I was born 77 years ago into abject poverty in the slums of Notting Hill. Time has passed and yet now we see people cripplingly impoverished by inflation and fuel costs. We see the threat of homelessness among people who have never been through it before. I would hate to see us return to the deep, painful poverty of the years I came out of.
The politics of today, though, is inadequate to the task of preventing the economy’s ability to go the wrong way – shrinking and shrivelling and creating poverty again. I can’t see anyone rising above the arguments and the poor thinking to build the right alliance to force poverty to back off, to recede; to not darken our door.
We need some searing self-examination because, like in an actual war with a belligerent enemy, poverty is a big killer. Poverty drives the show. We have to find the politics of consensus that suits these pressing times.
John Bird
House of Lords
