The extent of poverty and destitution in the United Kingdom, researched and documented by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, is a stain on society in general and the political/administrative class responsible for strategic policy in particular. The dead hand of the Civil Service, together with the cosy political consensus of the main political parties (apart from tinkering at the edges) - the Blob - has ensured no systemic change to achieve social justice for the poor and destitute. The Brexit vote was a voter rebellion, a shot across the bows of the affluent by the poorer regions. The lessons have not been learned, hence the reduction in votes for the main parties and the rise of parties promising radical solutions to the systemic failure of the establishment.
See: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/03/weeks-green-mp-politicians-clue-cost-living-labour
But what of the voluntary sector: secular and faith based organisations: charities and community interest companies? The sector's record of campaigning successfully for systemic change to achieve social justice is abysmal. When was the last time your church contacted a councillor, MP, local authority, government department, quango or private sector organisation to challenge the status quo and campaign for social justice? I don't anticipate an avalanche of positive responses.
From a Christian perspective, or more accurately the perspective of a follower of the teaching in the synoptic gospels attributed to Jesus, ameliorating the plight of the poor, destitute, deprived, sick, excluded, hungry, homeless, addicted, or marginalised is commanded by the call to love your neighbour. But it is simply amelioration, continuing from generation to generation. It does not challenge causes, only bandages symptoms. It is an opiate, a palliative, not a solution. The failure of society, through the state, to tackle the issues, has resulted in the voluntary sector bearing the burden of making provision and thereby masking the extent of the issues. Why should the voluntary sector have to provide foodbanks, clothes banks, debt advice, hostels, warm areas, free lunches, community facilities to lessen the impact of policy decisions? One reason is that it is convenient for government not to have to raise taxation to meet the cost of systemic change to achieve social justice, an issue well articulated by JK Galbraith in The Affluent Society,
At this juncture I post again the following from Taxpayers Against Poverty: (See Part 493.)
This report is written in the shadow — and the spirit — of the late Rev Paul Nicolson, the founder of Taxpayers Against Poverty.
Paul spent his life insisting on a simple, uncomfortable truth: that poverty in a wealthy country is not inevitable, and that allowing it to persist is a moral failure and an economic folly. He believed that public policy should be judged not by rhetoric or intent, but by its impact on the lives of the poorest. That conviction runs through every page of this report.
The Nicolson Report: The Poverty Scandal sets out the reality the UK now faces. Millions of people are living with unnecessary financial hardship. Families are pushed into insecurity not because resources are lacking, but because choices have been made — repeatedly — to tolerate a system that over-taxes work, under-taxes wealth, and under-invests in the public services and infrastructure that make prosperity possible.
This report is not about blame. It is about responsibility — and about evidence. Poverty benefits no one. It damages health, weakens productivity, increases pressure on public services and limits opportunity for the next generation. We all pay the price.
But the message of this report is also one of hope. Poverty is not inevitable. With a fairer and more modern tax system, and with sustained investment in education, health, social care and infrastructure, hardship can be reduced and prosperity shared more widely. Wealth in this country has been built on shared foundations. Those foundations now need renewing.
This report calls for bold and determined leadership — grounded in evidence, focused on outcomes, and willing to challenge comfortable assumptions. Ending the poverty scandal is not an act of charity. It is one of the most important economic choices the UK can make.
To readers of this report — policymakers, campaigners, taxpayers and citizens — the call to action is simple: do not accept poverty as inevitable. Question policies that deepen hardship. Demand fairness in how we raise and use public money. Support solutions that prevent poverty rather than manage its consequences.
Paul Nicolson believed that change begins when people refuse to look away.
This report asks you to do the same.
Tom Burgess
The voluntary sector has an interest in maintaining current systems. Much human and financial capital has been invested in at- the- point- of -need provision and there is a big consultation, training, research and support sector to assist front line organisations. There is a symbiosis between the voluntary sector and government, a cosying up, well-encapsulated in the latest government wheeze: The Civil Society Council. (See Part 489.) One is reminded of the final paragraphs of George Orwell's Animal Farm.
Today is Good Friday, the day we are told Jesus was crucified by the Roman Empire egged on by the Jewish establishment in Palestine. He was perceived to be a dangerous revolutionary, a threat to the stability of the Roman occupation, to the political and economic ordering of civic society by his call for social justice, to the settled status of the Jewish religious and legal establishments within the Roman occupation.
The quest for systemic change in society to achieve social justice continues. Read the ideas of inter alia John Kenneth Galbraith, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King Jnr., Oscar Romeo, Leonardo Boff, Jurgen Moltmann, Gustavo Gutierrez, Desmond Tutu and Walter Bruegemann. They articulate the economic, sociological, political and theological concepts that underpin the call for systemic change, for social justice.
In the Christian calendar Good Friday is followed by Easter Sunday, a day of grief followed by a day of joy, of resurrection. For many it is a factual account, for others it is symbolism or metaphore, of hope rising from the ashes of despair.
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