Meaning economic impoverishment!

The conclusion of a recent report from the UN - carried out by an Australian academic based in NYC.

Into prevailing UK poverty, precipitated by an 'uncaring ethos' and a succession of bad economic decisions.


1.7 million of us have less than £10 a day to live on - and regularly have to forgo food, accommodation and/or heating to survive.

A shocking report (commissioned by UN Human Rights/compiled by an unbiased and unpaid expert), its 20 pages makes incredulous observations - which ring so true.

Parts of Britain now have third world features, conditions and lifestyles.


As most towns and cities will confirm - even just from the numbers of doorway occupants...

It's really shameful in a supposedly first world country, and Brexit will surely only make it worse. The government are apparently furious. "How dare he?" Total arrogance.

It looks as if the rapporteur is blaming the Conservatives (and possibly Lib Dems in coalition with them), as his conclusion refers to "since 2010", which was when the coalition began.

The philosophy underpinning the British welfare system has changed radically since 2010. The initial rationales for reform were to reduce overall expenditures and to promote employment as the principal “cure” for poverty. But when large-scale poverty persisted despite a booming economy and very high levels of employment, the Government chose not to adjust course. Instead, it doubled down on a parallel agenda to reduce benefits by every means available, including constant reductions in benefit levels, ever-more-demanding conditions, harsher penalties, depersonalization, stigmatization, and virtually eliminating the option of using the legal system to vindicate rights. The basic message, delivered in the language of managerial efficiency and automation, is that almost any alternative will be more tolerable than seeking to obtain government benefits. This is a very far cry from any notion of a social contract, Beveridge model or otherwise, let alone of social human rights. As Thomas Hobbes observed long ago, such an approach condemns the least well off to lives that are “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. As the British social contract slowly evaporates, Hobbes’ prediction risks becoming the new reality.

www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/Displa...D=24636&LangID=E

I assume this is the report by Professor Philip Alston the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

He's from an extremely conservative Aust family..his brother is a very right-wing MP.

I don't think he makes these claims lightly.

hedda wrote:
I assume this is the report by Professor Philip Alston the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.

He's from an extremely conservative Aust family..his brother is a very right-wing MP.

I don't think he makes these claims lightly.


Significantly, Alston says that - if Brexit proceeds - it will present an opportunity to reimagine what the UK stands for.

But that its likely to have a 'major adverse impact on the most vulnerable' - perhaps not what our the Tories want to hear at the moment!

Amber Rudd, and the DWP, are to complain to the United Nations about the report - which they think paints too bleak a picture.

Certainly the language is strong, but the findings seem accurate to me. In that so many parts of the UK have almost died.

These would include Sunderland and Newcastle, for example - which lost its shipbuilding, coal mining and steel industries.

3/4 generations of families have never worked, and probably never will. The North West isn't much better.

Places like Stoke, Oldham, Rotherham, Rochdale are just full of poudshops and charity shops - with an out of town shopping centre catering for retail needs.

Employment opportunities are rare, not helped by an inbuilt reluctance of people to relocate.

Homelessness though continues to rise...