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Gender recognition and the rights of transgenderpeople 

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Gender recognition and the rights of transgenderpeople 

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Briefing Report

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Trussell Trust- Food Banks Recent Figures

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Trussell Trust- Food Banks Recent Figures

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https://www.trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/latest-stats/

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Twice a year we release stats about the number of emergency food supplies given to people in crisis by food banks in the Trussell Trust network.

The data that we gather from the frontline work of food banks (both the numbers of people receiving emergency food parcels and the reasons for visiting a food bank) helps us campaign for change to ensure everyone can afford their own food.

End of year stats

April 2022 - March 2023
Close to 3 million emergency food parcels were distributed by food banks in the Trussell Trust network in the past 12 months - the most parcels ever distributed by the network in a year.

Find out more

Mid year stats

April 2022 - September 2022
The Trussell Trust's food bank network provided 1.3 million emergency food parcels to people in crisis between April and September 2022.

Find out more

Media Enquiries

The Trussell Trust is a leading voice on UK poverty and hunger. Please visit the Press & Media page to find out more.

Press & Media

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Twice a year we release stats about the number of emergency food supplies given to people in crisis by Trussell Trust foodbanks.

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https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/housing/housing-conditions/fuel-poverty/latest

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1. Main facts and figures

in the 2 years to March 2021, an average of 13.2% of households in England were in fuel poverty

in every period covered by this data, white households were less likely to be in fuel poverty than households from all other ethnic groups combined

in the 11 years covered by this data, the percentage of ethnic minority households in fuel poverty went down from 39.4% to 19.1%

2. Things you need to know

What the data measures

The data measures the percentage of households in fuel poverty in England.

Fuel poverty in England is measured using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) indicator. Under this indicator, a household is considered to be fuel poor if both:

You can also see data on the fuel poverty gap. This shows the reduction in fuel bills that the average fuel-poor household needs to be able to move out of fuel poverty.

Percentages are rounded to 1 decimal place but have been worked out using unrounded numbers.

Not included in the data

Estimates based on fewer than 30 households have not been included. This is because it is harder to make reliable generalisations from smaller numbers of survey respondents.

The ethnic groups used in the data

Data is shown for 2 ethnic groups:

white - white ethnic groups (including white British and white ethnic minorities)

other - all other ethnic minorities

This is because the number of people surveyed was too small to make any reliable conclusions about any of the 18 ethnic groups or 5 aggregated groups.

Each household's ethnic group is the ethnicity of the 'household reference person' (usually the person responsible for paying the rent or mortgage). There may be people of different ethnicities in the same household.

Methodology

Read the detailed methodology document for the data on this page.

Households' fuel costs and income have been adjusted to take into account differences in the numbers and ages of people living in them.

The data is an average for 2 years, for example from April 2018 and March 2020. This is to make sure there are enough households to be able to make reliable generalisations. You can read more about combining multiple years of data and some of the issues involved.

The figures on this page are based on survey data. Find out more about:

3. By ethnicity over time

Summary of Fuel poverty By ethnicity over time Summary

The data shows that:

in the 2 years to March 2021, an average of 12.6% of white households were in fuel poverty, compared with 19.1% of households from all other ethnic groups combined

in the 11 years covered, the percentage of ethnic minority households in fuel poverty went down from 39.4% to 19.1%

the percentage of white households in fuel poverty went down from 20.3% to 12.6% over the same period

4. Data sources

Source

Fuel Poverty statistics

Type of data

Survey data

Type of statistic

National Statistics

Publisher

Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

Publication frequency

Yearly

Purpose of data source

The main purpose of the annual fuel poverty statistics is to:

monitor progress against fuel poverty targets

track the percentage of households in fuel poverty and their fuel poverty gap

The government's fuel poverty target for England is to ensure that as many fuel-poor households as possible achieve a minimum energy efficiency rating of Band C by 2030 (with interim targets of Band E by 2020, and Band D by 2025).

Household energy efficiency ratings go from G (lowest) to A (highest). Energy efficiency is measured using the fuel poverty energy efficiency rating.

5. Download the data

Fuel poverty - Spreadsheet (csv) 3 KB

This file contains the following: ethnicity, year, value, numerator, denominator with figures for the white, other than white ethnic groups and all

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Universal Credit-Child Poverty Action Group Report

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Universal Credit-Child Poverty Action Group Report

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Early Warning System Top UC Issues July 2018

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Impact Report

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https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/08/home-offices-rwanda-deportation-plans-face-high-court-challenge

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Priti Patel's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as soon as next week is facing a legal challenge under emergency proceedings launched in the high court on Wednesday.

An application for a judicial review claims that the home secretary's policy is unlawful. Claimants are also seeking an injunction that will attempt to stop the plane from taking off.

It is the first legal challenge of the policy to have been officially put before the courts, and comes as Boris Johnson is under pressure from his own MPs to demonstrate a policy success.

With less than a week until the flight on 14 June, up to 30 asylum seekers are expected to be flown one way to Rwanda and encouraged to apply for asylum there.

The judicial review has been launched by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the charity Care4Calais and the pressure group Detention Action, along with four asylum seekers facing removal to the east African state.

The policy, which was unveiled by Johnson, will be challenged over Patel's right to carry out such removals; the rationality of Patel's claim that Rwanda is generally a "safe third country"; the adequacy of provision for malaria prevention in Rwanda; and whether it complies with the Human Rights Act.

It has been issued as a matter of urgency, after Patel scheduled the first removal flight to Rwanda on 14 June. She has refused to give assurances that no removals to Rwanda would take place until the lawfulness of the policy has been tested in court.

Another challenge, from the charity Freedom From Torture, is also expected in days. It is expected to question whether Rwanda is a safe third country; whether the policy breaches the European convention on human rights; and if removing asylum seekers to Rwanda is beyond Patel's legal authority because it is contrary to the refugee convention.

According to reports in the Daily Mail, about 80 asylum seekers who are in detention after receiving notices of intent about being removed to Rwanda have lodged individual legal challenges against being put on the 14 June flight.

The number of refugees and asylum seekers crossing the Channel to reach the UK so far this year has passed 10,000. The increase in the number of people crossing this year suggests that the threat of being sent to Rwanda has not deterred asylum seekers from travelling to the UK.

The Home Office appears to be targeting those who arrived in small boats in mid-May for sending to Rwanda.

Those who have been told they will be sent to Rwanda include a former senior Iranian police officer who fled to the UK after giving first-hand testimony of potential human rights violations by the Iranian government, and people who say they are unaccompanied 16-year-olds.

Responding to the legal action, a Home Office spokesperson said: "We have been clear from the start that we expected legal challenges - however, we are determined to deliver this new partnership."

Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter - every weekday morning at 7am BST

In a further development, the chief inspector of borders and immigration has disclosed that he has not been able to meet Patel since taking up the role more than a year ago after she cancelled "five or six" meetings.

David Neal, the migration watchdog, told the home affairs select committee he was "disappointed" and "frustrated" by the home secretary's lack of engagement since his appointment in March 2021.

Steve Barclay, a Cabinet Office minister tasked to oversee the issue of the rising number of migrants arriving on Britain's shores, has also declined a meeting, he said.

He told MPs: "I'm disappointed that I've not spoken to the Home Secretary, and frustrated because I think I have got things to offer from the position that I hold."

Neal later told MPs he has not encountered any impact of the Rwanda policy on numbers attempting to cross the Channel in small boats.

A Home Office spokesperson said that Neal had met with other ministers on several occasions. "As the independent inspector for borders made clear, he has met with Home Office ministers on a regular basis and been well served by them."

The headline and text of this article were amended on 8 June 2022; there are currently about 30 asylum seekers, not 130, on the list to be flown to Rwanda.

