The Guardian View on Boris Johnson’s Poverty Plan: Spread It Widely?

THE GUARDIAN: Mr Johnson once thought ‘destitution on a Victorian scale’ might be a good thing. With Tory policies he may yet deliver such a dystopia

Did Boris Johnson watch Channel 4’s documentary Growing Up Poor? He should have. The film is a seminal moment in television which has made people talk about the crisis of destitution that is hiding in plain sight in the UK, and how dreadful it is. In the programme, childhood dreams of being an actor or a solicitor jarred with tales of chronic poverty. There were bleak scenes of Dickensian hardship, as families living in squalor or with hungry children at a food bank explained how these situations had been precipitated by everyday catastrophes of bereavement, domestic violence and mental breakdown. The damaging trade-offs being made – of whether to eat or heat – are a shameful indictment of a country as wealthy as ours. » | Editorial | Tuesday, November 3, 2019

How Poor People Survive in the USA | DW Documentary

Homelessness, hunger and shame: poverty is rampant in the richest country in the world. Over 40 million people in the United States live below the poverty line, twice as many as it was fifty years ago. It can happen very quickly.

Many people in the United States fall through the social safety net. In the structurally weak mining region of the Appalachians, it has become almost normal for people to go shopping with food stamps. And those who lose their home often have no choice but to live in a car. There are so many homeless people in Los Angeles that relief organizations have started to build small wooden huts to provide them with a roof over their heads. The number of homeless children has also risen dramatically, reaching 1.5 million, three times more than during the Great Depression the 1930s. A documentary about the fate of the poor in the United States today.

UK's Brexit Obsession Will Diminish Country, Says UN Poverty Expert

THE GUARDIAN: Britain ‘screwing itself royally for the future’, warns human rights lawyer Philip Alston

The United Nations global poverty expert, Philip Alston, has warned that Britain’s preoccupation with Brexit will leave the country severely diminished whether or not it leaves the EU because too little is being done to alter policies driving people deeper into poverty.

The eminent New York-based human rights lawyer, who is in the final year of his term as the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty, said on Tuesday: “You are really screwing yourselves royally for the future by producing a substandard workforce and children that are malnourished.” » | Robert Booth, Social affairs correspondent | Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Blistering UN Report: Trump Administration’s Policies Designed to Worsen Poverty & Inequality

A group of top Democrats are demanding the Trump administration present a plan to Congress to address growing poverty in the United States, following an excoriating report by the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, Philip Alston. Alston slammed the Trump administration’s policies for worsening the state of poverty in the United States. The report details how 40 million Americans live in poverty, and 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty. It also details how the United States has the highest rate of income inequality among Western countries and one of the lowest rates of intergenerational social mobility. We speak with Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty. He will be presenting his report next week in Geneva.

Why Are Holocaust Survivors Poor?

Research shows that 1/3 of the 100,000 holocaust survivors that live in the United States, live in poverty. 50,000 of those survivors live in the New York Metropolitan are, and 52% of them are poor and their average income is $18,000. Hanan Simhon, vice president of Holocaust Survivor Services at Self-help, stated, “It’s a shocking statistic… They tend to be very isolated, losing their families during the war and then either did not or could not have children. Many started working in menial jobs because they did not have the language kills. Today they are in their 80s and 90s and it is beyond difficult to make ends meet.”

Holocaust Survivors Fighting Poverty

An estimated one-third of Holocaust survivors in the United States live at or below the poverty line, according to The Blue Card, a non-profit organization.

France: Catholic Charity Throws Christmas Party for Poor Parisians

Every Christmas in Paris, hundreds of people who are unable to afford a proper meal are taken on a dinner party cruise on the River Seine.

UK: Welfare Cuts Push Millions into Poverty

A new report has called on the British government to raise taxes on wealthier citizens in order to fight poverty.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that 13 million British people live in poverty - and more than one million are destitute.

Al Jazeera’s UK correspondent Barnaby Phillips reports from Peterborough.

Oxfam: 85 Richest People as Wealthy as Poorest Half of the World

The InterContinental in Davos

THE GUARDIAN: As World Economic Forum starts in Davos, development charity claims that growing inequality has been driven by a 'power grab' by wealthy elites

The world's wealthiest people aren't known for travelling by bus, but if they fancied a change of scene then the richest 85 people on the globe – who between them control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population put together – could squeeze onto a single double-decker.

The extent to which so much global wealth has become corralled by a virtual handful of the so-called 'global elite' is exposed in a new report from Oxfam on Monday. It warned that those richest 85 people across the globe share a combined wealth of £1tn, as much as the poorest 3.5 billion of the world's population.

The wealth of the 1% richest people in the world amounts to $110tn (£60.88tn), or 65 times as much as the poorest half of the world, added the development charity, which fears this concentration of economic resources is threatening political stability and driving up social tensions.

It's a chilling reminder of the depths of wealth inequality as political leaders and top business people head to the snowy peaks of Davos for this week's World Economic Forum. Few, if any, will be arriving on anything as common as a bus, with private jets and helicoptors pressed into service as many of the world's most powerful people convene to discuss the state of the global economy over four hectic days of meetings, seminars and parties in the exclusive ski resort.

Winnie Byanyima, the Oxfam executive director who will attend the Davos meetings, said: "It is staggering that in the 21st Century, half of the world's population – that's three and a half billion people – own no more than a tiny elite whose numbers could all fit comfortably on a double-decker bus."

