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, 9:04 Fri Nov 16
UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

We are all in this together.

The UK government has inflicted “great misery” on its people with “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies driven by a political desire to undertake social re-engineering rather than economic necessity, the United Nations poverty envoy has found.

Philip Alston, the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, ended a two-week fact-finding mission to the UK with a stinging declaration that levels of child poverty were “not just a disgrace, but a social calamity and an economic disaster”, even though the UK is the world’s fifth largest economy,

About 14 million people, a fifth of the population, live in poverty and 1.5 million are destitute, being unable to afford basic essentials, he said, citing figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. He highlighted predictions that child poverty could rise by 7% between 2015 and 2022, possibly up to a rate of 40%.

“It is patently unjust and contrary to British values that so many people are living in poverty,” he said, adding that compassion had been abandoned during almost a decade of austerity policies that had been so profound that key elements of the postwar social contract, devised by William Beveridge more than 70 years ago, had been swept away.

Pee Wee 9:26 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

I was just thinking, what this football site needs is more political threads.

Thanks for your efforts in remedying this.

Mike Oxsaw 9:27 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

Good thing the people didn't overspend by maxing out their credit cards and mortgaging their homes to pay for neighbour-impressing holidays then, otherwise we really would be in trouble.

Nurse Ratched 9:30 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

So what's the plan, Comma?

Posters take you up on your offer to engage, and in response you say various versions of "Chomp!"; "Another one in the net"; "What a bite", etc?

Is it worth sticking around for?


(Sorry, don't mean to be mean spirited, but I've had a wearing day)

mike hunt 9:34 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

brings to mind the beggar sitting outside the tube station every day with his dog and his iphone, what exactly are these essentials of what you speak

Nurse Ratched 9:35 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

A newer model of the iPhone. And a unicorn.

ray winstone 9:46 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

‘’Let them eat cake’’......

neilalex 9:52 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

So what definition of poverty is being used here? he doesn't seem to say. Presumably though, below 60% of the median household income which, being a relative measure, means that there will always be a large number of people in 'poverty'. At the moment anyone on less than about £315 a week is in poverty by that measure.

14 million people in the UK in 'poverty'. Utter fucking horseshit by any common sense definition of the word. By all means have an argument about the inequality of wealth distribution, but 'poverty'?

, 10:10 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

How the UN measures poverty:

https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc99/rio.pdf

The UN envoy in the UK case is clearly talking about relative not absolute poverty.

neilalex 10:27 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

Well, he isn't honest enough to give a measure but clearly it's relative, so we will always have a lot of poverty under any reasonably foreseeable scenario. I accept that inequalities of wealth can increase leaving a larger proportion in 'poverty'..

Most people understand poverty as a concept in a very different way. Not having enough to eat, no roof over your head that kind of thing.However, as stated, what we're actually talking about here is the inequality of wealth distribution which is entirely different. The word 'poverty' appears to be used largely because those bandying it about understand its emotive impact, and exploit the gap between their specific definition and most people's intuitive understanding of the word.

After8 10:28 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

The UN has inflicted great misery on the world.

Far Cough 10:29 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

neilalex 10:27 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

ray winstone 10:55 Fri Nov 16
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

The Tories have inflicted great misery on the UK.

Westham67 2:55 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

mike hunt 9:34 Fri Nov 16

You can attain an I phone for 50 quid hardly a replacement for a decent job or decent welfare

Westham67 3:00 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

neilalex 10:27 Fri Nov 16

I've seen poverty everywhere I have worked it is the poverty of hope and opportunities which is equal in all societies

HairyHammer 5:15 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

True the poor and workıng classes have taken the biggest hits the middle are also being squeezed to breaking point, they keep on saying that Austerity will end soon, well it's been 8 years of the same crap and i can't see a golden light can you?.

Westham67 5:28 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

Austerity is callous by name

jfk 5:41 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

There is no such thing as people starving in the UK.
We are the most democratic nation on earth.
Probably why every immigrants ultimate destination is Great Britain.

goose 9:15 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

People of this country have no idea what real poverty is.

Hermit Road 9:33 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

Defining poverty as a relative measure is a slight of hand played by unscrupulous ideologues on gullible people.

Using it, the poor can’t get both richer (in the real sense that they have more money), and poorer at the same time because their income decreases as a % of the average.

All a government has to do to reduce poverty under this measure is obliterate the economy. Everyone’s wages tank so the poorest, even though they have less money are now not poor any more because their income is a greater % of the average.

Socialism will do that for you.

Hermit Road 9:42 Sat Nov 17
Re: UK austerity has inflicted 'great misery' on citizens, UN says

*sleight

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