Myth and reality

Penelope Cummins highlights a report that exposes common myths about poverty in Britain today

by Penelope Cummins 19th July 2013

Four churches – the Methodist Church, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Church of Scotland and the United Reformed Church – recently produced a report that addresses six of the most common myths about poverty in Britain today. The report – The lies we tell ourselves: ending comfortable myths about poverty – cites government reports and others from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and major charities to show that some of these myths have been perpetrated in parliament, and in the press, through the wilful misuse of statistics and innuendo. Sadly, many of us, even the nicest of Quakers, at least half-believe what we hear and read so frequently.