#povertyisapoliticalchoice

[hexaflexageek]

Streets of Newcastle. The lamp post this is on is almost equidistant between the filming location of the two main flats in I, Daniel Blake. Last night I managed to get to a meeting. Glad to have got there. Everything was positive. There are good plans. There will be a party (of a sort) but there won't be violence though. Not unless things in Britain deteriorate a lot more after Brexit. #politics #protest #injustice #urban #city #newcastle #newcastleupontyne #poverty #povertyisapoliticalchoice #fightback (at Newcastle upon Tyne) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsXppY9BThZ/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1dbtut9pftvee

[hexaflexageek]

Living Library at the community festival today. I was a living book, helping represent Chilli Studios and the project based there, Heads and Tales, a mental health heritage project. Over the course of the afternoon sixteen organisations were represented connected with different people affected directly by the horrible and difficult effects of austerity policies. Extinction Rebellion was represented too. If I hadn't had to leave I guess I could have been two living books. #Festival #community #communityfestival #library #livinglibrary #chillistudios #headsandtales #mentalhealth #extinctionrebellion #antiausterity #austeritykills #austerity #poverty #povertyisapoliticalchoice #starandshadow #newcastle #newcastlelife (at Star and Shadow Cinema) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2rvqMrAJSR/?igshid=hj9loo894iz7

[hexaflexageek]

The anti-austerity community festival at Star and Shadow today. Loads of people there I know from different places. Many others I know would have been at all the other events I couldn't get to. #psychologistsagainstausterity #Festival #community #austeritykills #austerity #fuckthetories #antiausterity #povertyisapoliticalchoice #poverty #starandshadow (at Star and Shadow Cinema) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2rutZQAeLw/?igshid=1qag753kcaia6

[hexaflexageek]

Treats are good. I am glad that a family in Byker, whoever they turn out to be, will get a treat. System change is better. Five pages, typed very quickly. #povertyisapoliticalchoice There are many excellent people living on the unique Byker Wall estate. It's one of the poorest places in the country. The Church of England says it's about the 70th poorest parish out of twelve thousand. More than half the children live in poverty. There are plenty of social issues. There is desperation. There are hungry people and struggling food banks. But, generally, I really like living here. We're possibly heading to a no-deal Brexit too. Some estimates put the consequential loss to the NE economy at 16%. The poor will suffer most. Even without that possibility, austerity policies have harmed us greatly. The council too, due to massive central government cuts, cannot do all it used to. They have to cutback and people get hurt. Meanwhile, the rich have continued to get richer. Men like Boris Johnson will not suffer or have to go hungry. Byker is not of the rich. Byker is of the working class. The underclass. The ones increasingly let down as inequality increases. Byker is of the people. #Byker #newcastle #newcastleupontyne #treats #antanddec #bykergrove #poverty #inequality #climatechange #NEEngland #bykerwall #goodplace #goodpeople #systemchange #rebelforlife #poor #changethesystem #austeritykills #estatelife @_ant_and_dec @saturdaynighttakeaway https://www.instagram.com/p/B1PZQX7gCI4/?igshid=umtxne069i55

[hexaflexageek]

Newcastle graffiti. The UK government meanwhile seem intent on creating more poor people and disempowering them. #graffiti #newcastle #newcastleupontyne #empowerment #empower #poor #justice #inequality #austerity #changetheworld #changethesystem #poverty #povertyisapoliticalchoice (at Ouseburn Valley) https://www.instagram.com/clarejmatthews/p/BwNTZnsAaNO/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=6ty32wif5ow7

[hexaflexageek]

Our little mental health project. @headsandtales_heritage We'll be talking about it tomorrow morning on BBC Radio Newcastle. I'll try not to get sidetracked into critiques of austerity, poverty, benefits, mental health service cuts or how awful the government has been for so many of us with mental health difficulties. But restraint is a tricky thing! #mentalhealth #mentalhealthwarrior #radio #newcastle #newcastleupontyne #austerity #Tory #poverty #povertyisapoliticalchoice #mentalhealthblogger #madpride #nostigma #stigma #art #outsiderart #artforall #chillistudios #mentalhealthart #heritage #activist #acceptance #inclusion #representation #mentalhealthawareness (at Newcastle upon Tyne) https://www.instagram.com/p/BsrG9fABVMY/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=9k3pf8txl7pv

[hexaflexageek]

I bought a theology book yesterday. One of the few Christian books I actually want to read. I also bought a feminist book I want to read but of the two this is more surprising for someone who criticises churches so often. This one was written by a Catholic, a Peruvian priest. However his Catholicism is rather different to that of scumbags like Jacob Rees-Mogg. His Christianity has nothing in common with the evangelical wolves gathered round Trump or the policies of May, the vicar's daughter. This is the antithesis to tear-gassing children, or making a political choice for poverty as the Tories have repeatedly done. This is about the preferential option for the poor, the abolition of injustice, the end of exploitation. This is class struggle, loving all but putting the oppressed first in our actions. I don't believe the god bits but this book was the blueprint for a nice Christianity. This is liberation theology. And for most of my Christian life, I'd have avoided this book, often condemned it. Because my faith was pretty messed up and damaging. That's the faith I received. Godless, my atheism is somehow closer to Gutierrez than my Christianity was, including my Catholicism. It's probably closer to the historical Jesus than anything I ever preached or prayed. #book #bookcover #bookstagram #booklover #theology #liberationtheology #liberation #freedom #politics #Jesus #atheist #gutierrez #poverty #justice #injustice #Christianity #thereisnogod #classstruggle #godless #Catholic #theologian #booklove #bookworm #povertyisapoliticalchoice https://www.instagram.com/p/BqsWiuPBtvk/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1mm5bb6xkqcrh