Empathic Approaches to Homelessness

In this Facebook video,  we see compassion and empathy at play in the Netherlands. It's also non-judgemental. And what a super idea these jackets are! They keep the homeless dry and warm on a wet night as well as protecting them from damp, cold winter nights.

And this isn't the only European country thinking up innovative ideas to help the homeless, such as, France which repurposes old trains into clean living areas with beds, lighting and warmth for the homeless to rest in instead of exhausting themselves sleeping outdoors. This keeps them dry, warm and safe. It gives them dignity.

France has also invented self heating food packs so the homeless can eat hot food whenever they like during the winter without the need for gas etc.

What does the UK do? It's made homelessness a crime since the 19th century (Vagrancy Act 1824)! So seeing the suffering of others doesn't produce compassion or empathy in and of itself, as we see in the UK. But it has in the Netherlands and France. So there must be another factor at play that is more fundamental eg a capacity for empathy. 

This is why the UK desperately needs a compassionate, empathic government, not one that just stresses people out with constant unnecessary sudden changes and warnings if everyone is not constantly paranoid about keeping up with the latest crazy idea. It's become a country that works at creating fear and poverty which targets just about everyone except itself. That's no longer a democracy. Yet we're putting up with it and, worse still, eyeing up something even less democratic to take over ie the Reform Party.

I'm baffled how people think. There's another option: the Lib Dems who were the traditional opposition to the Tories throughout British history, until Labour, with its left/right faction and an attitude problem towards the middle class, came about at the beginning of the 20th century. Let's face it, the Lib Dems can't do worse than the two main parties and very likely would do far better. They'll make the UK a saner, more decent, caring place to live in. The evidence is there! Any decent policy under PM David Cameron was not due to the Conservatives but to the Lib Dems!

J S Mill was right up to a point. You need an educated nation before handing out the vote to everyone. I would go further and say you need politics taught in schools. Voting is a huge responsibility that every citizen should be allowed to participate in but they're meant to do so because they're informed about the choice they're making before placing their vote. Some 16 year olds haven't even sat their GCSEs yet and, therefore, can't leave school. Furthermore, they're still minors until 18. So I don't understand why the UK is allowed to lower the voting age to 16, which implicitly means children can now vote in local and general elections. That's mad! These children's voting decisions will impact all of us, worse still! Yet the UK recently raised the safeguarding age in education, in particular, to 19 years old. That's nonsensical: 16 year olds will be voting and impacting the whole nation alongside adults of all ages, whilst still being considered minors in need of extra safeguarding measures for the next several years. 

Ideally, if you are going to start allowing school children to vote, then politics has to be taught as a compulsory subject in schools by teachers who are trained to teach it objectively, with compassion and kindness being the guiding principles, emphasizing democracy not dictatorships and totalitarianism. The latter is not an informed choice, it's a disaster that happens when something has gone seriously wrong.