Headline January 10, 2018/ '' 'WORLDLY BY POVERTY' ''

'' 'WORLDLY BY POVERTY' ''

EXTREME POVERTY, IN ................

THE UK was a world leader in social security after World War II, it was a world leader in privatization on a large scale and it is world leader right now in self imposed austerity.............

AT A food bank in a rundown part northeast England, an unemployed mother and her adult son were having an odd morning.

Denise and Michael Hunter typically come here for a quiet cuppa with the volunteers, a square meal and sometimes a food parcel for two.

But on this day, the Hunters had a surprising tea date : the United Nations special rapporteur for extreme in poverty and human rights. Philip Alston; his four assistants, two television cameras; a dozen journalists; and the local priest.

''It's a bit different to how it usually is,'' said Ms. Hunter, 57, her face beaming. ''It's like we're royalty or something.''

It was Day 3 of Mr. Alston's two-week tour of the world's fifth-richest country - a hectic 2,000 - mile mission across some of the poorest districts in Britain.

He is visiting food banks, job centers, community charities and government ministries in London, Oxford, Cardiff, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast and Essex County - as well as here in NewCastle - to assess why about a fifth of Briton's remain in poverty despite rising employment levels, economic growth and pockets of enormous wealth.

Many might be as surprised by his presence as the Hunter family was, or the reporters struggling to keep up with him as he rushed between as many as five meetings a day often without pausing for lunch or supper.

Special rapporteurs for extreme poverty are mandated to visit and investigate countries with high levels of deprivation and then report their findings to the United Nations.

They have historically spent most of their times in the developing world, and Mr. Alston's trip to Britain is only the second mission to a Western European country by a poverty rapporteur this century, the other being Ireland in 2011. The rapporteur has visited the United States twice since 2000.

''There's an oddity to this, obviously,'' said David Gordon, director of the Townsend Center for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol, who met Mr. Alston on the second day of the tour.

''When you think of the special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, you expect them to be visiting sub-Saharan Africa or Haiti. You don't expect them to be visiting the U.K.''

Yet for Mr. Alston, Britain in 2018 is an obvious place to focus his energy and not just because of  child poverty and food bank use are on the rise here.

Having pioneered the welfare state in the late 1940s, and the privatization of the state in the 1980s, Britain in the 2010 has become the world's main laboratory for the politics of austerity.

In response to the 2008 financial crisis, few governing parties have pared back the state for so long, and with such ideological glee, as the ruling Conservative Party in Britain.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Poverty continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researcher Patrick Kingsley.

With  respectful dedication to the Leaders, Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of  Britain, and then the world.

See Ya all prepare for Great Global Elections and ''register'' on The World Students Society : wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter- E-!WOW! - the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Welfare & Subsidies '''

Good Night and God Bless

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