new figues from the Campaign to End Child Poverty show 174 constituencies in Britain have 50 per cent or more children living in or on the brink of poverty ....

http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/news/news/child-poverty-under-the-microscope/23/131

see also details of this saturday's 'Keep the Promise' march and event

@ http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/keepthepromiseevent

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/oct/17/children-youngpeople

Like all studies of this type it pays not to rush to conclusions until one first, knows the source of the report and second, the methodology behind the study.

However, its broad conclusions have been well accepted for some time and the socio-economic reasons for these divisions are not difficult to determine even though there is disagreement between right and left about the solutions.

But, that there are such striking divisions in an advanced industrialized country at the start of the 21st century is a damning indictment of a political system that endorses a liberal market economy and its free market approach to solving this country’s social and economic problems

The latest CPAG publication, "Child Poverty - the facts", downloadable from their Web page, is also highly informative.

on a related subject - Fuel Poverty: those affected are said to be spending more than 10% of their income on fuel bills. Based on that critieria, most all claimants particularly those on income based Benefits suffer from fuel poverty.

We are supposed to be the fourth or fifth richest economy in the world are we not? If so then it is totally unacceptable that the word Poverty should still be in common use in such an affluent society...............

Imagine a world where there was full employment, no poverty and no benefit system and everybody’s opinion was valued and counted for something. Then one day a thoughtful citizen stood up and said, I’ve began to notice that things are starting to cost a little more than they used to. Shouldn’t we devise some sort of system to make payments from public funds to people in the eventuality that they fall on hard times”?

What a good idea everyone said. How much should those payments be?

The person who stood up and said £60.50 per week was immediately laughed out of the room and subsequently certified.