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Home Office's Rwanda deportation plans face high court challenge

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Priti Patel's plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda as soon as next week is facing a legal challenge under emergency proceedings launched in the high court on Wednesday. An application for a judicial review claims that the home secretary's policy is unlawful.

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https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2022/jun/22/its-not-a-monument-its-a-celebration-windrush-sculpture-unveiled-in-hackney

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A new public sculpture commemorating the Windrush generation was unveiled in east London on Wednesday morning to smiles and curiosity. Warm Shores by Thomas J Price, a 9ft (2.75 metres) bronze of a man and a woman standing outside Hackney town tall, marks the full installation of the Hackney Windrush Art Commission, a project celebrating the contribution made by those who have immigrated to the area. "It's not a monument, it's a celebration," said Price, looking on as residents began to interact with the work.

In an era where public art and monuments are politically charged like never before, surely the test of a great public artwork is in the community response. As locals passed the sculpture they reacted warmly, looking at the two figures, touching them, some asking "What does this represent? Is this for me?" Although Price's sculpture and Basil Watson's official national monument at Waterloo were both unveiled today to salute the generation which came from the Caribbean to the UK between 1948 and 1970, those affected by the Windrush scandal are still fighting for compensation.

'It's taken so much to get here' ... Thomas J Price. Photograph: Hackney.org.uk

Until recently, Price, a 41-year-old artist from London, has enjoyed more success in the US than in UK for his often larger than life sculptures of Black everymen and everywomen. They are not sculptures of specific individuals, but have been created through composites of many faces and figures. Their power lies in their ordinariness - they might be staring into space or studying a smartphone - and as works of art they are intended to raise questions about who we give public space to and why.

For this commission, Price has used images of 30 residents of Hackney, a borough with one of the largest Black communities in the country. Following an open call to members of the Windrush generation and their descendants, all those who came forward were digitally captured and interviewed. While the work is composed of two figures - a young man and an older woman - they represent a whole generation, not just in their actuality but in their stance, their features, their clothes, and every part of their physical appearance.

It was impossible not to be moved by seeing those who participated in the making of Warm Shores see the work for the first time. There were some tears but the atmosphere was joyous, with a touch of happy disbelief. Even Price seemed overcome by the enormity of the occasion. "It's taken so much to get here," he said. "It's incredible, in terms of what I wanted my practice to move towards and achieve. To have a council commission feels surreal and gives me hope that people are starting to come around to discussions about the awareness of how we see each other and who is given space to just exist as human beings."

In the argument about the pulling down of statues of oppressive figures in the wake of George Floyd's killing, some people said that they wanted to feel represented by the monuments that stood around them. Warm Shores, which stands with a corresponding work by Veronica Ryan, which earned her a Turner prize nomination when it was unveiled last year, is an exemplar of how to install public art in 2022. Is it possible to commission politically relevant contemporary art and represent the community it stands in? Warm Shores proves that it is.

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'It's not a monument, it's a celebration': Windrush sculpture unveiled in Hackney

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A new public sculpture commemorating the Windrush generation was unveiled in east London on Wednesday morning to smiles and curiosity. Warm Shores by Thomas J Price, a 9ft (2.75 metres) bronze of a man and a woman standing outside Hackney town tall, marks the full installation of the Hackney Windrush Art Commission, a project celebrating the contribution made by those who have immigrated to the area.

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Really interesting series about young women rough sleeping in Brighton.

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BBC Three - Love and Drugs on the Street: Girls Sleeping Rough

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Eye-opening stories of the daily lives of women sleeping rough on Brighton's streets.

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Theresa May has described Donald Trump's policy of separating immigrant children from their families as "deeply disturbing" and "wrong", but defended her decision to receive the US president in Britain next month.

Questioned about the images of children held in cages, and audio of crying toddlers separated from their parents by US border officials, May went further in her criticisms than previously, and indicated she would raise her concerns with Trump.

Following exchanges with Jeremy Corbyn on how the government would fund its planned increase in money for the NHS, the SNP's Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, referred to the "deeply distressing audio and images" of the US immigration policy.

He asked: "Is the prime minister still intending to roll out the red carpet for Donald Trump?"

May replied: "On the very important issue that he's raised, of what we have seen in the United States, the pictures of children being held in what appear to be cages are deeply disturbing. This is wrong. This is not something we agree with. This is not the United Kingdom's approach."

The prime minister indicated this would be among the issues she would raise with Trump during his brief visit to the UK next month after the Nato summit.

She said: "We have a special and longstanding relationship with the United States and I think it is right there will be a range of issues I will be discussing with President Trump, a range of issues about our shared interests, and I think it's important that we make sure that when we see the president of the United States here in the United Kingdom we're able to have those discussions that mean that when we disagree with what they're doing we say so."

Pressed by Blackford to be clearer in her criticism, May replied: "I clearly and wholly, unequivocally said that that was wrong."

The issue was raised again by the Labour MP Gavin Shuker, who mentioned both Trump's child-separation policy, his praise for Kim Jong-un's appalling human rights record, and other recent decisions. Shuker asked: "What does this man have to do to have the invitation she has extended revoked?"

May again condemned the immigration policy, but defended her continued ties with the Trump presidency.

"On the wider issue of the president of the United States coming here to the United Kingdom, there are many issues on which members of this house, including his right honourable friend the leader of the opposition, consistently encourage me to raise with the president of the United States. We do that," she said.

"When we disagree with the United States we tell them so. But we also have some key shared interests with the United States, in the security and defence field and in other areas as well, and it is right that we are able to sit down and discuss those with the president of a country with which we have had a longstanding - and will continue to have a longstanding - special relationship."

It was also confirmed by the US ambassador to the UK that Trump would meet the Queen at Windsor Castle during his visit. Robert Wood Johnson told Sky News that while plans had not been finalised, they would involve Trump meeting the Queen.

Earlier in PMQs, Corbyn asked May several times which taxes would be raised to fund her promised increase in the NHS budget of £20bn a year by 2023.

Corbyn began: "The prime minister said extra funding for the NHS will come from three sources: Brexit, economic growth and the taxation system. Well, there can be no Brexit dividend before 2022, economic growth is the slowest since 2009. So, which taxes are going up?"

May responded: "Can I be very clear about this - we have set out a long-term plan for the NHS, that is securing the future for the National Health Service. We have set a five-year funding settlement that will be funded."

In answer to a follow-up question May said: "As I said on Monday my right honourable friend the chancellor will set out the full funding package properly before the spending review."
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Theresa May: US border policy 'disturbing' but Trump visit still on

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Theresa May has described Donald Trump's policy of separating immigrant children from their families as "deeply disturbing" and "wrong", but defended her decision to receive the US president in Britain next month.

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Donald Trump has always proudly paraded his Time Magazine covers but the latest may not make it on to the walls at the golf club.

The powerful image on this week's cover depicts the US president looking down at a sobbing two-year-old girl next to the caption "Welcome to America".
Melania Trump visits child detention center as fate of families remains unclear
The girl is from a photograph taken at the US border by Getty photographer John Moore this week. Showing the toddler's distress while her mother is searched and detained, the image has become a defining symbol of the impact of the Trump administration's immigration policy, where parents and children entering the US illegally have been separated at the border.

The separation of families, with children and even babies placed in detention centres or "tender age shelters", has prompted protests and outcry, though this girl's father, Denis Valera, told Reuters she was kept with her mother, Sandra Sanchez, during their detention in the Texas border town of McAllen.

Tom Brake (@thomasbrake)
We all know how proud @realDonaldTrump is of his @TIME
magazine covers. Will he be proud of his latest one? pic.twitter.com/uqVpsKI66B

Speaking to the Guardian this week, Moore described his own heartbreak capturing these separations at the US-Mexico border. "As a photojournalist covering this story for years, and as the father of three children including a toddler, it was personally very hard for me to photograph," he said.

