My second son spent a lengthy spell in Malawi working to help the fight against poverty.Tell him that a fifth of kids in Scunthorpe and a third in Hull are living in poverty and he would laugh in your face.
[I myself have seen the street urchins in Port Said and the appalling conditions in rural Egypt.]
Not having as much as others - very often [but clearly not always] because of: lifestyle choices, refusal to work or budget - well, is that really poverty?
[Remember that in a society where the average wage is £100k and you are on £50k - this will be referred to by social scientists as relative poverty.]
Social workers and visitors to many households 'in poverty' have told me countless stories of money spent on:-
expensive hair dos/ designer jeans at £70 per pair instead of £8 jeans from supermarkets/ same with trainers/ smoking/ regular pub visits/ gambling/ lottery tickets/ takeaways 7 times a week and consequently no money for essentials for the children. There will of course be sticks of furniture, a computer, a widescreen TV and an expensive stereo all bought 'on the drip'.The mobile phone will reign supreme.
Many of these have more in benefits than the people working their guts out next door. So is this 'poverty'?
Why do what must be a majority of the 'poor' not visit bargain shops? Why do they only go to supermarkets and shun markets? Why would so many 'not be seen dead' in clearance shops/ pound shops and secondhand shops? - Indeed, if poverty is so rife, why are secondhand shops in terminal decline?
I use Lidls, Aldi and Netto to make my budget stretch to the maximum. So why are these shops never crowded?
I think I'll check with my 86 year old mother to find out what REAL poverty is - she lived it in the 30s and is deeply embittered by this piffle.
In a nation with the worst Old Age Pensions in W. Europe, perhaps we should be looking more towards the elderly who avoid food in order to be able to heat their homes.
They are rather closer to the poverty line than families on the benefit levels described below who are oft chosen as examples.
* Read the posting for Saturday June the 16th 2007 if you do not believe me. The relative figures WILL shock you.
Note the contradiction from Ed Balls reported on the 20th november: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=495023&in_page_id=1770
Also:-
LINK: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=493281&in_page_id=1770
