The General Election isn’t about Brexit – it’s about POVERTY. Here’s why
Poverty: this is what the election is really about.
Apologies to those of you who may be getting bored by This Writer constantly harping on about how the Tories have reduced so many of us to penury – but you need to know.
And it is a far more central part of the election than many people may believe: when Boris Johnson lies to you that he needs to “get Brexit done”, he’s claiming that increased funding for domestic issues depends on it.
This also is a lie, because his Brexit will reduce the amount of money coming into the economy – but it makes a good soundbite.
And local newspapers around the country are running pieces explaining how their region is affected. This is from the Chronicle, in Newcastle:
Research by Loughborough University for the End Child Poverty campaign found that parts of the North East have the highest levels of child poverty in the country.
Academics identified the 20 UK constituencies with the highest rates of child poverty.
They include Newcastle Central, where 13,270 children or 48% of the total are in poverty.
Research by the House of Commons found 15% of working age adults in the North East who live in households where at least one adult works is in poverty. That’s nearly one in six people.
Poverty is defined as a household income which is lower than 60% of the median household income, after housing costs.
It’s sometimes said that work used to be a route out of poverty, but that this is no longer the case. However, it’s worth nothing that the chances of being in poverty are still much higher for households where nobody works. The statistics show 55% of working age adults in this situation are in poverty.
Earlier this year, official figures revealed that 120 homeless people died in the North East over a five year period.
The figures mainly include people sleeping rough at or around the time of death, but also include those using emergency accommodation such as homeless shelters and direct access hostels.
They included an estimated 20 deaths in Sunderland between 2013 and 2017, with a death rate of 1.9 per 100,000, as well as an estimated nine deaths in Durham between 2013 and 2017.
Nationwide, an estimated 726 homeless people died in England and Wales in 2018, the highest year-to-year increase since records began, the Office for National Statistics has said.
Most of the deaths in 2018 were men, 88% of the total, the government body revealed.
It also emerged earlier this year that the homelessness, poverty and the impact of Universal Credit, the new benefits system, is making people ill.
According to NHS trusts, rising demand for healthcare is linked to a shortage of housing, employment and the changes to the benefit system.
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No apologies needed, Mike. This message needs slamming home to all.
However big and bold the Election promises to tackle hunger, poverty or the NHS etc, what people need to bear in mind is that the Government are obviously aware of the issues but have consciously chosen to ignore them up until now !
Either that or they have caused the problem themselves then chosen to ignore the consequences of their actions.
Very good points.