A letter in last night's Sheffield Star made the absurd claim that 10 million people are 'living below the poverty line'.Utter bunkum!
I suspect that The Institute of Fiscal Studies has gone bonkers again! For the umpteenth time, I must explain that we do not have any 'absolute poverty' in the UK which is not self-inflicted or from people who have chosen themselves to live on the streets.
'Relative poverty' - what we are talking about here - is all about where YOU CHOOSE to draw the line, as some people in a society MUST always be poorer than others.
Such claims - they do not count as statistics - are inevitably arbitrary, used to create a manipulative, political agenda - and are usually wrongly based.
I am always able to establish what 'poverty' really is by asking Number 2 Son. He spent six months with a medical aid charity in Malawi.
Do NOT tell him that we have poverty in the UK - he will not believe you!
