Hilary Benn is right: we need to make poverty history in this country too.

People’s responses to the recent UNICEF report, and to the spate of shootings during the week just gone, indicate that there is a real desire on the part of the people of Britain to tackle poverty and inequality at their roots. Last week, in a speech at the University of London’s Institute of Education, Hilary Benn put forward the case for a campaign on poverty in Britain, what he described as a “campaign against poverty of circumstance, poverty of opportunity, poverty of aspiration.  Wasted lives, potential unfulfilled.”

In his speech Benn argued that the Make Poverty History campaign demonstrated that poverty and exclusion is fundamentally about injustice: about the lack of opportunities, the lack of resources and the lack of medicines. Yet, he argued, in Britain, all too often, too many people feel that they have to accept the lottery of birth without question. At the heart of the Make Poverty History campaign was the belief that politics can and does make a difference to the quality of ordinary peoples’ lives.

Benn suggests that the biggest lesson we have to learn in Britain from the developing world is that if we work together, and campaign, and push, and put our minds to it, and fight, politics can change things.

What Benn is really saying is that we must NOT give into the cynics, we must not give into those who will argue that the problems are so enormous, so vast, they are cannot be tackled.

Hilary Benn is reminding us all of the strength and virtue of collective endeavour, he is reminding each and everyone of us of the values and principles on which our movement was founded.

Comments

[Dan Whittle]

International development is one of the areas in which I believe the Tories have conceded defeat in the last few years and decided to default to our position, and I think that is a particular achievement of Hilary's – making our commitment to people overseas non-negotiable.
Hilary's understanding of the Make Poverty History campaign bodes well for any campaign he might launch on poverty in Britain, and I believe the results would be similarly long lasting.

[Steve Fagan]

I am a complete novice to this Web-site. Upon reading Mr Hilary Benn's contribution, I am somewhat appalled at his exclusion of the Pensioner Poverty within Great Britain. As a recipient of the state pension for only two years I have experienced a downward spiral in my purchasing power. This has been of great concern to me because I believe that the state pension and the way it is calculated will certainly bring me into the category of Pensioner Poverty within the next five years. As a responsible and thrifty resident of this country I planned for a reasonable retirement and one with dignity. If inflation carries on the way it has recently my planning will mean nothing and I will have to suffer the indignity of being means tested to obtain the Mininmum Income as set by the government. This is not reasonable and it is not dignified, especially when, before the 1997 General Election, Mr Blair, Mr Brown, Mr Prescott and Uncle Tom Cobley and all, joined in the chorus of " We will not live in a means tested society." Through no fault of mine I have now been subject to rampant greed by Multi National Companies, The Service Industry from whom I depend on for the essentials of living a reasonable life, such Gas, Water, Electricity, Transport and Communications. Furthermore when government pay grants to councils, ( To assist with council tax ) at different percentages depending on where you live, I find, due to my employment of the past and my decision to marry a lady from the South East of England, I now have to pay a council tax rate much higher than those of my friends, colleagues and relations that live in other parts of the country. The circumstances of which are brought about by the present government and its post code council grants. Wake up Mr Benn and wake your colleagues up to the neglect and abuse of the human rights of the pensioners of Great Britan,( I type the word "Great" with some reservation,) when determining the level of state pension to paid to retired people, enabling them to live in dignity during their retirement.
2008 willl be the centenary of the when the first pension was paid come on make it a year to remember and stamp out Pensioner Poverty now and for the future.