On 6th November 2018, the University of Bristol Law School hosted a meeting with Professor Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, and eight organisations. This was his only meeting focussing specifically on extreme poverty in rural areas in the UK. A short (21 pages) final report on his mission to the UK has now been published.
"The social safety net has been badly damaged by drastic cuts to local authorities’ budgets, which have eliminated many social services, reduced policing services, closed libraries in record numbers, shrunk community and youth centres and sold off public spaces and buildings."
"The bottom line is that much of the glue that has held British society together since the Second World War has been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos. A booming economy, high employment and a budget surplus have not reversed austerity, a policy pursued more as an ideological than an economic agenda."
Read the full article here:
https://www.bristol.ac.uk/poverty-institute/news/2019/un-rapporteur-final-report.html