67: Are we really talking about the deserving poor again

I'm bored of talking about my personal experience of childhood poverty. I'm in therapy at the moment and it's currently the main thing we're challenging and refocusing -- that experience is a huge part of who I am, no matter how I would prefer to move on and forget about it, and knowing this my therapist is encouraging me to view it from a range of different angles. Not forgetting -- learning compassion and life lessons from it.You either understand why so many people are furious today, or you never will. That's how I've come to see it. Either you can implicitly understand what choosing not to feed hungry children means, or you don't. I'm not going to explain. I haven't got the energy. I'm pretty sure I've got Covid, which is a whole other thing. (I sent my test off this morning, wish me luck.)But the notion that it's even up for discussion is scary to me. There are people in the world who believe that food banks and free school meals breed complacency and dependence on the state. There are people out there who truly believe that they managed to work their way out of poverty alone, with no support from friends, family, teachers, colleagues, charities or the welfare system. To people like our prime minster and those who support him like my newest enemy MP Ben Bradley all I can say is this: that meagre pile of plate armour and coins your scaly body is entwined around, the one you've pilfered over a lifetime of fucking people over and ignoring your conscience, will not retain its value forever.If you can afford to help a charity doing frontline work for people in need in your community right now, a good place to start is with The Trussel Trust and FareShare. I also can't sing Shelter's praises enough based on the help they've given to my family in the past.Other Stuff

• An excellent summary of what Manchester's been through these past few weeks.

• An excellent take-down of Ben Bradley MP and the fucking gross people like him who believe that feeding children will wreck the economy (but somehow do not see this as being a fault with the economy)

• While I was delirious and feverish I spent a lot of time watching YouTube videos that had "cafe" or "trendy bar" ambience because it was the only way I could fall asleep. That progressed into watching tapas crawl videos and this was one of the best I saw. God I miss Spain.

• WinAmp! The best music player. Andy Kelly knows.

• All of Pellicle's wonderful cider and perry articles in celebration of APPLE DAY.

• Carla and Séan of Wide Street Brewery make amazing beer and so it was ace to see them being celebrated in The Irish Times.

• Cheer yourself up with a ruthless film review. Angelica Jade Bastién gives the new Rebecca -- and mostly Armie Hammer -- a monstering.

My Stuff

• I wrote about my fave restaurant The Moorcock at Norland Moor for Pellicle.

• We got our sign up in the bar window!

• Social Clubs are in danger of being forgotten. I wrote about how they've been bringing themselves into the 21st century.

• Carmela Caldart is now working on a painting for Corto! Thank you again to everyone who chipped in for me to commission work by her for the bar. It's going to be ace.