Destructive austerity: Poverty and social hardship in the UK
NOVANEWS
By Graham Peebles
With Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at USD 2.94 trillion (2014), the UK has the fifth largest economy in the world after the United States, China, Japan and Germany. It also suffers from acute income and wealth inequality and, according to Oxfam, which knows all about poverty, “one in five [or 20 per cent] of the population live below our official poverty line, meaning that they experience life as a daily struggle”,
The Conservative government repeatedly proclaims that the bitter medicine of economic austerity, so badly needed to “balance the nation’s wobbly books”, is the “right thing to do” – yes, it’s painful, but “we’re all in this together”. Our economic plan is working, unemployment and inflation are low, and the economy is growing, faster in fact than any ...