Bury St Edmunds Friends support UN special rapporteur’s report
Quakers in Bury St Edmunds have sent a statement to the local press
Bury St Edmunds Quakers have sent a statement to the local press acting on a concern about the UK government’s response to the report by UN special rapporteur professor Philip Alston last month.
Philip Alston wrote the report after a two-week fact-finding mission on extreme poverty and human rights in the UK. It concluded that the UK government has inflicted ‘great misery’ with ‘punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous’ austerity policies.
The statement from Bury St Edmunds Friends says: ‘Finding that about 14 million people (a fifth of the population) live in poverty and 1.5 million are destitute, being unable to afford basic essentials, Alston was critical of cuts and reforms introduced in the past few years “that have brought misery and torn at the social fabric”.’
It goes on: ‘Alston reports that the government is in a state of denial about the impact of austerity policies on those in poverty. Indeed, it seems already to have dismissed his findings saying it “completely disagreed” with his analysis, citing figures and statistics at odds with the experiences encountered by the special rapporteur.’
The statement was sent to the Bury Free Press and East Anglian Daily Times newspapers, as well as being posted on the think tank Ekklesia’s website.
Jill Segger, who initiated the statement through the media and parliamentary liaison group at Bury St Edmunds Meeting, told the Friend: ‘We think this is something that faith groups should be taking a lead on. The government is trying to sweep it under the carpet so someone has to say “stop”. Philip Alston spent twelve days listening to people talk about their lived experiences; no government minister has done that.’
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