• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • About Us
    • FAQ
    • Meet the Team
  • Contact us
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
NEWSLETTER
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Opinion
  • Elevenses
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • Film
    • Lifestyle
      • Horoscopes
    • Lottery Results
      • Lotto
      • Thunderball
      • Set For Life
      • EuroMillions
  • Food
    • All Food
    • Recipes
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
  • JOBS
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Politics

Earning Poverty; An Open Letter to Stuart Broad

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic    On Tuesday afternoon England and Nottinghamshire cricketer Stuart Broad sparked outrage by Tweeting about the so-called privileged position of people on the minimum wage in Britain. The problem with statistics, as Zoe Williams of the Guardian soon pointed out, is that you can use stats to […]

Joe Mellor by Joe Mellor
2015-01-28 14:52
in Politics
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEmailWhatsapp

By Jack Peat, Editor of The London Economic 

 

On Tuesday afternoon England and Nottinghamshire cricketer Stuart Broad sparked outrage by Tweeting about the so-called privileged position of people on the minimum wage in Britain. The problem with statistics, as Zoe Williams of the Guardian soon pointed out, is that you can use stats to prove anything if you’re willing to haplessly discount good sense and judgement; the minimum wage in Gabon is £3,672 but a suburban one-bedroom flat there is £63 a month.  “Money doesn’t mean anything out of context: its value is determined by what you can buy with it. Most people figure this out by the age of about seven.”

He has since apologised, but his error in judgement highlights a more general oversight in regards to the minimum wage. You see, the minimum wage shouldn’t be an hourly rate that employers are proud to pay. It is the minimum level, a sustenance level. Along with zero-hour contracts it is a statutory abuse of British labour that has resulted in more working households living in poverty than non-working ones. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation low pay and part-time work has prompted an unprecedented fall in living standards in the last decade; stay humble Britain!

As Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, noted, the nature of poverty in Britain is changing. “The idea of ‘making work pay’ increasingly sounds like an empty slogan to the millions of people who are hard-pressed and working hard, often in two or three jobs, and struggling to make a living”. The reality of pay in Britain is that the number of people paid below a ‘living wage’ has increased by more than 400,000 in the last 12 months, left to battle the soaring price of everyday items (food costs 44 per cent more than in 2005, energy costs have more than doubled and housing prices have increased at one and a half times the speed of wages) whilst income levels stagnate.

The result is that child poverty is on the increase. The Living Wage Commission found that two-thirds of children in poverty live in a household where an adult works which makes them less likely to achieve at an early state in the early education system than their peers. Diet and food poverty has risen on the back of rising food prices and fuel poverty means low paid workers increasingly have to go cold and hungry during the winter. Debt is spiralling, the lack of family time is tearing families apart and over 900,000 adults and children have received three days’ emergency food and support from Trussell Trust foodbanks in the last 12 months, a shocking 163 per cent rise on numbers helped in the previous financial year.

These reasons, among many others, highlight why it is becoming increasingly difficult for people earning the minimum wage to feel humble. Visiting food banks isn’t a humbling experience, nor is it a humbling feeling being plunged into debt or being too poor to turn the heating on at night. Of course, I wouldn’t expect Stuart Broad to know about that; he earns millions of pounds a year in match fees and sponsorship. But his comments are worryingly representative of a vindictive political rhetoric against the working class. The UK ranks among the most unequal countries in the world, by the way, perhaps that’s worth a Tweet next time Broady?

RelatedPosts

Conservatives suffer hat-trick of council by-election defeats

Watch: Tories take a beating as BBC QT heads to Inverness

Steve Bray fundraiser nears a quarter of a MILLION pounds

Labour MP asks whether US-born Boris should be deported for breaking the law

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending on TLE

  • All
  • trending
Abdollah

‘Rescue us’: Afghan teacher begs UK to help him escape Taliban

CHOMSKY: “If Corbyn had been elected, Britain would be pursuing a much more sane course”

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

More from TLE

Lotto Results for Wednesday 1 September 2021 Lottery Tonight’s winning numbers

UK filming destinations to visit in 2015

Scottish Labour MP says he was groped by Conservative politician

Ex Manchester United & England legend admits speeding but says the papers were served late

States of inequality – Double Review

Higher education: Has the US got it right?

Five reasons why Bitcoin could be stuck in a temporary rut

Johnson’s ‘stupid’ tunnel from Scotland to NI ‘dead in water’ and nobody is surprised

Ghislaine Maxwell denied bail & remains behind bars in Epstein case

Saucy Mediterranean Potato Bake

JOBS

FIND MORE JOBS

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Travel
  • JOBS
  • More…
    • Elevenses
    • Opinion
    • Property
    • Tech & Auto
  • About Us
    • Meet the Team
    • Privacy policy
  • Contact us

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.