After enormous public backlash, Trump signed an executive order reversing the policy.

Trump has regularly made a point of referencing the number of times he has made it on to the cover of Time and last year boasted that he had "the all-time record" - a claim quickly rebutted by the magazine. In June 2017, Time asked Trump to take down fake covers featuring him from the walls of his golf clubs.

At a press conference in Singapore for the Kim Jong-un summit last week, Trump called out to Time magazine reporter Brian Bennett. "Am I on the cover again this week?" Trump asked rhetorically. "Boy, have I ... so many covers."
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Time magazine puts Trump opposite sobbing child on cover

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Donald Trump has always proudly paraded his Time Magazine covers but the latest may not make it on to the walls at the golf club. The powerful image on this week's cover depicts the US president looking down at a sobbing two-year-old girl next to the caption "Welcome to America".

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Before Grenfell: A Hidden History - BBC Two

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The extraordinary story of how Kensington became the most unequal place in Britain.

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Tory candidate says she is 'really pleased' there are food banks

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Tory candidate says she is 'really pleased' there are food banks

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"she was glad food banks existed as a safety net for people on benefits."

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Footage has emerged of a Conservative parliamentary candidate in one of the poorest parts of the country saying she was "pleased" there were food banks in the area.

Sheryll Murray, who is campaigning for election in south east Cornwall, was speaking at an event on Saturday when she provoked outrage from the audience when she said she was glad food banks existed as a safety net for people on benefits.

She said: "If for instance somebody had moved house, or if their financial situation had changed while they're going through the reassessment and their benefits are delayed, then sometimes they need to call upon the food banks.

"But I am really pleased we have food banks in south east Cornwall."

This provoked outrage from the audience with some standing up and shouting "we're human" and "how dare you" at her.

One disabled woman stood up and shouted that she was being "very rude" after Ms Murray told other members of the audience to ignore the protests.

Ms Murray's son then stepped in to make her sit back down before another man intervened.

The politician is heard asking her campaign manager, Bob Davidson, to call the police and threatening to leave because she was not prepared to be "subjected to this".

UK General Election 2017

In a statement released by Ms Murray's office, a spokesperson defended the threat to call the police saying they were concerned for their candidate's safety.

It claimed she was "subjected to sustained abuse from a large group of Jeremy Corbyn supporters, many who had Labour stickers, the vast majority of which did not even come from [the area]."

Mr Davidson told the Plymouth Herald: "I am growing increasingly concerned over the actions of the hard left group within the Labour Party which is determined to stifle debate and our campaign through the very visible attacks on our posters.

"This is the same group which created so many problems for moderate Labour MPs when the vast majority of these Labour MPs did not back Jeremy Corbyn's leadership and signed a motion of no confidence in him."

Last week, campaign posters for Ms Murray were dabbed with swastikas and neighbouring Tory candidate Johnny Mercer's posters were defaced with claims that the party wanted to "sell of the NHS".

Ms Murray said: "Nobody is saying a person going hungry is a good thing and everything must be done to stop this.

"Whilst we work to eradicate hunger however the food banks themselves do provide a good service.

"What really concerns me at the moment is Jeremy Corbyn gaining power and everyone needing food banks as the economy takes a nosedive."

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Tory candidate heckled for saying she's 'pleased' there are food banks

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Footage has emerged of a Conservative parliamentary candidate in one of the poorest parts of the country saying she was "pleased" there were food banks in the area. Sheryll Murray, who is campaigning for election in south east Cornwall, was speaking at an event on Saturday when she provoked outrage from the audience when she said she was glad food banks existed as a safety net for people on benefits.

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Documentary filmed throughout the year following the Grenfell Tower fire, hearing from those directly affected by the most devastating tower block fire in British history.

This documentary from Bafta-winning director Ben Anthony brings together multiple stories from the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy - the most devastating tower block fire in British history. It was made over the course of one year, with filming starting on the day after the fire.

The meticulously crafted film draws from hundreds of hours of interview, archive, social media content and observational footage to form a compelling, moving and lasting record of the events before, during and after the fire. It features intimate accounts from many of the men, women and children whose lives were forever intertwined and irrevocably changed that night - some of whom have never spoken publicly before.

The film remembers those who tragically died, while hearing from survivors, the bereaved, members of the local community, faith leaders, the police and the local councillors from Kensington and Chelsea. The documentary contains the largest collection of interviews with people connected to the tragedy to be gathered together in one single film.

In the immediate aftermath of the fire, the documentary team were in the area around Grenfell Tower recording the effects on the community - in the emergency relief centres, on the streets, in temporary accommodation, in hotels and in people's homes. Over the following months, the team spent significant amounts of time filming with many of the people who were most affected, documenting both their immediate experiences and the longer-term challenges they faced as they waited to be rehoused and attempted to rebuild their lives. The documentary captures the trauma, tragedy and grief alongside extraordinary moments of courage, unity and resilience.

The film tells the story from within the community with unique access to Grenfell United - the campaign group set up by the survivors in the wake of the fire - and Grenfell Speaks, the online streaming news channel created by one local resident and his iPhone which now has over five million viewers worldwide.

Of the many residents featured, Lorraine Beadle was one of the very first to move into Grenfell Tower, in 1975. Over the decades her beloved flat on the fourth floor became home to her most cherished memories, but now she must make the difficult decision to go back into the charred remains of the tower and say goodbye.

Amongst the other experiences captured, the film follows 32-year-old Karim as he searches for news of his uncle Hesham, who lived on the 23rd floor of Grenfell Tower, putting up missing posters around the local streets in the hope that someone will come forward with information. When Hesham's body is finally identified months after the fire, Karim is able to lay him to rest.

The film also reflects the role of social media in distributing information about the fire and its aftermath. Hundreds of people recorded powerful footage both during and after the tragic events of 14 June 2017. Much of this material was shared on social media, giving an immediate and far-reaching public voice to those affected.

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Documentary filmed throughout the year following the Grenfell Tower fire.

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'So Rob, do you have friends?" I'm wondering what on earth Sharon (not her real name) thinks she might be looking at as she gazes at me. She's had around seven days of training before this and now, in my living room, I wonder what conclusions she feels she can draw from asking this question.

How do I answer? Do I respond with a puppyish, "Oh yes, us disabled people always have plenty of friends"? Or do I go with a more provocative, "No, us disabled people mostly eat soup in a mug and cry in front of Mrs Brown's Boys"?

This is the reality of an assessment for personal independence payment, or Pip as it's known. Despite last week's election surprise, we still have a Conservative government so millions of British people with permanent, unchanging disabilities will be put through this astronomically expensive and humiliating test to see if they can be thrown off benefits.

If you're wondering why I'm part of all this, I have ocular albinism and nystagmus, meaning I have exceptionally limited vision.

At the age of 38, I've been claiming disability living allowance since I was a teenager. It works out at £5.73 a day, which goes towards paying for taxis, screen magnification software, magnifying glasses and a variety of other utterly prosaic things that enable me to lead as "normal" a life as possible. And because of my visual impairment, paired with anxiety that requires daily medication, it's been decided by the Department for Work and Pensions that I must have a home visit to assess my disability in all its permanent, unchanging glory to see if I qualify for the payments that are slowly replacing DLA.

The asininity continues: 'Do you take showers?' 'Do you have any leisure activities?' 'What do you eat?'

Sharon works for Atos, one of the two profit-making companies (Capita being the other) that have been given half a billion pounds by the government to "assess" people like me with disabilities where there is zero chance of any improvement in our lifetime.

