I am not political. I voted in the last General Election because I felt that having the ability to vote is a privilege and one that should be exercised.

Today I was listening to the radio while driving back from my swim. The journey from my home to the pool is just 5 minutes but I sat in the car for 30 minutes thinking.

Here in the UK, we are spending 10 BILLION pounds on the Olympics (up from the original £4 billion) ... are now talking about spending 20 BILLION pounds renewing Trident - a nuclear weapons system. The UK debt is around 926 BILLION pounds ...

- 17-18% of the population are found to be in poverty at any one time consistently, from 1994-2004. (BBC News)

- In 2003 to 2004, 21% of children lived in households below the poverty line. After housing costs are taken into account, this rises to 28%.

- 3.9 million number of single people in the UK living below the poverty line in 2005 Many of these people are divorced women. (The Elizabeth Finn Trust/BBC News)

- Nearly 60% of those in poverty are homeowners. (BBC News)

- Water poverty is defined by the Government as spending more than 3% of disposable income on water bills. Nationally, in 2006, nearly 10% of households were in water poverty.

- In the UK, on average 498 people sleep rough each night, with 248 of those in London.

I know that there are "median" figures that work out how "poverty" is measured in each country ... and according to the median: Sweden 12.3%, Germany 13.1%, United Kingdom 14.0%, France 14.1% .. and the United States 23.8%.

I am shocked by all of this.

How can we WASTE 30 BILLION pounds in the UK on stadiums and weapons while men and women of all ages & children haven't got enough money to eat ... or heat up their homes ... or in some cases have clean water ...

I will now get back into my box.