Part 390, Poverty is a political choice.

 It is 40 years since the Church of England published Faith in the City and a little later Faith in the Countryside.  Both documents laid out the scale of poverty, destitution, deprivation, marginalisation and discrimination in England.  Since then little has been achieved to overcome the misery identified in the reports, although there have been countless reports, all gathering dust, of the scale of the issues and possible solutions.

Make no mistake: the failure lies with the political process, the failure of governments to instigate and then maintain the changes needed.  Governments claim it is all a question of priorities, of use of scarce financial resources, of no discernible public agitation for change. 

For followers of Jesus it is a moral issue, a matter of loving your neighbour, of helping at point of need, but above all demanding social justice and with it concomitant systemic change.  Some choose to do so though faith based organisations, others through secular bodies. others through both.  

The problem is the sterling work of the voluntary sector in providing assistance to individuals at point of need, necessary though it is, masks from society and politicians the sheer scale of the misery suffered daily: inflicted by an uncaring  political process.  The myriad reports inform us of what it wrong, politicians choose to look the other way.