“ U.K. Austerity policy has inflicted great misery” says UN

I don’t think this Government is at all worried about making most of the country poorer as long as their own friends, family and businesses are doing alright varian.

"The UK government has inflicted “great misery” on its people with “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” austerity policies driven by a political desire to undertake social re-engineering rather than economic necessity, the United Nations poverty envoy has found."

After this authoritative report, surely the very last thing a responsible government should do is to damage the economy even further by a policy of brexit which both the Treasury and the Bank of England have warned will make this country poorer?

Like many I knew this UC would inflict misery. I'd watched that odious woman Esther McVey trumpeting on about how marvellous it was and I despised every word that she spoke. A most uncaring speech in which I'll never know how she'd had the brass neck to even be part of it knowing that many in her town of birth,Liverpool,were already either scratching a living or were already homeless. Those living rough has risen,most through no fault of their own but of the system generally and the sheer lack of trained support for those living on the edge.

Found it via Twitter.

Does anyone have a link to the report, please? Google takes me to the Guardian article about it rather than the report itself.

Thanks for the info, maiz.

The system doesn’t seem to believe that some people are far too ill to go to a workplace assessment.

Caroline Austin says: “This is Charlotte, my daughter, who has severe multiple sclerosis. She cant walk. She has a catheter, she can’t hold anything. She can’t feed herself, she’s weak. She has days where she can hardly talk or breathe properly. She is heat sensitive, the list goes on.

“I want as many people to see this …. universal credit has not given Charlotte any money since 29th September, despite me telling them [DWP] how severely disabled she is … even if she gets her money, she still will lose the severe disability allowance of £120.00 per month. I have to produce another sick note and they have said she could still be assessed for work. Our government should be ashamed.

Video here:
kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/11/23/this-is-our-country-this-is-what-the-government-are-doing-targeting-the-vulnerable-says-charlottes-mum/

I suspect that the truth lies somewhere between the UN report and the graphs in that link.

The truth of what?

Have you read the report, Baggs? They are not 'claiming' what the IEA are saying they are. They are looking at the situation experienced now by people in poverty in the UK. I would be prepared to give some credence to critics who could show that what the report says about the experiences of this group, and the factors which exacerbate their experience, is wildly wrong but arguing about the historical trends has nothing to do with what people are experiencing now.

In truth, given the historical data, the same report might have been written at any time in the past decade or two.

Linking to other organisations has nothing to do with funding, Baggs

Here is an article which shows the IEA's connections:

www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Institute_of_Economic_Affairs

This organisation ranks the 'transparency' of the funding of various think tanks. Note the IEA (among others) is in the 'most opaque' band

whofundsyou.org/

The roll out of universal credit certainly seems not to have worked very well and I think pushing to speed up its roll out was, in the circumstances, a monumentally bad idea. Despite that, the principle it is based on could still be sound.

I think it's useful to have more than one opinion on any subject. That's why I looked at the link I posted. I suspect that the truth lies somewhere between the UN report and the graphs in that link.

maiz, if the IEA's funding is opaque how can you know that it is linked to US organisations?

Those who suffered the most from Tory austerity measures were very likely to feel so aggrieved that when given the opportunity to register a protest, they did so, even though their plight was nothing to do with our membership of the EU.

Research by the University of Warwick has found that the UK government’s austerity measures since 2010 may in fact have tipped the brexit vote, boosting Leave support by as much as ten percentage points.

theconversation.com/brexit-austerity-tipped-balance-towards-leave-new-study-suggests-100685

Universal credit has just been rolled out in my local area.
The local branch of the Salvation Army says:

This week we have seen an unprecedented number of folk coming to us in complete desperation due to the chaos that is Universal Credit. We are struggling to meet demand practically .. and equally wearing is witnessing the level of desperation and fear that these people are presenting with.

Hmm. There's that Institute of Economic Affairs connection again. The author of the tweets blogs for them. The last thing you posted, Baggs also originated with them

I wonder why the IEA wants to play down this report? Can it be that they are a far right libertarian 'think tank' who want to shrink state intervention (to nothing if possible) So it's completely in their interests to try to minimise the problem to prevent demands for more state intervention.

Their funding is curiously opaque but they have strong connections with the US and those companies who are are hovering ready to pounce as the UK government releases more public services for privatisation.

I also find their focus, on trying to prove that the UN report exaggerates, a bit disingenuous because, by my reading of the report it states at the start the current level of relative poverty, with no mention of historic rates, and quotes the IFS prediction that child poverty will rise by 7% to 2022. After that, the report just describes what the rapporteur found.

Apologies for repeating myself.

I think it's a damned cheek the UN reporting on our country and I don't believe most if it

He visited the biggest foodbank in the country which happens to be in Newcastle Beau. I wonder if the poor people forced to use this facility (or starve) would think he had a damned cheek?

Just found this Twitter thread with info about poverty in the UK. The producer of these tweets says the UN is relying on anecdote rather than facts.

Being homeless must be just awful.
“one in every 200 Britons is either sleeping rough or living in temporary accommodation, such as hostels and B&Bs” according to official figures.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-46289259

We should indeed gillybob.

One of the places he visited was the countries largest food bank in Newcastle . Hardly surprising at all.

We should hang our heads in shame .

meliza, This is one of the extracts that made me wonder about the honesty of the UN report.

It's a short listen, just over one and a half minutes.

Thanks to MaizeD, Gill57, mostly harmless and others who continue to attempt to challenge this nonsense that the Labour government is responsible for the austerity agenda.

I accept all the criticism the Blair Government in relation to the disastrous invasion of Iraq. However, as someone who was working with children and families, in very deprived areas in the late 90's early 2000's, I look back with a sense of relief and pride at the positive changes that government made for those communities.

As for suggesting Labour spent money to 'keep people on side' nope, they didn't. The government invested hugely in education, health and preventive social work services. Sure Start and other Family Centres did great work with vulnerable families. The government put money in to areas that had been grossly neglected by years of Tory neglect. If we ever get a Labour government again, that's what will have to happen again. The number of preventive and support services slashed and destroyed by the current lot is shocking.

Sorry didn’t see your post mostlyharmless

I see you are saying exactly the same but backing it up with facts and figures.

But government borrowing is at its highest level ever, and this is a Tory government.

The Conservatives like to maintain the pretence that Labour left huge debts.
It’s a fallacy that they feed to gullible voters.
Debt levels were steady under Labour, but started to rise after the global recession (2009). Debt then rose hugely under the Tories from £1 Trillion in 2010 to £1.75 trillion in 2018.
But some people don’t want to understand this.

Each time we've had a Labour,spend spend spend to keep people on side government, there's been an unholy mess

It's not true. It's tory propaganda, it's lies and you fall for it. Did you even bother to read the stuff I posted?

thanks to Labour who loathe anything to do with British heritage anyway

Can't you see what a daft statement this is? How insulting to millions of Labour voters who are as happily British as any tory...