The real scandal

In the UK, 3.8 million children live in poverty (a family surviving on less than 60% of the average household income ) - that's one in three under-16s in the UK.. 1.6 million youngsters live in severe poverty (defined as surviving on less than 50% of the average UK household income). Save the Children says more than one in five children now lives in severe poverty in 29 areas of the country. The highest proportion – 27% – is in Manchester and the London borough of Tower Hamlets. More than 20% of children experience severe poverty in Birmingham and Liverpool.

A eight-year-old has a list of what they won't be doing: swimming. Ice-cream. Seaside. "About this credit crunchy thing. It's stopped all the money and we've got no food." A quick check of the fridge reveals two small bottles of medicine and a two-litre jug of milk. "We had to have tea at, like, almost 12 o'clock at night… and we've got no cereal, nowt, and I could go, like, another week with no food, but I'll at least have to have a biscuit or something. My mum says… she's gonna try and fill the cupboard up as much as she can, and that she's gonna put some money away,"

Sally Copley, Save the Children's head of UK policy, said "Children up and down the country are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal and without proper school uniforms to put on in the morning. No child should be born without a chance. It is a national scandal that 1.6 million children are growing up in severe poverty."

SOYMB has heard it all before...ad nauseum. When will these well-meaning, sincere critics of poverty begin to understand the cause and the cure and start demanding real solutions and stop the needless suffering of littl kids ? That's the real scandal !