UK child poverty report information is misleading

Today's headlines about Britain failing its children highlight the dangers of international reports as sources of information. The Unicef report has rocketed to the front pages of just about every newspaper, yet the report provides little background information on the real issues of poverty that still dog this country from the last century, as a result these issues are not debated properly and the problems remain.

Although useful, international comparisons can be misleading. The top 10 countries have little in common with the UK other than being in Europe. Germany is probably the closest country in the list to the UK in terms of size, population, demographics and recent history. It pulls in 11th. Like the UK it has undergone a difficult post-war history and its recent re-unification is putting the economy under similar levels of strain as the UK experienced in the last half of the 20th Century.

Reports like Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries, grab headlines and make for shocking reading. To newspapers like the Daily Mail this type of report is a gift horse. The Mail takes glory in blaming any one and everyone for problems, but is too cowardly to do any hard work towards fighting a problem. Yet the causes of the problems this report rightly points out have been with this country for two generations. There is a plethora of information on poverty and alcohol problems that make good newsprint. But alas, the focus of the Mail, Express and often the better newspapers is towards the Royal Family and house prices.

IWR doesn't doubt the veracity of this report and welcomes it. One of the difficult to live with, but great attributes of this country is that everything is aired in the open and we don't live a myth pretending problems don't exist. But as experts point out, the report uses a wide range of information that is out of date in some areas, which damages the credibility of the report and diminishes the value of information. The report should be welcomed though and action should be taken.

Where Child Poverty in Perspective: An overview of child well-being in rich countries; and many international reports add to the problem is that they add to the perceived image of the UK being rich. Yes we are rich, when compared to Bangladesh. But to pretend that there isn't poverty, severe poverty, in this country is a major failing. In my living memory there has been rampant unemployment, severe social issues between races and a clear north/south divide that is only just beginning to be erased. Yet these issues are ignored and instead we waste information and talk up a few acceptable train and road delays because of ice and snow as if it’s a catastrophe.

Sadly the news agenda that follows reports like this are quick to blame the government of the day, despite one of the authors pointing towards child poverty from 1979. The report makes some very good points about families not eating their meals together and a number of basic problems in our social outlook. These are not problems caused by a government alone, we are all personally responsible for our daily lives and cannot blame everything on Whitehall. Listening to the Today programme this morning certainly made me consider the value of my family and how I will ensure I'm home for more meal times from now on.