Oxfam also argues that this is no accident either, saying growing inequality has been driven by a "power grab" by wealthy elites, who have co-opted the political process to rig the rules of the economic system in their favour. » | Graeme Wearden | Monday, January 20, 2014

Edwina Currie’s Cruel Jibe at the Poor

Edwina Curry

SUNDAY EXPRESS: FORMER Tory MP Edwina Currie last night provoked outrage by saying that ­people who use food banks waste their money on ­tattoos and dog food.

Her comments come as ­figures show that more than 100,000 people had to turn to food banks at Christmas. This is double the 2012 figure and a record number.

A million Britons, a third of them children, relied on food banks last year, according to estimates.

Last night Ms Currie was attacked for a “disgusting insult” to those living below the poverty line and for making “crude and outrageous generalisations”. Speaking on Radio Stoke last week, the 67-year-old said: “For the life of me I can’t see how giving someone a tin of soup when they are suffering from a mental illness or if they’ve got debt problems is going to contribute in any long-term way to solving their problems.

“If people have got into debt they should be asking themselves ‘Why did I get into debt and what did I do that was stupid to get into debt and what can I avoid doing in the future? How do I actually take control of my life so I am not in this situation?" » | Lucy Johnstone | Sunday, January 19, 2014

Pinch of Poverty: Millions in EU Forced to Live Close to Breadline

Over 20 per cent of Europe's population is at risk of poverty. Bulgaria is one of the EU's most impoverished countries, with nearly half its population living close to the bread line. Romania is not far behind, where four out of ten find it hard to make ends meet. In bailed-out Greece, slightly over 30 per cent of the population struggle to meet financial demands. And, about the same percentage of people in Spain and Italy are under pressure from harsh austerity measures. RT's Egor Piskunov went to a food bank in Rome where essential provisions are handed out to the city's poorest.

Pope Francis Calls Unfettered Capitalism 'Tyranny' and Urges Rich to Share Wealth

THE GUARDIAN: Pontiff's first major publication calls on global leaders to guarantee work, education and healthcare

Pope Francis has attacked unfettered capitalism as "a new tyranny", urging global leaders to fight poverty and growing inequality in the first major work he has authored alone as pontiff.

The 84-page document, known as an apostolic exhortation, amounted to an official platform for his papacy, building on views he has aired in sermons and remarks since he became the first non-European pontiff in 1,300 years in March.

In it, Francis went further than previous comments criticising the global economic system, attacking the "idolatry of money" and beseeching politicians to guarantee all citizens "dignified work, education and healthcare".

He also called on rich people to share their wealth. "Just as the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say 'thou shalt not' to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills," Francis wrote in the document issued on Tuesday.

"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?"

The pope said renewal of the church could not be put off and the Vatican and its entrenched hierarchy "also need to hear the call to pastoral conversion".

"I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he wrote.

In July, Francis finished an encyclical begun by Pope Benedict but he made clear that it was largely the work of his predecessor, who resigned in February.

Called Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel), the exhortation is presented in Francis's simple and warm preaching style, distinct from the more academic writings of former popes, and stresses the church's central mission of preaching "the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ". » | Reuters | Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Austerity to Push 25 Million More Europeans into Poverty by 2025 - Report

Inequality, unemployment, soaring debt - Europe's had its share of troubles in the five years since the financial crisis struck. The aggressive austerity programmes launched to cure the ailing economy appear to have made everyday life worse. A new report suggests almost a third of Europeans will live in poverty by 2025.

Power On: Greek Activists Fight Poverty with Guerrilla-style Stunts

The Prime Minister of debt-ridden Greece is in the United States - on a mission to restore his country's credibility. Antonis Samaras will meet President Obama later on Thursday to talk economy and foreign policy. The White House earlier praised Athens for 'working very hard in challenging conditions' - but the Greek people seem to be growing tired of unfulfilled promises of recovery, as Egor Piskunov reports.

Pope Urges Dialogue with Islam, More Help for the Poor

REUTERS.COM: Pope Francis urged the West on Friday to intensify dialogue with Islam and appealed to the world to do more to combat poverty and protect the environment.

Speaking in Italian, the new pontiff said richer countries should fight what he called "the spiritual poverty of our times" by re-forging links with God.

"How many poor people there still are in the world! And what great suffering they have to endure!" he told the diplomats in the Vatican's frescoed Sala Regia.

Some critics of the Catholic Church, which has been struggling with scandals and internal divisions, say its rejection of contraception in particular harms the poor.

Others say it does much good in the developing world, running thousands of hospitals, schools, orphanages and hospices.

Francis made his appeal in an address to diplomats accredited to the Vatican, sending a message through them to the leaders of the 180 states with which the Vatican has diplomatic relations.

He urged them to help keep religion central in public life and promote inter-religious dialogue as a catalyst for efforts to build peace.

"In this work (peace building), the role of religion is fundamental. It is not possible to build bridges between people while forgetting God," he said.

"But the converse is also true: it is not possible to establish true links with God while ignoring other people. Hence it is important to intensify dialogue among the various religions, and I am thinking particularly of dialogue with Islam."

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, said he was grateful that many Muslim religious and civilian leaders attended his inaugural Mass on Tuesday. DIALOGUE, NOT RIVALRY » | Philip Pullella | VATICAN CITY | Friday, March 22, 2013