3) There should be a law against it

The target to halve child poverty by 2010 is to be missed, no real news there; but the apparent increase in the numbers of families in poverty who have at least one adult wage earner is worrying http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/feb/18/child-poverty-research there seems little appetite for recognising the problem of low wages in government http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/nov/04/ed-balls-poverty-wages if you are interested in a rigorous analysis of the extent and nature of poverty levels in the UK in 2009 and prospects for abolishing poverty by 2020 then I’ve seen nothing better than this report from Joseph Rowntree and the Institute for Fiscal Studies http://www.ifs.org.uk/comms/comm108.pdf . I think the government’s response to the stalling of their anti-poverty drive is rather odd; they are going to legislate in order to make the abolition of poverty a legally binding duty on government. You have until the 11th of March if you have any advice or tips for the government http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1590&external=no&menu=1 apparently they’d love to hear from you