Well, you may be thinking, at least the assessor will be an expert in the relevant field of disability, who can perhaps shed some insight on the process with direct relation to my specific condition?"Do you wear glasses, Rob?" is the next question of around 35 that are fired at me over the course of a gruelling hour. Asking an albino if he or she wears glasses is like asking an amputee when their leg is going to grow back. Albinism is a genetic condition that affects the nerves and the brain. Sharon's line of questioning has the kind of expertise you might expect if you asked Joey Essex to lead the Brexit negotiations.

Let's clarify this: people's benefits, mobility vehicles, home help and other essential lifelines are being decided upon by a team consisting mostly of nurses and occupational therapists like Sharon who have had seven days of training and are still doing their proper job for half the week.

I have never felt more vulnerable and, frankly, disabled in my life

And so the asininity continues: "Do you take showers?" "Do you have any leisure activities?" "What do you eat?" The humiliation and intrusion are absolute and total. The additional sheer irrelevance of these questions relating to my own disability renders me silently apoplectic.

Sharon isn't a bad person. She looks barely 30 and she's just doing her job. Yet the decisions she and her ilk are making just aren't working out. In the final three months of 2016 alone 65% of people appealing against the denial of Pip won their cases against the government.

It's a shoot of hope. Yet shouting out stats is like ordering people to eat their greens. You know it's right but you hate it all the same. So what you're reading is just one story about the effects of a system that is supposed to give people like me the means to be more confident and able in society. The result is that I have never felt more vulnerable and, frankly, disabled in my life.

After Sharon leaves I make a mug of tea. It's what British men do when they really don't want to cry. It's too late though. As the first tears of rage and shame and frustration seep out my vision blurs and I pour boiling water from the kettle on my hand. How "disabled" of me. That might have got me a few extra points if Sharon had seen it.

Can I have my fiver now?
Topics

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This is a disability assessment: intrusive, humiliating and completely pointless | Rob Crossan

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'So Rob, do you have friends?" I'm wondering what on earth Sharon (not her real name) thinks she might be looking at as she gazes at me. She's had around seven days of training before this and now, in my living room, I wonder what conclusions she feels she can draw from asking this question.

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In over 30 years as an activist seeking to reform police practice, including a period providing mayoral oversight of Scotland Yard, I've met some incredibly talented, committed and progressive officers. One who sticks in my mind is Tim Godwin, a former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, whose favourite theory was what he called "the policing cycle of reinvention". It stated that whenever progressive policing reform was enacted, it would be resisted from below, and then confronted by sustained political pressure. Unsupported by leaders without vision, the reforms would then collapse.

Today we see this same old cycle being replayed in the demand for rising levels of stop and search, despite Theresa May having been previously convinced that disproportionate discriminatory and oppressive use of stop and search is deeply damaging to relations between the black community and the police.

Her scepticism was well warranted. A study of the effectiveness of stop and search by the College of Policing, which examined whether the higher rates in London boroughs resulted in either higher arrest rates or had any deterrent effects, found only limited evidence a meaningful deterrent effect. "It is important not to overstate the benefits of stop and search, particularly at a force of borough level," it said. And yet that is what is being done. Having diagnosed our mistakes, we are now seeking to repeat them.

Recently I submitted freedom of information requests to the police about the effectiveness of stop and search as revealed by the rate at which those arrested in the capital are subsequently determined to have done nothing wrong - in police parlance, to "require no further action". The numbers are staggering, and undermine police claims about the intelligence-led use of the power leading to an improving arrest rate.

The data shows that in the year 2014-15, a total of 82,183 citizens in London were arrested, and then subsequently released without charge. Of that number 12,564 were Asian, 22,275 were black. Add in the "mixed" category of 4,925 and the other non-white ethnic groups, such as the Chinese, and you get a total of 43,022. White Londoners were only 37,047, or 45% of the total.

And that's not the entire story. Consider the total stop and search rates for that year; according to the StopWatch charity, using Met figures, there were 171,504 stop and searches under section one of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. Add to that the hundreds of thousands of stop-and-account interactions that don't result in arrest, and you begin to see the real scale of the problem.

Ethnic disproportionality is reflected in other areas of operational policing, and represents a huge obstacle to improving levels of trust and confidence that black people and other ethnic minorities have in policing, which are currently at an all-time low.

From other FoI requests, I have discovered that in inner city areas, black and ethnic minority confidence in the police rarely rises above 50%, and disturbingly in some of the key areas - such as Lambeth, Newham, Haringey and Hackney - regularly drops to as low as 30%.

The other critical error now being made by both Amber Rudd, the home secretary, and Cressida Dick, the new Met commissioner - and seemingly supported by the mayor of London - is the false promise that higher rates of stop and search will lead to a reduction in violence. It won't - not least because tackling violence in acutely deprived communities cannot be delivered by policing alone.

But aside from policing, what's left? In London, where public health is now a devolved responsibility, we see cash-strapped statutory and local authorities forming partnerships that produce micro-projects of excellence, surrounded by endless seas of mediocrity and failure.

The politically unpalatable truth that must be addressed is that violence is increasing in the capital's black communities because of rising poverty.

Trust for London research shows that for black/mixed people, the adult unemployment rate increased by three to five percentage points between 2008 and 2013, while for the 16-24 age group the increase was a massive 14 points for mixed ethnicity groups, and 11.5 in black/Caribbean communities. Of these in work, 34% were paid below the London living wage thresholds.

Such rising poverty will lead to increased violence in all communities. That's the real reality: violence is ramped up by poverty and it is not a black cultural problem, specifically.

And yet we know too how race exacerbates inequality. A review by the Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2016 said that black and ethnic minority people in Britain still faced "entrenched" race inequality in many areas, including employment, education and health. David Isaac, its chair, warned: "We must redouble our efforts to tackle race inequality urgently or risk the divisions in our society growing and racial tensions increasing."

A report I helped to author produced by Blaksox, a new social movement, completely supports that view. It allowed young black people to speak out about the challenges they face, and found that the most pressing were the lack of economic opportunities and the nightmare that is the scale and availability of illicit drugs. They told us of communities where deprivation is so far-reaching that the selling of drugs seemed the only economic option available to them - and violence was therefore "necessary" and ubiquitous.

Poverty drives violence in our communities. We know there are evidence-based solutions that would allow us to start tackling these complex issues. But that is the frustration. For we also know that discriminatory stop and search will exacerbate these issues, and yet we are more than willing to enter the futile and reckless policing cycle of reinvention all over again. And we all know how that story ends.

* Lee Jasper chairs the London Race and Criminal Justice Consortium, and is a former policing director for the Greater London Authority.
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Poverty causes violence. So forget this obsession with stop and search | Lee Jasper

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In over 30 years as an activist seeking to reform police practice, including a period providing mayoral oversight of Scotland Yard, I've met some incredibly talented, committed and progressive officers. One who sticks in my mind is Tim Godwin, a former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan police, whose favourite theory was what he called "the policing cycle of reinvention".

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Serious fire safety breaches at Grenfell Tower included more than 100 non-compliant fire doors, a firefighting lift that didn't work and a "stay put" policy that totally failed, the inquiry into the disaster has been told.

A report by Dr Barbara Lane, a leading fire safety engineer who was commissioned by the inquiry to investigate fire protection measures and the spread of flames and smoke, concluded there was "a culture of non-compliance" at the tower.

Her report amounted to a litany of failings including the revelation that the pipe system to get water up the 24-storey block to fight the fire could not cope and was overloaded, leaving the upper floors, where most people died, vulnerable. Fire doors to flats, which should have resisted fire for 60 minutes, only lasted as little as 20 minutes and their closers didn't work in some cases. The cladding system was "substantially to blame for the tragedy" and produced toxic smoke that slowed down the firefighters because they had to wear breathing apparatus and "the ultimate consequence was a disproportionately high loss of life", she said.

