15 February 2024 , 23:06
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A university student made a heartbreaking admission as politicians bickered over the economy tonight on BBC's Question Time.
When asked if the government was failing in its pledge to grow the economy, as today it was confirmed we are in another recession, various MPs took their stab at answering the question and getting their sides talking points across.
Then, long-time BBC host Fiona Bruce moved on to a member of the crowd who made a heartbreaking admission. Cerys Evans, the president of the Lancaster University Student Union said: "You talk about the economy and we are obviously feeling it incredibly much right now. But the future of the nation is on our young people, I'm the President of the Student's Union here in Lancaster, and I have students coming in telling me they can't study because they haven't eaten in three days."
The President of the local student union in Lancaster shared the heartbreaking story (BBC)At this point, Ms Bruce asks to clarify the horrifying admission, which the SU president confirms. She continues: "Fiona I have hundreds of stories. We have a foodbank on campus, tonight we have supper club where we give out free meals, we have at least a hundred, 150, 180, students every Thursday who are desperate for what is possibly the only hot meal they'll have that week. We have a food bank that we struggle to fund, we can only afford a certain amount of food portions on campus."
She said that the government didn't prioritise students and hadn't for the last decade. The shocking story came as today the country was plunged into yet another recession. The UK is no stranger to economic hardship have suffered through shock after shock in recent years.
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Then in the final part of 2023, the country fell into recession in what will be a damning blow for Rishi Sunak - who made the economy one of his five key priorities. It also comes just three weeks before Chancellor Jeremy Hunt delivers the latest budget. A recession is, by definition, two consecutive quarters (periods of three months) where the gross domestic product (GDP) falls.
GDP is one indicator used to measure the size and health of a country's economy, it was revealed GDP shrank by 0.3% between October and December 2023. This followed a decline of 0.1% between July and September 2023, therefore meeting the technical definition of a recession.
The decline between October and December 2023 was bigger than had been expected by analysts. Most economists had been forecasting the economy to have shrunk by 0.1%. However, the data is just an estimate at the moment and can be revised at a later date.
The UK was last in the recession back in 2020, during the Covid pandemic. This lasted six months. Before this, the previous recession was in 2008, during the financial crisis. The economy narrowly dodged recession at the end of 2022 after revised figures came out marginally better than expected.