An Inspector Calls

Well, would you adamandeve it? Amber Rudd, the one-time Home Secretary who took the fall for her boss - Teresa May, in case you've forgotten - was hardly back in post in charge of the Department of Work and Pensions before she was mouthing off about the UN report on poverty in the UK. She condemned the report:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/19/amber-rudd-un-poverty-report-return-frontline-politics 

Her view:

<<Amber Rudd has launched an attack on a UN report about the state of poverty in Britain in her first Commons appearance as work and pensions secretary.

In her new role as head of the department that oversees UK welfare policy, Ms Rudd said the language used by the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights was “wholly inappropriate” and “discredited a lot of what he was saying”.>>

Well, she would say that, wouldn't she? 

I believe she also asked who the Rapporteur is. Clearly, nobody in Westminster has access to google. It took me about 3 seconds to find out about the man. 

This is Professor Philip Alston. He is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Poverty. His background is academic. He is not a politician. He's used to weighing up the evidence presented to him, seeing through the flim-flam offered by politicians and making recommendations that politicians like Amber Rudd really don't like. 

He has travelled around the world gathering information about how things are for poor people. The last few weeks, he's been fact-finding in the UK on the invitation of the Westminster government. The explanation of how that came about seems to be this: the UK government had been quite happy to agree to him examining poverty elsewhere (like Ghana), so they couldn't really complain if he asked to come here and do a comparison study. 

His report on poverty in the UK is - in my opinion - shocking. It's only 27 pages long but to compile this report, the professor met many people and considered many points of view. He consulted all the main charities working in the area of poverty, local authorities, the National Audit Office, think tanks, devolved governments and parliamentary committees. 

His conclusion is that any government in the so-called advanced society of the UK that thinks 14 million people living in poverty is acceptable has failed. 

The professor points out the effects of austerity, a government policy that has devastated the finances of local government and the lives of ordinary people for the past 8 years. He mentions how the devolved governments of Northern Ireland and Scotland are trying to 'mitigate' the effect of austerity. 

The way out of poverty, according to Amber Rudd's party, is work. Who could argue with that? Of course it is. But what if that work brings in so little in wages that people are forced to fall back on food banks, clothing banks and charity? 

And, of course, people in need also face having to deal with the local job centre where any infringement of the rules means sanctions (no money) and these can run for 6 months. Get a hospital appointment for the same time as your job centre appointment - and you're sanctioned. Turn up late for an appointment at the job centre because the bus was late - you're sanctioned. The professor predicts that soon some of these sanctions may run into years.  

His conclusion is that poverty in the UK is a 'political policy.'  

Poverty used to be limited to 'old age pensioners.' You know, those 'wasters' that worked and spent their retirement money looking after their families. Pensioners are better off now. But not for long: the Tories don't like the 'triple lock' that protects us in our old age. 

There are regular proposals from the Tories to screw more money out of us: this week it was said that people over 40 should be forced to save for their retirement, so they won't have to rely on a state pension. And all the time I thought that was what I had been paying into - from the age of 15 till I was 60 - as a wee protection against poverty. Not that I get a state pension: every penny is whipped off me in tax.

To finish, here's a quote about the Tories from Ken Loach, film-maker and leftie: 

"If they don’t know what they’re doing to people, they’re incompetent and shouldn’t be in government. If they do know what they’re doing, then they’re not fit to be in government."