Fifteen people living on the 18th to 22nd floors went up to the 23rd floor, she found, and 47 of those who died were found on level 18 and above. No one died from any of the flats on level 10 or below.

"It would appear that people moved upwards because of the spread of smoke and fire," she said.

Her interim conclusions were among five expert reports released on the eighth day of the inquiry - and the first to hear detailed expert evidence.

Lane said: "There was a total failing of the principle of stay put," the strategy that resulted in residents being told to stay in their flats. She said this had become ineffective by 1.26am. Yet the policy remained in place for another hour and seven minutes. A major incident was declared at 2:06am and yet the stay put strategy remained in place until 2:47am, by which time the lobbies were filled with thick and "boiling hot" smoke allowing very low and sometimes zero visibility.

She said there needed to be "serious and urgent" consideration to changing the current approach in buildings enveloped in similar material to Grenfell.

"I am particularly concerned by the delay from 2.06am, when a major incident was declared, to 2.47am," she said.

The firefighting lift did not work because the firefighting "switch" function - a kind of override allowing firefighters to use the lift - failed.

The failure of the fire lift system delayed firefighters getting to the flat where the fire started. "This might have increased the chances of extinguishing the fire before it spread externally," she said.

Its failure also prevented the firefighters getting equipment higher up the building.

"All operations by the fire service within the 23 storeys were therefore required to be by means of walking up and down the stair only."

The building had a system for removing smoke from the lobbies, but this was a "bespoke" design and was not compliant with building regulations, she said. It did not operate as intended, and attempts by firefighters to take control of it failed.

Lane was damning about the cladding, which she said was "non-compliant with the functional requirement of the building regulations".

She said: "I have found no evidence yet that any member of the design team or the construction ascertained the fire performance of the rainscreen cladding system materials, nor understood how the assembly performed in fire. I have found no evidence that building control were either informed or understood how the assembly would perform in a fire. Further, I have found no evidence that the [tenant management organisation] risk assessment recorded the fire performance of the rainscreen cladding system, nor have I found evidence that the LFB [London fire brigade] risk assessment recorded the fire performance of the rainscreen cladding."

She found that all of the fire doors between the fourth and 24th floors were "not compliant with fire test evidence relied upon at the time of installation", and that this would have contributed to the spread of smoke and fire into the lobbies.

The doors allowed smoke and flames to spread between the doors and the door frames, multiple untested components in the doors allowed fire cross them and an unknown number of self-closers failed.

Some fire doors were also held open by the firefighters' fire hoses rising up the building and in one case, a dead body.

The heat in the lobbies would have caused "immediate pain" to exposed skin and the "thick black smoke" in the lobbies would put people off from trying to leave and prevent firefighters from being able to use lobbies as a bridgehead or search base."

It also emerged that no fullscale fire tests of cladding systems using the aluminium composite material panels fixed to Grenfell and over 300 other towers across England were ever carried out before the fire.

Colin Todd, a fire engineer commissioned by the inquiry, said no BS8414 tests were carried out using the material, before the blaze. Subsequent tests have shown that the material often fails to meet building regulations and it is being urgently stripped from hundreds of towers at a cost estimated to be in excess of £1bn.

A separate report examining the start of the blaze by Prof Niamh Nic Daéid, director of the Liverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at Dundee University, said the fire is thought to have originated in or near the fridge freezer in flat 16 on the fourth floor.

Her provisional report, dated March 2018, contained details of the first call, which was made by Behailu Kebede, who lived in flat 16 with two others, to London Fire Brigade just before 1am.

"Mr Bahailu Kebede states in his witness statement that he was wakened at around 00.55 by the sound of a smoke alarm, which he believed was in the kitchen of his flat (flat 16 on the fourth floor of Grenfell Tower). He went into the kitchen and saw smoke in the area of the fridge/freezer and the kitchen window. He woke the other occupants of the flat and phoned the fire brigade using his mobile phone and alerted the other residents living in the various flats on floor 4 of Grenfell Tower."

London fire brigade sent four fire engines in their initial response to Kebede's call. The first two firefighters to enter the flat broke down the door and described how "black smoke billowed out". They checked the bedrooms and opened a door which led to the living room and noted there was was "no sign of fire", the report states.

The fire appeared to be in the top left corner of the kitchen. It was described by one as "an isolated curtain of flame from about 2-3ft in the air to the ceiling".

Images captured by their thermal imaging camera suggest that the hot fire gases and flames had spread across the window space by the time the firefighters had opened the kitchen door for the first time.

Increased temperatures were indicated above the tall fridge freezer and to the immediate lefthand side, where the window was located. The thermal images also recorded what appears to be falling embers outside the window. The images also appear to show that the fire may have breached through the sliding doors between the kitchen and living room.

A second fire crew carried out a thorough search of the bedrooms, bathroom and living room, before taking over the firefighting activities in the kitchen.

The report said that one, John O'Hanlon, described the fridge, saying: "You wouldn't recognise it as a fridge, just a charred rectangle with a bit of melted stuff at the bottom that was still alight. The flame was around 30cm high."

His statement continued: "The window had gone by then, broken .... that's when we noticed the window had completely gone. Even the frame wasn't there and and we noticed that it was on fire, that the window surround was on fire."

"We walked over to the window and started spraying the window frame. It's didn't have any effect on it, at which point I sat on the window sill and was leaning out and trying to hit what I thought was the window surround."
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Expert lists litany of serious safety breaches at Grenfell Tower

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Serious fire safety breaches at Grenfell Tower included more than 100 non-compliant fire doors, a firefighting lift that didn't work and a "stay put" policy that totally failed, the inquiry into the disaster has been told.

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I'm sitting in "circle time" with eight young people aged eight to 16 in Winston's Wish, a voluntary organisation that supports children who have lost someone they love. I know that I can go into the group saying, "I've got the T-shirt - I know exactly what you're going through." The young people share their often harrowing experiences of grief - a brother who has died from cancer, a mother who killed herself in front of her young daughter, a brother and sister pulled alive from a car crash in which their parents were killed.

So what's my story? I was born in the north-east of England into a proud working-class family of colliers. My mother was born in a miner's house. My dad left school at 14 for the only work open to him, underground in the pit. But in keeping with the family ethos of doing the best he could, he climbed the social tree, becoming first a deputy overman, then a senior mine manager, and then a shopkeeper with his own small business, as well as being the local choirmaster and church organist. My mam also did the best with the gifts she had, showing early talent as a pianist.

In my memory of early childhood, I recall a large extended family squashed into my grandmother's tiny parlour in front of a warming coal-fired range with a table laden with home-cooked hams and cakes, singing hymns and ballads with my dad and my mam playing the piano and harmonium.

My dad saw the writing on the wall for the Northumberland coalfield, so when I was nine, with great courage, he moved my mam, sister and me from our tight, close-knit extended family to better our prospects in the strange, rich, alien world of Surrey.

On starting my new school I was immediately bullied, the scars of which have lasted. I had a funny north country accent, I couldn't do joined up handwriting and I didn't understand their way of doing long division. I was very unhappy.

Then, a few months later, when I was 10, my dad died unexpectedly.

My life was changed from being a child in a close, loving family to a fatherless boy exposed to a world of adult grief, uncertainty, fear and, as the cost of moving home had drained our resources, poverty. My mam was forced to seek any work that would bring in money, and confront her shame at my having free school meals.

Despite this - perhaps because of this - I was determined to become a doctor. As a 10-year-old, my intention had become to "stop other boys' and girls' mammies and daddies dying". I went to grammar school, where my teachers said "Al, you can do it!" They helped me navigate my way to medical school and become a doctor.

