There seems to be concensus here that the British governnment showed criminal indifference, at the very least, to Ireland's population during those harrowing years. (Even Ard and Teribus are in agreement.) Incidentally there was some parliamentary opposition to the government line. I think that Robert Peel, for instance, protested, but can't check just now.

But WLD is spot on. British governments of the day were equally indifferent to its own population. Michael Sadler MP spent years trying to gt the working hours of children in the mills restricted to ten hours a day, but his bill was not passed till 1833. In 1832 and inquiry heard testimony about children as young as six working from 3am to 10pm during the "brisk time." In most cases parents wereunemployed and were refused parish relief if they had children of working age.By the time of the Irish famine, conditions were much better -but only relatively speaking.

It is an unfortunate part of the human condition that people in such desperate circumstances will take succour from finding others even less fortunate, to whom they can feel superior. The Irish were thus stigmatised by elements of the Brit working class, in much the way that non-whites in South Africa who were fortunate enough to be clasified as "coloured" were inclined to abuse blacks as "kaffirs". Pathetic, but it's the way we are.