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[davywavy]

Amongst the comments to my earlier post, several people have raised questions about the definitions of poverty and their validity; especially that covered by Oxfam, which defines poverty as less than 60 of the national median disposable income.

According to the national office of statistics, after rent, bills and necessities are paid, this figure is £194 per week per household. If you're living on less than that, Oxfam says you're living in poverty; they don't appear to differentiate between households of people living alone and households with a dozen squalling children crammed into the front room because, as we all know, there's no difference in living costs between the two.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Looking again at the UN definition of poverty, a lot of people in this country qualify: No access to education? well, since Shirly Williams prohibited education for anyone earning less than the 80k required to send your kids to a decent school, that's most of us, and adequate food? that's got to be anyone who eats at McDonalds, which probably means the 25% living in poverty is about right.