We call on this government to break the cycle of poverty
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Louise Thomas
Editor
Many of us buy into the idea of progress and that life improves for younger people and future generations. Yet, today in 2022, almost two-thirds of young people fear for their generation’s future.
For years, it feels like we have been spiralling from one crisis to the next. More than one in five people in the UK live in poverty. Things only seem to be getting worse, as a further 1.3 million people are set to be plunged into poverty by 2023.
Whilst we wholeheartedly back emergency measures to ease the cost of living crisis for those who need the support, emergency measures will only provide relief in the short term. They will not stop these crises from happening again.
Together, we are calling on leaders with their hands on the levers to go further. We must fix the emergency whilst also addressing the root causes of the crises we face, to break the cycle of poverty for future generations.
Long-term solutions are needed to meet the biggest issues faced in the UK today - the housing crisis, low wages and climate change. Dealing with these issues will help us to protect the environmental, social, economic and cultural wellbeing of future generations.
We are demanding that the government breaks the cycle of poverty for good. We have three demands: create decent and affordable homes for all, end the low-wage economy and invest in young people, and build a greener, sustainable future and create millions of well-paid green jobs.
Young people and future generations deserve a fair shot at life. Together, we can build a better future.
The Big Issue Group
Adrian Ramsay & Carla Denyer, co-leader of Green Party of England and Wales
Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb
Baroness Mary Goudie
Baroness Sue Garden
Breakthrough Party
British Medical Association
Business Declares
Carnegie UK
Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity
Chair of Homes for All UK
Claudia Webbe MP
Dan Carden MP
Faith for the Climate
Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development
Fuel Poverty Action
Glassdoor Homeless charity
Global Action Plan
GND Rising
Greener Practice
Ian Paisley MP
Intergenerational Foundation
Jack Monroe
Jane Davidson, author of #futuregen: Lessons from a Small Country
John Mcdonnell MP
Julia Baroness Brown of Cambridge
Kwajo Tweneboa
Lord Andrew Stunell
Lord David Blunkett
Lord Jeffrey Archer
Lord John Shipley
Lord Martin Rees
Lord Philip Hunt
Marsha De Cordova MP
Martyn Day MP
Mohammed Yasin MP
National Education Union
Peter Aldous MP
Psychologists for Social Change
Rachel Maskell MP
Roman Krznaric
RSPB
Shout Out UK
Simon Birkett, founder of the cross-party Campaign for Clean Air in London
Stakeholder Forum for Sustainable Development
Steve Chalk MBE
Students Organising for Sustainability (SOS-UK)
Tim Jackson, economist
Wen (Women’s Environmental Network)
Wholegrain Digital
Women’s Budget Group
Z2K
You can join the action today by signing our open letter to demand a better future.
Leave the clocks alone
Every year there is the (rather boring) issue of changing the clocks. To try to satisfy all constituencies, is there any mileage in moving the clocks 30 minutes and then leaving them alone?
I realize that longitude must “kick in” at some point but it seems logical to suggest that everywhere from say, Romania to Portugal, should have the same time zone.
To cite just one anomaly, why is Spain an hour ahead of the UK when much of the country is west of the Greenwich meridian?
Dr Anthony Ingleton
Sheffield
Suella Braverman needs to go
The levelling up secretary, whatever that title may mean, is himself lowered by his own opinion. Michael Gove has expressed that “Suella is a first-rate, front-rank politician” and should retain her post as home secretary which, lest in the carnage it may have slipped our minds, is one of the four great offices of state.
Many may regard his effort at justification of the egregious in the face of the obvious as an affront to common sense. Suella Braverman must go now.
Once the Tories’ justification for their continued existence in government provided to them by a mandate given in the 2019 election is removed, the rest of their “first-rate, front-rank” politicians will follow.
Only the ballot box can ensure that – and what a relief it would be.
David Nelmes
Newport
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Austerity without a mandate
Britain is polling an almost two-thirds majority for a general election now.
Sunak’s regime looks like it will propose George Osbourne’s 2010 austerity in a full reset. This is the polar opposite of Boris Johnson’s 2019 Tory election mandate.
Enough! If Sunak wants to propose such a radical change, there must first be a general election. Government works for us and would do well to remember that. Anything less is dictatorship.
Ian Henderson
Norwich
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