I reproduce this press release, just\u00a0published, in full since I share its sentiments:<\/p>\n
Four major British Churches have described Chancellor George Osborne\u2019s defence of the Government\u2019s benefit cuts as \u2018deeply disappointing,\u2019 following his speech earlier today.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are deeply disappointed that Mr Osborne is continuing to use the misguided rhetoric of people on benefits versus \u2018hardworking taxpayers\u2019. The Government\u2019s own figures show that most people on benefits not only want to work, but many of them are already in work and paying high rates of tax,\u201d said Paul Morrison, Public Issues Policy Adviser, speaking on behalf of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Methodist Church, United Reformed Church and Church of Scotland.<\/p>\n \u201cWe desperately want people to achieve their God-given potential, but that can\u2019t happen when the most vulnerable are being made even poorer. The churches are serving their local communities day in and day out. They reflect the breadth of society and are in touch with the needs of the people they serve. We hope to reflect those concerns,\u00a0and we look forward to the day when myths about poverty are no longer acceptable in public life.<\/p>\n \"While nine out of ten working households will benefit from an increased tax allowance, the poorest working households will benefit the least and will be affected most by the benefit cuts introduced this month. It is absolutely clear that the net result of these changes will not be nine out of ten working households better off, as has been widely reported.\"<\/p>\n The Churches\u2019 report,\u00a0The lies we tell ourselves<\/a>, says that statistics have been manipulated and misused by politicians across the spectrum, as well as by the media, to support the belief that the poor deserve their poverty, and therefore deserve the cuts.<\/p>\n The Chancellor has been sent a copy of the report.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not a party political issue - sidelining and misrepresenting the poor is unacceptable whoever you are,\u201d added Mr Morrison. \u201cLies about poverty are the responsibility of us all, whether we tell, share or just tolerate them. It is everyone\u2019s duty to ensure that the poor are not misrepresented and that policy matches up to hard facts.<\/p>\n \u201cWe invite Mr Osborne to read the report and consider how he might challenge myths about poverty as he seeks to balance Britain\u2019s books.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0I hope he does.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I reproduce this press release, just\u00a0published, in full since I share its sentiments: Four major British Churches have described Chancellor George Osborne\u2019s defence of the
Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,96],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-benefits","category-conservatives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19913\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}