That is my story, but what of others like me now, dealing with poverty and unhappiness?

I am one of only 4% of today's doctors to have come from a disadvantaged background; 80% come from 20% of schools and half of schools have never sent a student to study medicine. Doctors, like lawyers, senior civil servants, military officers and business leaders, overwhelmingly come from fee-paying schools.

England has one of the most socially divided societies in modern Europe with widening, not narrowing, social inequity. What can people like you and me do?

As president of the British Medical Association, I supported our widening participation initiative to encourage more young people from schools in disadvantaged localities to consider becoming a doctor. With colleagues, I met sixth-formers from local comprehensive schools. Despite their obvious intelligence and motivation, their teachers told us how hard it had been to help them even to get a medical school interview, not least because, in contrast to young people from medical families, they had difficulty in picking up relevant work experience. I also heard, disconcertingly, from medical students who they were advised not to say during their interview that they were choosing medicine to help people. This is unbelievable and has to be challenged.

So, what conclusions can I draw from my life story of being bullied, bereaved and brought up by a single mum in poverty, yet being able to forge a successful career?

In my conversations with young people, they say repeatedly, "Thank you, Al, for sharing your story with us. From this we know that it is possible to be successful despite tragedy and poverty." There is a hunger for young people to have role models and heroes in their lives.

What can we do to encourage more successful adults to share their own life stories with children? I always ask young people an important question: "Do you think you are a better person as a result of the difficulties you have faced?"

They are taken aback but, on reflection, more often than not they say: "Yes, I am a better person. I value my life and my family much more, and I really want to make something of my life."

I returned a while ago to the primary school where I began my education. It was much smaller than I remembered but the smell was exactly the same. Teachers told me of the devastating impact of the closing of the mines and of young children, now the third or fourth generation of families who had never been in work. Keeping them motivated was challenging.

This sense of apathy was also the result of dramatic changes in social culture, cohesion and expectations. The Victorian expectation of rising above poverty through self-improvement was still evident in my childhood - in the talented, self-taught Ashington Group of painters, the Working Men's Institutes, the libraries, the music and the theatre. My dad organised and conducted an annual performance of Handel's Messiah and the local operatic society had amazing productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas.

Sadly, these activities seem to have disappeared, replaced by drinking establishments and bingo clubs, with nothing to do for young people. This is combined with the current demonisation of the working class, as explored by Owen Jones in his book Chavs, which demonstrates the way in which young people from poor backgrounds are denigrated by so much of the media, by politicians and by contemporary commentators.

I've learned to find pride in my background and in overcoming disadvantage. Challenging social division and being able to develop the talents of poor children is one of the greatest challenges our country is facing today. We cannot continue to fail so many.

Those of us who have had success in our professional lives - in my case, as a result of the family expectation "to do the best you can", alongside a commitment to support my dream from my mother - need to stand up and be counted. Inspiring young people facing difficulties and poverty is humbling and rewarding.

Al Aynsley-Green was the children's commissioner for England 2005-10. He is professor emeritus of child health at University College London. This an extract from a new book, The Working Class: Poverty, Education and Alternative Voices, edited by Ian Gilbert. Get it for £24.99 at guardian bookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846
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Bullied, bereaved and poor - would I have succeeded today?

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I'm sitting in "circle time" with eight young people aged eight to 16 in Winston's Wish, a voluntary organisation that supports children who have lost someone they love. I know that I can go into the group saying, "I've got the T-shirt - I know exactly what you're going through."

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The gender wars of household chores: a feminist comic

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French comic artist Emma introduces the concept of the mental load. When a man expects his partner to ask him to do things, he is viewing her as the manager of their household chores

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Social workers operating in Sydney's inner city public housing estates have slammed a new policy that denies homes to those with a history of serious drug offences, saying it sets a "troubling precedent" that further marginalises people trying to leave their past behind them.

The New South Wales government announced this week it would bar anyone either recently charged or convicted of drug supply or drug manufacture offences from accessing public housing in Sydney's inner suburbs.

Letters were sent to staff and clients at the Community Restorative Centre, the city's largest non-government organisation working with recently released prisoners, warning them of impending criminal checks for those on public housing waiting lists in Glebe, Waterloo, Redfern and Surry Hills.

The government says public housing towers in the suburbs have become unsafe, and the policy is designed to crackdown on drug-related harm.

But Community Restorative Centre program director, Mindy Sotiri, said the policy does nothing but shift the problem elsewhere, without addressing the complex root causes that drive drug offending.

Sotiri's organisation works with former prisoners with complex backgrounds before and after release, helping them to reintegrate, rebuild their lives, and avoid further offending.

She said she was stunned to see the letter last week.

It was "clearly discriminatory", she said, and would disproportionately affect Indigenous Australians, who make up 25% of all people released from prison in this area.

Sotiri fears the policy sets a dangerous precedent of further punishing and marginalising people already dealt with by the courts.

"The key thing for me is that this is a really troubling precedent that extends punishment beyond the judicial system, which really has not worked anywhere," Sotiri told Guardian Australia.

She warned the policy mirrored deeply flawed approaches taken in the United States, where some states deny welfare, housing, and support to those with a criminal record.

"The idea that we would even be creeping in that direction is really troubling because it's something we've certainly not done brilliantly, but we've got a better record with that stuff and have given people a fair go," Sotiri said.

"The whole point of the work that we do is saying 'you might have done something wrong, but you've done your time, and now we're going to give you every opportunity to build a life that's not about going to prison'."

NSW social housing minister, Pru Goward, said on Wednesday the aim of the policy was to "reduce temptation" for drugs in the estates.

Goward said that police had identified drug dealing was "particularly prevalent" in the large public housing estates involved in the policy.

"It does not mean they go to other parts of the state," Goward told the ABC.

"But may I remind you that they are going to other parts of the state anyway. The fact is that drug dealers are part of the public housing population. This is really the first time that we've had the ability to manage those people."

It mirrors tough stances taken by the federal government on welfare recipients and drugs. The stance is also reminiscent of NSW's approach to the Martin Place tent camp.

The government introduced move-on powers to remove the camp from the inner city.

Sotiri said crime statistics were stable in Sydney, despite the hype. She said effective reform in law and order often required more bravery than governments were willing to display.

"I think there is a bravery required in politics to actually tackle, at the obvious level, the causes of crime, rather than just pandering to this idea that things are getting worse or things are getting out of control, when that's not really the case," she said.

"It's not very exciting politics to say 'we're going to tackle homelessness now' or 'we're going to put case managers into the estates'. None of that sounds very exciting or innovative, but it's actually what's required."
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Banning drug offenders from accessing public housing sets 'troubling precedent'

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Social workers operating in Sydney's inner city public housing estates have slammed a new policy that denies homes to those with a history of serious drug offences, saying it sets a "troubling precedent" that further marginalises people trying to leave their past behind them.

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One in three British children with a working single parent are living in poverty and the figures are set to rise , new research has revealed.

Almost two thirds of children from single parent families will be living below the breadline by 2021, a study by the charity Gingerbread revealed.

Decent wages and flexible working hours are "few and far between" for single parents who act as both the primary carer and earner, "t rapping " the m in lower paid, insecure w ork, the charity warned.

Rates of employment among single parents have reached a record high, but the spike has coincided with a tenfold increase in zero hours contracts over the past decade, the report found.

The charity's chief executive Rosie Ferguson said the report highlighted how single parents' aspirations can be "thwarted by circumstances outside their control".

She said: "The majority of single parents work but many are still locked out of the secure, flexible employment opportunities they need in order to provide for their children."

"Low-paid and insecure jobs, as well as the lack of affordable childcare, mean that some single parents struggle to put food on the table for their children.

