One of the results of living in a multi-cultural society is that nobody cares about anyone else anymore.

The largest study ever done on Diversity proved this, it found that people trusted their neighbours less, gave less to charity and were less likely to care about the community they are living in. If Britain was an ethno-state, there is no way the people would ever allow anyone to be in such poverty that they could not afford to buy food.

From the Independent:

The shocking scale of food poverty in Britain is exposed today by new figures showing record numbers of people are reliant on handouts because of punitive benefits sanctions.

More than 900,000 people were given emergency food in the past year, an increase of 163 per cent, according to figures from the Trussell Trust, the biggest food bank charity. The explosion in demand has coincided with an increase in those seeking help following a benefit sanction.

A coalition of anti-poverty charities, including the Trussell Trust, claims the figures show that the UK is breaching international law by violating the human right to food.

Separately, 600 church leaders from all major denominations, including 36 Anglican bishops, are writing to the Government today, calling for urgent action to address hunger among the poor.

The letter will say that Lent has been “a time of sorrowful reflection” on the huge rise of those using food banks. It marks the biggest Christian intervention on UK food poverty in modern times.

In its most hard-hitting report to date, the Trussell Trust said the Government’s use of sanctions was “increasingly harsh” and that half of those referred to food banks in 2013-14 were as a result of benefit delays or changes. Eight out of 10 of their food banks saw more cases relating to benefit sanctions over the past year. Tougher punishments for those on jobseeker’s allowance were introduced by the Coalition last October, raising the minimum sanction from one to four weeks. Benefits can now be stopped for up to three years.

In total, 913,138 people received three days’ emergency food from Trussell Trust food banks in 2013-14, compared with 346,992 in 2012-13.

Static incomes, rising living costs, low pay, under-employment and other problems related to welfare reform also contributed to the increased demand, the charity said.

The Trussell Trust chairman, Chris Mould, said the figures were “ shocking in 21st century Britain”. He added: “Perhaps most worrying of all, this figure is just the tip of the iceberg of UK food poverty. It doesn’t include those helped by other emergency food providers, those living in towns where there is no food bank, people who are too ashamed to seek help or the large number of people who are only just coping by eating less and buying cheap food.”

Channel 4 was facing a police probe last night over a documentary featuring a thief showing how to shoplift.

Detectives are considering whether to investigate the criminal activities seen in the programme on welfare claimants.

The prolific shoplifter explains how to dodge security alarms and how to remove security tags from designer clothes without causing damage.

More than 200 complaints were made to Channel 4 and the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom after Benefits Street aired on Monday night.

Residents in a deprived Birmingham road were filmed making false welfare claims and growing cannabis in their homes. John O’Shea, a Labour councillor in the city, said: ‘Channel 4 appear to have aided and abetted shoplifting in Birmingham.’

Superintendent Danny Long, of West Midlands Police, said: ‘We have been inundated with comments from members of the public, many of whom are concerned about elements of the show which showed criminal activity.

‘We are assessing whether the content of the programme can assist  us as part of any investigations or indeed whether any new inquiries should be launched in light of the material that has been broadcast.’

The programme explores day-to-day life in James Turner Street, Winson Green, where, it is claimed, as many as 90 per cent of people claim benefits.

Shoplifter ‘Danny’ is seen brandishing a cardboard shopping bag which he has lined with a Primark paper bag covered in foil to stop security alarms going off inside stores.

Another resident, called ‘Fungi’, is seen going into a Premier Inn hotel where he picks up four magazines and tries to hawk them for £2.50 each, calling them ‘his Big Issue’.

Cameras follow him making a sale to a woman in a smart black sports car. Evidently fooled, she gives him £3 and tells him to keep the change. He makes £12.

Danny later returns from a shopping centre having apparently stolen five jackets which he claims he can sell for £250. On the bus home, he shows viewers how to remove the security tags without damaging the clothes.

Fungi beams: ‘This guy is one of the best shoplifters I have ever met in my life. This is James Turner street, this is how we’ve got to earn our money.’

After making £200 in an afternoon, Danny then calls a drug dealer to order ‘two bags and a shot’.

Another resident, Dee Roberts, 32, says: ‘If there’s somebody around and they’re going to sell you a £120 pair of jeans for a tenner you aren’t going to say no are you, do you know what I mean, it’s like their way of living.’

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Impoverished pensioners are stealing to survive the recession, it is claimed, and are ready to risk jail as dwindling pensions and soaring prices put them on the breadline.

Since the economic downturn began in 2008, thousands of elderly people have been prosecuted for theft.

Shoplifters as old as 89 have been caught and even in the genteel ­Cotswolds police say that over-75s are causing a mini crime wave.

Neil Duncan-Jordan of the National Pensioners Convention said: “When times are tough people make desperate decisions because they feel they have no alternatives.

“Pensioners should not be scared to seek help; better that than risk a ­criminal record so late on in life.”

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of shop­lifting offences in England and Wales in the 12 months to June 2013 was 307,652; an increase of 3,000 on the previous 12 months.

That data is not broken down into age but answers to Freedom of Information requests show that in the past five years almost 150 pensioners aged 70 and above have been prosecuted for shoplifting in Derbyshire.

Last year there were 32 prosecutions while in 2012 there were 34, more than double the 14 pensioners police cautioned or put through the courts in 2009-10.

Among those arrested for stealing were two people aged 89, two aged 88, three aged 87 and two aged 86.

Age UK Derby and Derbyshire chief executive Katy Pugh warned that some of those prosecuted might be suffering from dementia but not ­receiving the help they need.

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Austerity measures and the economic downturn in the UK have prompted the British branch of the Red Cross to begin formulating an emergency food aid plan for Britain – the first the charity has set up for the country since WWII.

The Geneva-based charity is to start gathering and distributing food with the help of fellow charities and a supermarket chain, allocating donations to Britain’s needy.

The Red Cross is traditionally recognized for its work in disaster-struck regions rather than in developed countries, and the move appears to be a by-product of “indiscriminate cuts in public health and social welfare,” according to Bekele Geleta, the Secretary General of the International Federation of the Red Cross, who spoke to the UK’s Independent.

An announcement on the website stated that “Struggling families and individuals across the UK will benefit from [the partnership].”

Surplus perishable food from supermarkets is to be redistributed to charities, lunch clubs for ageing sectors of the population, and food banks. While FareShare, which is participating in the Red Cross scheme, has been undertaking this action since roughly 2004, it has to now cope with increasing demands from food banks.

“Unbelievably, 3 million tonnes of food are wasted in the UK every year while thousands go hungry. We’re delighted to help FareShare give much-needed support to people in crisis,” said Simon Lewis, Red Cross head of emergency planning and response.

It “should be a wake-up-call to David Cameron over his failure to tackle the cost of living crisis,” Maria Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary told the Independent.

The UK poverty director for Oxfam charity Chris Johnes, said that he was “genuinely shocked” that Britain was struggling to feed the poor and that the Red Cross is stepping in. “They don’t do things for reasons of grandstanding at all,” he told The Independent. “The fact that they are doing this… is a very clear signal how serious things have become.”

Trussell Trust charity estimates that around 500,000 people in the UK needed support from food banks last year.

A Red Cross report published on Thursday indicated that Europe as a whole was spiraling into a cycle of poverty as some 120 million are at risk of poverty while around 43 million people across Europe are hungry every day.

The charity concluded that austerity measures taken during Europe’s economic downturn have further contributed to snowballing poverty and unemployment, and identifies weakening health; a toughening stance on increasing migration; and a steep rise in unemployment alongside a poverty spiral.

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