Western Eye 10.13 — Issue 02
01
Uwe’s student voice
WesternEye
Free
www.westerneye.net
Inside Issue 02 WesternEye UWE’s Student Voice
Science & Tech
Feature article
Entertainment & Life
Bristol’s Backbone
Zombies Theoretical pathogenesis
Israel & Palestine Thoughts on the conflict
All things Halloween Fright season
Local stories The unsung heroes
Continues on page 10
Continues on pages 12 & 13
Continues on pages 16 – 21
Continues on page 24
Post-recession crisis. one third of british children living in poverty.
Breadline Britain
‘Economically developed’ Britain is struggling under a constantly expanding class divide george gill
news@westerneye.net
in the post-recession era, with only limited signs of growth and recovery, poverty remains an ever-challenging plight for millions of people living in Britain. David Cameron’s venerable claim that “we’re all in this together,” seems depressingly poignant when a Barnardo’s children’s charity report has been published which shows that a third of all children in the uk, 3.6 million, are living in poverty. The report commissioned by Barnardo’s highlights the failings of the chancellor’s economic policies and further highlights the need for an economic ‘plan b’. The families who live below the poverty line, have just £12 per person per day to provide everything, and many in winter months, have to chose between eating and heating. The impact of this poverty is vast. Children from lower socioeconomic groups are more likely to suffer from chronic illness, mental health illness, malnutrition, poorer education and a lack of employment opportunities.
government policy is failing terribly. Of course, it will continue to get worse, as the government is enacting the hardest and fastest public sector and welfare cuts ever seen. Whilst Britain is described as an ‘economically developed country’, its high levels of inequality mean that the poorest people in society will be unlikely to see any benefit from the weak recovery for years. Government policy, in a nutshell, has neglected the difficulties of millions and focused, instead, on retaining the privileges held by big businesses which still turn a healthy profit. One large food retailer, for example, is still achieving profits in excess of £1 billion. In this time, local greengrocers and independent cooperatives all over the country are closing down and being replaced by smaller, staff-less versions of our supermarkets. Failing that, they are being replaced by betting shops, charity shops and ‘cash for gold’ pawnbrokers. Much of this change is being made possible by a huge reduction in interest rates, providing only large companies with cheap capital investment
85% of survey respondents felt that the chancellor, George Osborne, does not account for the financial worries of ordinary people The Child Poverty Act 2010 aimed to end child poverty in Britain by 2020, bringing 100,000 children out of poverty every year. Current predictions reveal that, in fact, a further 1 million children will be impoverished over the decade and so it’s clear
whilst small-scale retailers and the self-employed are still being laughed out of the bank. Simultaneously, those who are on lower and middle incomes — for example many students, public sector workers, construction workers, small business
starfish thrower the poorest in british society are unlikely to see any benefit from the weak recovery for years
proprietors and so forth — have been hit by unprecedented cost of living increases, drastic cuts to social security benefits and higher taxes. Millions of other people remain unemployed altogether, they are switching between low-paid, insecure jobs or they are being forced to take up unpaid and sometimes costly internships. Cost of living increases continue to mean people face soaring bills for basic life essentials. According to the Office of National Statistics [ons], household bills have been rising four times faster than average earnings since 2008. Rising costs of basic life essentials, such as energy, disproportionately affects the poorest people the most. Price comparison website uSwitch.com carried out a survey in which 85% of respondents felt the chancellor, George Osborne, does not understand the fears of ordinary people. Despite the government being a coalition between liberals and
conservatives, it seems Nick Clegg has failed to achieve any substantial concessions from his Tory counterparts. Particularly with regard to sustaining the social security entitlements afforded to the poorest people in our society. Housing benefit, child benefit, child tax credit, employment support allowance and disability living allowance are all being reduced or reassessed by the extensive austerity reforms. Such measures have left us with a range of scandals that see, for example, people with severe learning difficulties being summoned to ‘work capability assessments’. Welfare services are acting in a way which demeans and distresses the most vulnerable people in Britain. Under the Lib-Con coalition, income tax for the highest bracket has been reduced whilst vat, which again affects the poorest in society disproportionately, has been increased. Ons statistics on income inequality show that the
richest fifth of households earn 14 times more than the poorest fifth of households, who have an average income of just £5,400. Similarly, recent research at the University of Birmingham reveals that inequality in the distribution of wealth is even greater than that of income. Amongst the wealthiest age group in society (55-65), 10% of those people own less than £28,000 compared with the richest 10% who own more than £1.3 million in assets. Even though poverty in Britain is less common than in some of the poorest regions of the world, it is clear there are still a huge injustices present, even amongst the richest countries in the world. Poverty is having devastating effects on people in every corner of the globe during the current economic situation. So far, attempts at changing this have been ineffective and inadequate.