"The government must work with job centres, employers and childcare providers to ensure that work genuinely provides a route out of poverty.

"We need to strengthen the system of support for single parents to provide a decent standard of living for them and their children."

The charity is now calling on the Government to expand childcare support to single parents in education or training and to offer help with upfront childcare costs.

Debbie Abrahams, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: "It is utterly unacceptable that single parent families are paying the price for Conservative failure.

"The increase in child poverty is a direct result of this Government's cuts to social security, changes to universal credit and their complete failure to tackle the scourge of low-paid, insecure work."

A Government spokesman said: "We recognise how challenging it can be for lone parents to juggle work and family life. That's why we've taken steps to double free childcare, and for the most in need paying up to 85 per cent of their childcare costs under Universal Credit, to support parents back into work.

"Children living in households where someone works are less likely to be in poverty and more likely to do well in school, compared to those growing up in workless households. Our support is all about ensuring every child and family has the best chances in life."

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One in three British children with a working single parent live in poverty, report finds

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One in three British children with a working single parent are living in poverty and the figures are set to rise , new research has revealed. Almost two thirds of children from single parent families will be living below the breadline by 2021, a study by the charity Gingerbread revealed.

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Poverty medicine is a term coined by US physician Raymond Downing in 2001 on his travels through rural east Africa to mean "not just what our patients lack but also what we [the doctors] lack in trying to treat them."

No one specialises in this area of medicine expanding here in the UK, but I am now practising it. Patients are turning up to the surgery with pain, headaches and depression. Many are isolated and feel a general sense of malaise.

They attend frequently, find it hard to recognise their problems and experience hopelessness. They adopt the sick role, one that we as doctors also thrust upon them. But there are long waiting lists for talking therapies, which could help them, and crisis teams for psychiatry are under-resourced. Pain clinics, where physiotherapists, psychologists and doctors work together, are a useful resource but they too have long waiting lists. And now GPs are under growing pressure from clinical commissioning groups, who hold the purse strings, to reduce referrals to secondary care. Last week, we learned that a quarter of clinical commissioning groups in England are offering a financial incentive to GPs to cut referrals. Although not the case at my practice, budgetary pressures are forcing us to refer fewer patients too.

When treatments for life's problems are hard to come by, sometimes only the relationship between patient and GP remains

Over the years I have learnt that patients often have ideas, concerns and expectations that lie beyond their symptoms. I like to think that I can pick up on these cues when I hear, see or even sense them. But patients consult doctors for a vast variety of reasons: from trying to get a diagnosis or treatment, to looking for reassurance for health anxieties, or to alleviate loneliness. I sometimes see a woman who comes just to talk - she sits down for 15 minutes, says what she wants to say and I listen. Then she leaves. I give no prescription, offer no test or even words. But she feels better. And I sit up a little straighter for the next patient coming through the door. I have a sense of having helped in a small way.

The work of Hungarian psychoanalysts Michael and Enid Balint is widely used in general practice. They first identified that the symptoms described by patients may not be the real reason for their attendance. Doctors' own emotions could also change the course of the consultation: be it negativity, a sense of futility or exhaustion of empathy. They found that doctors themselves have a powerful therapeutic effect on people, through their own personality, not just the medical treatments they prescribe. In times of austerity, when many doctors are seeing "poverty medicine", a GP's greatest asset can be empathy and the ability to signpost and harness support for these patients. Indeed, when treatments for life's problems are hard to come by, sometimes it is only the therapeutic relationship between patient and GP that remains.

Sometimes doctors prescribe antidepressants that will take the edge off symptoms. We can also prescribe exercise and food vouchers on the NHS. But what if we could formally prescribe patients art therapy, singing, cookery, reading, gardening, walking groups and so much more? It would give them a community and a purpose, as has been done successfully in Frome, in Somerset. Here in Bristol, provision of such voluntary schemes is patchy - often they are just a few pilot schemes and run out of funds. The NHS urgently needs more investment and commitment to this social prescribing if we are to better treat the symptoms of poverty and isolation, yet all we see are cuts. But the only way to end poverty medicine is to end poverty itself, and that goes much wider than the medical establishment.
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Poverty medicine: how we are failing poorer and isolated patients | Zara Aziz

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Poverty medicine is a term coined by US physician Raymond Downing in 2001 on his travels through rural east Africa to mean "not just what our patients lack but also what we [the doctors] lack in trying to treat them." No one specialises in this area of medicine expanding here in the UK, but I am now practising it.

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"It is only by removing the disabilities and restraints imposed upon woman; and permitting her to enter freely into competition with man in every sphere of human activity, that her true position and function in the economy of life will ultimately be settled."

This is what Keir Hardie said in his 1905 speech "The Citizenship of Women: A Plea for Women's Suffrage". Hardie was the first working-class man to be elected to Parliament, on a manifesto that said: "I ask you therefore to return to Parliament a man of yourselves, who, being poor can feel for the poor." He became the first leader of the Labour Party.

Hardie was a faithful and key ally of the suffragette movement, and his support jeopardised his own standing in his party and beyond. His frustration with his fellow men shines through in his speech: "To those who are opposed on principle to women having the vote at all I have little to say. These I find it easier to pity than to reason with."

Hardie's main male feminist ally was George Lansbury MP, who was horrified by the force-feeding of suffragettes, exclaiming at Prime Minister Herbert Asquith in one parliamentary encounter: "You will go down in history as the man who tortured innocent women! It is perfectly disgusting!" Because of this outburst, Lansbury was ushered out of the chamber "amid a cheer of relief" from other MPs.

Since 1918, much has changed in the social, economic and political position of women. Yet we still need a further 117 women in the House of Commons to even the balance, and in most institutions of power women are still a minority. Men still earn nearly 10 per cent more for those in full-time work and the figure is almost twice as bad for those in part-time work. Sexual harassment and abuse are rife in public spaces, at work, and even in the home, where one in four women face domestic violence in their lifetime.

Particularly worrying, over the past 10 years the UK has made absolutely zero progress in tackling gender equality across health, income and education, according to the EU's Gender Equality Index.

One hundred years from the landmark act of 1918, there is still a lot of work to do. As before, women need to lead the charge in a transformation of society and its institutions. And to be of any worth the movement needs to span across race, age, class, ability, sexuality and nationality. It is crucial that we are intersectional in our approach.

But in order to bring feminist values to the forefront, we need men on board. First, because they wield most of the formal power; second, because they are half the population - they are part of us; but most importantly because dismantling the patriarchy is good for men too: it challenges entrenched roles that are just as damaging to them.

The social norms that dictate our place in society - that women should "be nice" and "smile" and always put the comfort of a man before our own safety - are the very same norms that tell men to "man up" rather than talk about how they feel. The very same norms that create barriers to girls excelling in science and sneer at boys who aren't obsessed with sport. They are the very same mores that have led to a crisis of masculinity in this country and across the world - from the UK, where the male suicide rate is three times that of women, to the US, where 98 per cent of mass shootings are carried out by men.

We know that gender roles are restrictive for everybody and costly to society. Yet getting more male influencers - the modern-day Keir Hardies - marching alongside us isn't always easy, despite the fact that men and boys are out there doing just that.

Unfortunately, Keir Hardie didn't live to see the Representation of the People's Act of 1918 or the granting of equal voting rights in 1928. But his commitment to women's suffrage, and the role of supportive men in championing women's rights, lives on - and gathers pace.
Helen Pankhurst is an international development and women's rights activist, the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst and granddaughter of Sylvia Pankhurst
Join CARE International's #March4Women on Sunday 4 March, starting at Millbank at noon. Funds raised will support CARE's "Help Her Live Learn and Earn" campaign to help women and girls in the world's poorest communities work their way out of poverty. All donations to this campaign until 22 April 2018 will be matched pound for pound by the UK Government.

