I’ve been keeping a not-too-rigorous track of a few individuals’ stories appearing in the press recently – http://delicious.com/UKpoverty/casestudy for an idea of how people on low incomes have been portrayed over the last few months…

Thanks for the comment, and for reminding me about that report on FREDS. I think I was on holiday when it came out, otherwise I would’ve written something about it. Perhaps I’ll get the chance when the bank holiday rolls around. Also, thanks for sharing that link about the effect of media portrayals of poverty on public policy; it really adds more weight to the point I was trying to make at the end of the post.

Oxfam have recently published a report that talks about FREDs – people who are Forgotten, Ripped-off, Excluded, and Debt-ridden. It’s partly trying to challenge the prevailing perception that people are poor because of individual failings, rather than structural pressures. I’m not sure it does it perfectly, but it’s a start.

Finally, one contributory reason that press coverage is so biased could be that, in general, people on low incomes don’t want to appear on TV talking about being poor. In the last few months this has started to change, with people talking about the terrible impact of losing their jobs. The danger is that this creates a divide, between the ‘deserving’ poor who have lost their job, and the ‘undeserving’ ones who were already struggling.

Most commentators seem to be pretty fair on me. Very little straw man argument and mild ad-hominem at worst.

I’m glad about that. Your writings might be political but they’re not partisan and should be treated with the spirit in which they’re written; in good faith and from first hand experience.

I absolutely agree that the left does need to plan to govern again because they will.

I’d agree with much of that. My nan passed away a few years ago, but in her last few years she stopped going to church functions because she was too intimidated. This was a tough woman, and someone who knew the streets she was walking like the back of her hand, but she still didn’t feel like she could do it. It’s fine pointing to falling local or national crime figures, but the decision about whether you attend a whist drive or a bridge evening is never made with those things in mind, and nor should it.

As for your point about communities; I hope, when the discussion comes around about how the left might be able to govern again, we talk about how communities can be empowered to devise their own solutions to problems. I look around my own area at neighbourhood regeneration projects, and the really successful ones have always been in those places with a strong shared purpose & identity.

Congratulations on the award, by the way. I was particularly pleased that it went to a fellow ‘amateur’.