Direct mail: Judith Moran has a letter to new prime minister, Liz Truss

‘You have an opportunity to become a good ancestor.’

Dear Liz,

You’ve got one of the most responsible jobs on the planet. It’s a thankless task, a lot of the time. I get it, I’ve got the same job. Not being prime minister of course. But being a parent. You’ve got two teenage daughters and I’m sure that they are proud as punch about their mum achieving the highest office in this land. I warmly invite you to consider them, and their generation, as you embark upon your tenure in Number Ten.

Layla F Saad, writing about her anti-racist work, said ‘The primary force that drives my work is to be a good ancestor. My purpose is to help create change, facilitate healing, and seed new possibilities for those who will come after me when I’m gone.’

Imagine having such a long view!

I know that all politicians think about their legacy, but imagine having a legacy that stretches way beyond your lifetime. As our prime minister, you have such an opportunity to become a good ancestor and to make your daughters, their generation, and the generations to come, proud.

I am the director of Quaker Social Action (QSA), an anti-poverty charity that itself has a long legacy, with work that began in 1867, in east London.

QSA started with the decisions of one man, Peter Bedford, a Quaker who set about improving the lives of people in poverty in the east end. His activism inspired other Friends to create a charity – what is now Quaker Social Action. In the late 1800s, Peter Bedford and others set up projects like a girls’ sewing club, a penny bank, and a kitchen feeding disadvantaged people. He could only imagine the way that these small beginnings would grow into more and more projects, and eventually into the fully-fledged charity we see today, helping thousands of people each year. There are even some direct echoes of the work he undertook. That kitchen of the late 1800s has transformed into a colourful, modern professional kitchen, in our Cook Up service. It hosts people experiencing homelessness, many of them asylum seekers from around the world, cooking their own cuisines. It might not have existed if not for Peter’s decisions 150 years back. He was a good ancestor to have.

Peter Bedford’s choices reverberated throughout generations; yours can too.

In our very first 1867 report, we write of one east London family regularly going for forty-eight hours without food. Surely this sort of degrading lifestyle should be consigned to the history books? Sadly not: in 2022, this is fast becoming a reality again.
We, as a charity, ask ourselves, what can we do? The answer is that at best we can offer a helping hand, which we do, swiftly, sensitively, and, as far as possible, without detracting from someone’s dignity. As prime minister, you have so much more power and resources available to you. We urge you to use them wisely.

During the last recession, in 1987, Quakers made a public statement, saying: ‘We find ourselves utterly at odds with the priorities in our society which deny the full human potential of millions of people in this country. That denial diminishes us all.’ Those words feel resonant again today.

So, what advice can we offer you, to become a good ancestor? You must listen, Liz, really listen to voices of people who are already disadvantaged and might become more disadvantaged without some new and courageous policy changes.

If you want to take a few steps out of the Westminster bubble, come and see us at Turn A Corner, our mobile library for people experiencing homeless. Come and talk to the people we see there, who tell us how much more desperate things are, even on the streets, and how, after a certain point, it becomes hard to live any differently.

If you want to talk to a hard-working family, come and see us at Made of Money in east London. Its manager has something to say to you too: ‘What we’ve learned is that not having enough money closely affects how people feel about themselves. It impacts their health and often impacts their families too. It’s not just that people need enough to live on, but that they need a bit more than that, too. In our work, we see how having a bit of choice and discretion in how you spend your money has a huge benefit in how people experience life. It opens up the opportunity to be empowered to manage your money and gives people dignity through that choice. This includes the choice of being able to help others, which means a lot to many of our clients. Please serve the public by allowing people dignity through exercising that choice.’

At Made of Money we can introduce you to parents doing all they can to provide for their household, and still struggling to keep their heads above water. Come and talk to them about their worries about their children’s futures, when their start in life is so hand-to-mouth.

Alternatively, if you want to talk to people – some old, some young – who have survived all sorts of terrible and sad situations, come and talk to folk from across the UK who join our This Way Up project, to source some strength and resilience in a society where daily life is a struggle. Come and hear how amazingly talented and skilled they are, and how all of these gifts risk being wasted if they cannot flourish and find a niche in this world.

Your choices, for better or worse, will affect generations to come.

Liz, please have the courage to live differently. To change the path that we are on now through compassionate policies. Generations depend on the decisions you make now.

Judith is the director of Quaker Social Action.

---

Comments

Please login to add a comment