP Pickles, salivating as his head rears out of the trough that he and his cohorts of rabid Tory Party followers feed.

Someone in authority please report the g*t, and get him like the other greedy politicians kicked out of office.”

“As Prince Phillip stated: "There is no such thing in the UK as 'absolute poverty', there is only 'relative poverty'.

He is of course, absolutely correct.

Nobody is starving in the UK, but it is easily argued that people in Africa are starving.
The picture proves the point.”

“Would Bob Geldof use that picture to appeal for the starving of Africa?”

“The use of pictures of starving African children to score emotive points is getting really old hat by now. I can remember seeing similar pictures forty years ago. You know the sort of thing...a little kid standing pathetically by a dried up water hole or the delight on the face of another child who is filling a water container from a standpipe provided by those wonderful people in England. We still see identical pictures today, with the same exhortations to us to dig deep into our pockets and help the starving in Ethiopia, etc. What happened to the billions of aid already given to these nations over the last forty years? We know full well that the governments of these countries have appropriated this cash for their own foul agendas, while we are still urged by charities to provide money for these causes. Can we cynically suppose that these same charities are more anxious to preserve their own existence as much as providing aid? In my opinion the truth lies somewhere between these two.
It is absolutely right that we should look to improving the lot of our own people before these foreign states and ensure that any foreign aid starts to be applied to the citizens of those countries that are really deserving of it, by rigorous monitoring of the vast sums of money that are being blatantly misused. The British people have had their natural generosity exploited for long enough.”

“7buster, there are people out there like that, but you are generalising and making statements that are so sweeping, they completely lose any meaning.

When the welfare state was created nearly full employment was a reality, things will never be that way again, so im sure the founders of the welfare state would turn in their graves over a good many other things besides....not least of all a return to the poverty that they sought to eradicate in the first place.”

“We should be helping people in this country, first and foremost. I believe in the welfare system and it is something that we should do everything in our powers to keep but it does need reform. The founders of the welfare system would be pulling their hair out if they could see the system now and how it is abused.
Druggies and alcoholics getting paid too feed their habits but not giving a thought to their children.
Parents smoking forty fags a day and then complaining that they haven't enough money to buy their children food.
Parents who will think nothing of having a take away every night for the family but then moan that they can't even afford to buy their children breakfast.
Parents who think nothing of multiplying but not once giving a thought as too how they are going to feed another mouth.
These are the children that the system lets down because no one in government has the gumption to face up to reality and tell the truth because if they did then they would have to act and bang goes their cushy number.”

“7buster, you blame parental neglect do you, that unfeeling statement as just made sick, right out of Nasty Tory top draw of disgusting attacks on anyone needing help, point out its all there fault. I will not say that we see people in the state of life that this poor girl is in the photo, we don't, but it is s matter of how we want to treat and help people in this country. The thing I look at is report that teachers give that children are going to school hungry and can not focus on learning, and I hear them.”

“using an image of a starving child in Africa, then saying that there is no one in Britain like that is factually correct....it is however playing games with semantics and relativities.

Its like saying poverty doesnt exist anywhere apart from the 3rd world, or disease doesnt ect because its way worse there. Again factually correct, but it neatly sidesteps the issue that we do have problems with such things here also, albeit not to the same severity.

Surely the fact that there is a necessity for things like food banks in a first world country such as ours shows a glaring social disparity and frankly its nothing short of a disgrace. I work in a social sector and whilst there are definitely idiots that drink and smoke away their funds there are plenty that just struggle to make ends meet. There are also people on low wage incomes that struggle. Ill wager that the bosses of the companies that pay so poorly arent at the food bank waiting for some own brand beans and a tin of rice pudding.

Britain is indeed broken, as the tories keep spouting, but its the elitist, class ridden, unequal aspects that really needs fixing. Im not a fan of labour particularly, but cretins like Bannister and some of his tory compadres need a kick up the **** frankly.”

“What is wrong with James Bannister using this image to make a distinction between the starving in Britain and the starving in Africa considering that the starving children in Britain has nothing to do with the government and everything to do with parental neglect.
Images like the above are used almost on a daily basis in the media and it is seen as Ok as long as the money rolls into the dictators bank accounts. I know that similar images have been used at schools to highlight the differences in starving peoples from around the world.
I think it offensive when these images are on the TV in the evening when I am eating my meal, but I either leave the TV alone or turn over. I suggest if the Hull East MP doesn't like what he sees on someones twitter account do likewise unless he is incapable of such a simple task.
But this complaint has nothing to do with morals or ethics, it is political point scoring, Labour trying to score a point over the Conservatives. Because lets not forget that Labour hold the moral high ground.”