This is how the TUC make the numbers stack:
There's more on this here.
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and how much richer will the top 1 or 2% be by 2015? Makes yer proud 🙁
It appears that somebody is mixing up definitions here, hopefully not deliberately, but the headline is that
1,000,000 more people will be below the breadline because of austerity by 2015
The breadline is people queueing at soup kitchens to collect free food.
This contrasts with the research which apparently shows that 1,000,000 people will be below the “Minimum Income Standard”. This isn’t to do with not having enough money to buy food, it is described by the people who calculate the figure as:
“A minimum standard of living in Britain today includes, but is more than just, food, clothes and shelter. It is about having what you need in order to have the opportunities and choices necessary to participate in society.”
A more truthful headline might have been:
1,000,000 more people will be socially excluded because of austerity by 2015
Your definition of poverty is indifferent to the nature of human nature
I didn’t attempt to define poverty because people have so many different definitions of it. The word ‘breadline’ has very clear historical origins which define what it means and it is a far worse position to be in that which is defined by the “Minimum Income Standard”.
Being unable to afford things like
* UK holidays
* Christmas presents
* Basic mobile phone
* Computer and internet for working-age households
isn’t the same as being unable to afford to buy food.
It would have been better to use the word poverty because it isn’t so well defined.