Does the public care about poverty?

Oct 12 2009 by Kevin Rowan, The Journal

THE inevitable point-scoring era that ushers in a very long general election campaign has begun with the main Party conferences.

Like it or not there’s going to be much more of this, much, much more, in the months ahead.

Within this arena I have to admit I never thought I’d hear the Conservative Party claiming the high moral ground on tackling poverty and inequality. This, of course, reflects quite markedly the new Labour claim to be the ‘Party of business’ in the 1997 General Election.

Then, it was the business community as much as the working class that had grown utterly disillusioned with a struggling and ineffective Tory Government.

Now, it seems, “modern Conservatives” are seeking to win over Labour’s ‘natural’ supporters, those interested in securing a better deal for the impoverished and under-served in society.

A genuinely objective observation may suggest this is more an attempt to expose a relative lack of success in Labour’s ambitions than a dramatic realignment producing a sincere commitment to a more equal society.

The Labour Government hasn’t delivered its stated goal of halving child poverty by 2010; there has been growth in inequality.

But this base analysis is far from sufficient. The growth in inequality has, in some large part, been caused by the wealthiest in society awarding themselves incredulous pay deals and bonuses, not just morally bankrupt bankers either.

It is the truth the lowest paid and most vulnerable in society have benefited from the national minimum wage, family and child tax credits, all opposed by the Conservative opposition.

And the child poverty target may not have been met, but we’re closer to it because of a Labour Government and the current legislation will embed statutory responsibilities toward its goal.

Being guilty of over-ambition in this area of public policy should hardly be regarded a hanging offence. The Tory ambition to be the Party of the poor doesn’t stand up in its promise to freeze public sector pay, either.

The fact is around 40% of children in poverty are in families with at least one person working in the public sector. Freezing public sector pay will only increase that number, increasing the scale and extent of poverty.

A bigger challenge for all mainstream Parties is to stop seeking to score points off each other and actually secure public support for tackling poverty. Tackling that will really score some points.

Kevin Rowan, Regional Secretary, Northern TUC