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YCW to MPs: Stop the Scandal
The Young Christian Workers have extended their call of ‘Get Fair' asking all Members of Parliament to turn their attention from the expenses scandal to the scandal of UK poverty.
The YCW sent each MP five postcards, illustrating the reality of UK youth poverty. The photos include a young sofa-surfer, a low-waged worker and a young adult overwhelmed by the expense of the retail and leisure industry. Speaking about the initiative YCW President, Danny Curtin, said "In the wake of the expenses scandal, we hope this is a chance for MPs to show that they are committed to their young constituents. In the midst of every community you can find the crippling effects of poverty which strips people of their self-worth and sense of dignity. As the world's fifth richest nation, this is simply wrong. It's time to get fair".
The postcard campaign asks each MP to commit to help eradicate poverty, by supporting policies that promote the dignity and value of every young person in the UK. Danny continued "Our society has all the resources we need to do something about poverty. There is no justifiable reason why UK poverty should be allowed to exist."
The YCW's main concern is that, by the government's own measure, 28% of 16-24 year olds live in poverty in the UK. Furthermore, the campaign claims, over a third of young full time workers do not earn a living wage, and 1 in 5 cannot afford the leisure activities that most people would take for granted. As such, the leisure industry is pricing the poorest in society out of the market. Worse still, housing costs are forcing people into overcrowded accommodation, now numbering 300,000 young people, 60,000 becoming ‘sofa-surfers', travelling from one sofa to another.
The launch was timed to coincide with the national Get Fair Lobby of MP's Get Fair is a coalition of over 60 UK charities and organisations, who are asking that the government's commitment to end child poverty by 2020 is extended to end poverty in all sections of UK society. See www.getfair.org.uk. Here, Phil Callaghan, from Urmston YCW, tells how they invited their own MP to join the cause:
Beverley Hughes MP joins the Get Fair Campaign
On Wednesday 22nd July, Beverley Hughes, former minister for young people and current MP for Stretford and Urmston came to visit the Urmston YCW group. We invited her to discuss the Get Fair campaign in the hope that she would agree to do everything in her power to solve the problem of UK poverty by signing the poverty pledge. Upon arriving in our parish room, Beverley truthfully admitted that she was not as informed about the Get Fair campaign as she had hoped to be. However, she was armed with a few printed notes from the campaign website which was a start! Consequently, we proceeded to explain to her the main aims of the campaign and how we hoped these would be achieved. We also included some real life stories of young people in the UK who were living in poverty as well as the facts and figures from the postcard campaign.
Once we had finished our presentation, she was keen to talk to us abut the issues we had raised. Beverley explained to us that ever since her appointment as an MP in 1997, she had been heavily involved in poverty in the UK, especially child poverty issues. She then went on to inform us that the present Labour government already had plans in their manifesto which were aimed at reducing poverty within the UK. She was also intent on telling us how much the government had already achieved on the issue of UK poverty since they gained power. Whilst we as a group accepted this and praised the government for their efforts, we also made it clear to her that there was so much more that was needed.
As is the case with most politicians, Beverley was not one for giving up and she came out with figures and statistics about how much Labour had pledged to do in comparison with the other leading political parties. I was quick to stress that party politics were not an issue which we as a YCW group were concerned with. However, she did eventually admit that there was more that the government could do if eradicating UK poverty was to become to be a reality. She finished the meeting by signing the poverty pledge and we thanked her for taking the time to meet us. We were happy that we had achieved our own aim of getting our local MP to sign the pledge and support the Get Fair coalition. Overall, 120 MPs have been successfully lobbied and as a group our first step on the long road to achieving the aim of eradicating UK poverty has been achieved.
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