2) Poverty

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently published a report that argued child poverty could double over the next 10 years in the UK unless significant steps are taken to up-rate welfare benefits. See report summary http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/09/welfare.socialexclusion and full report at http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/eBooks/2194-benefits-taxation-poverty.pdf The authors assume a constantly rising median income in the UK over the next 10 years and that government does nothing in response to this; even I think that a little unfair to government. It is however in the context of other reports that claim to show that the poverty gap has not narrowed under labour http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/03/socialexclusion.labour and http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-is-burying-bad-news-of-poverty-study-until-after-elections-803990.html However, despite this pessimism, I would argue that it is still a good time to push the issue of child poverty in the public domain as all three main political parties say that they are committed to abolishing child poverty, albeit none are very clear about how and when they will achieve it. For this reason, I think that The End Child Poverty Campaign, which brings together over 110 organisations, has a potentially important role to play at this time http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/assets/plugins/fckeditor/editor/index.html Maybe we should join?