The Evening Standard in London has been running a great campaign over the past few weeks in which it has been raising the issue of poverty in London. In only 18 days, it has raised £1,000,000 to go to charities helping the poor in London.
The campaign has highlighted what it calls “the dispossessed” – the low wage workers struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living has outstripped the growth in wages. It has highlighted the 650,000 children in London living in poverty and the pockets of deprivation in the shadow of London’s centres of wealth and the one in four parents living on the minimum wage.
Such a campaign is a very good thing and the cause is a noble one and one that deserves more attention. Hopefully the national press and regional newspapers nationwide will highlight the issues of poverty and extreme inequality that exist nationwide. Hopefully, the Evening Standard will be able to continue raising money to go towards this cause.
However, it shouldn’t be forgotten that policy makers, as well as charities and philanthropists, have a pivotal role to play in tackling poverty and alienation. Government needs to deliver high quality education to provide opportunity for all. It needs to continue lifting the poor out of tax altogether and continue considering the merits of a Living Wage.
You can find out more about the campaign at: www.standard.co.uk/dispossessed
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Government also needs to shake families out of welfare dependency, so that children can grow up with their birthright: an expectation to experience the dignity conferred by work.