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Men, if you want an example of how you can dismantle the patriarchy, look to Keir Hardie

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"It is only by removing the disabilities and restraints imposed upon woman; and permitting her to enter freely into competition with man in every sphere of human activity, that her true position and function in the economy of life will ultimately be settled."

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From a very young age, children are conditioned to adhere to gender stereotypes.

As an example, many boys are often encouraged to pursue an interest in football, whereas girls are enrolled in ballet lessons.

A child's sex shouldn't determine what hobbies they decide to partake in, what colours they prefer or their aspirations in life.

However, a person on Twitter has pointed out just how absurd and sexist gender reveal cakes can be, as they lay down gendered stereotypes for babies before they're even born.

I don't understand what straight people think babies are pic.twitter.com/ezHTkR1qX3
- Onson Sweemey (@ChurchCarlton) February 19, 2018

A Twitter user who goes by the name Onson Sweemey has shared a series of photos of eccentric gender reveal cakes that have been presented by expectant parents at their baby showers.

One cake disturbingly reads: "Will it be a cupcake or a stud muffin?", while another has been embellished with an American football pitch on one half and a ballerina-esque design on the other.

One person's baby shower has even been decorated with a strange sign that reads: "Pistols or pearls," with accompanying images of a gun and a crown.

Sweemey's tweet has been retweeted 43,000 times and liked 137,000 times, with many people commenting with expressions of disbelief and their own examples of odd baby shower cakes.

"I went down the rabbit hole on this earlier today," one person wrote. "There are a LOT of 'Guns or Glitter' and 'Pistols or Pearls,' and like... why is this all a thing please someone make it stop."

Another individual put forward an alternative suggestion, saying: "Still need to open my Etsy store with various gender reveal party accessories that all say 'Congratulations! It's a social construct!'"

According to experts, children don't typically develop a sense of gender identity until they're at least a few years old.

Mustache-butt baby pic.twitter.com/RRvqER0laW
- Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) February 19, 2018

"Between the ages of three and five years, children develop their gender identity and begin to understand what it means to be male or female," wrote researchers in an article published in 2011 in journal Dimensions of Early Childhood.

Although there's no reason why parents shouldn't feel excited about the prospect of finding out their baby's sex, that doesn't necessarily means it's right to associate their baby with specific stereotypes from the get-go.

When writer Julia Pelly became pregnant, she struggled with the question of whether it was right for her to hold a gender reveal party as a feminist.

"These parties, while sometimes cute, have always grated at my feminist consciousness - why act as if a baby's genitalia has anything to do with who they're going to be," she wrote for

However, when she found out she was pregnant, she found herself questioning her beliefs when on the brink of finding out her baby's sex.

"Faced with the prospect of finding out by phone, and on my own, whether my baby was a boy or a girl, I suddenly began to understand the power and the pull of the gender reveal party," she wrote.

"I understood the allure of the suspense and the joy of finding out, with all those you love around you, whether a son or daughter will be coming your way."

In the end, Pelly concluded that "there simply was no ethical way to hold a sex reveal party," as she didn't want her other son to grow up believing that it's ok to reduce a baby to "a slab of blue frosting or a gathering of pink balloons."

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This person perfectly pointed out how sexist gender reveal cakes can be

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From a very young age, children are conditioned to adhere to gender stereotypes. As an example, many boys are often encouraged to pursue an interest in football, whereas girls are enrolled in ballet lessons. A child's sex shouldn't determine what hobbies they decide to partake in, what colours they prefer or their aspirations in life.

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Equalities chair says act needs 'real teeth' after allegations about men-only event

The chair of the parliamentary committee on women and equalities, Maria Miller MP, has suggested strengthening the Equalities Act, after details emerged of a men-only charity dinner - attended by senior figures from business and politics - at which hired "hostesses" were allegedly groped, sexually harassed and propositioned by guests.

Senior female politicians lined up to condemn "stomach-churning" behaviour by attendees of the Presidents Club charity dinner, held at London's exclusive Dorchester hotel and hosted by comedian David Walliams.

Q&A
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The annual event, attended by 360 guests including bankers, entrepreneurs and celebrities, included an auction to raise money for good causes.

But according to an undercover investigation by two journalists from the Financial Times, some of the 130 women employed as hostesses to entertain the all-male guest list were subjected to sexual harassment.

The women were allegedly groped repeatedly and invited by diners to join them in bedrooms at the hotel, while some reported men putting their hands up their skirts.

One of the staff, who the FT said were only selected for the job if they matched the criteria of being "tall, thin and pretty", reported an attendee exposing his penis to her. The women were allegedly told to wear black underwear to match short, black, skirts they had been given for the evening.

It was claimed that they were paid £150 for a six-hour shift, plus £25 for a taxi home, not including any time they spent at an after-party at which one woman was told to "down that glass, rip off your knickers and dance on that table".

Lots at a charity auction held at the dinner included a night at Soho's Windmill strip club and a course of plastic surgery, accompanied by the slogan: "Spice up your wife."

A guest list seen by the Guardian, named billionaire Sir Philip Green, Dragons' Den entrepreneurs Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis and TV presenter Vernon Kay. Political figures listed among invitees included Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi and Labour peer and party fundraiser Jonathan Mendelsohn, while current and past supporters of the event include Formula 1 magnate Bernie Ecclestone and property developer Nick Candy. It is unclear if any of the men attended and there is no suggestion that they engaged in the activities referred to [see footnote].

Miller said: "British business need to take a long hard look at itself. How seriously is business taking equality at work if they are still using men only events for entertainment?

"If business leaders are simply paying lip service to equality issues then perhaps it's time the government gives the Equality Act some real teeth?"

Labour MP Jess Phillips, a leading campaigner in efforts to tackle a culture of sexism and harassment, said: "This is horrendous example of rich men acting with disgusting entitlement.

"It cannot just be me calling it out, let's hear from the establishment, the Conservatives, business, that this is disgusting and not in their name."

The deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, said the report was "simply stomach-churning".

She said: "More than 300 rich businessmen were perfectly happy to attend such an event, which shows the rotten, sexist culture still alive and kicking in parts of the business community. Time's up on this crap."

Sophie Walker, leader of the Women's Equality party said: "Men from across political, business, and entertainment worlds are implicated in this grotesque circus of sleazy rich men pawing at young women and buying crude 'lots' in the name of charity.

"Those who are worried that women's confrontation of sexual harassment has gone too far and turned into a 'witch hunt', look no further."

Conservative MP Anna Soubry said: "I should imagine the charities will be appalled that their good name has been sullied in this way.

"It was never acceptable but it's 2018 for goodness sake and I thought - hoped - we'd moved on to being a more civilised decent society. Well we need to."

Other lots included in the charity auction included lunch with foreign secretary Boris Johnson hosted by former England cricketer Ian Botham, or tea with Bank of England governor Mark Carney.

The Presidents Club told the FT: "The Presidents Club recently hosted its annual dinner, raising several million pounds for disadvantaged children. The organisers are appalled by the allegations of bad behaviour at the event asserted by the Financial Times reporters. Such behaviour is totally unacceptable. The allegations will be investigated fully and promptly and appropriate action taken."

In a statement, the Dorchester hotel said it had a zero-tolerance attitude to harassment and said it would cooperate with the authorities if any complaints were made.

The Bank of England told the FT it "did not approve any prize for auction on the occasion described nor would it have for that organisation under its guidelines for charitable giving".

* This footnote was added on 24 January 2018. After publication, Nick Candy confirmed that he is a past patron of the Presidents Club and did not attend last week's event.

What women say about the Presidents Club
Yvette Cooper, chair of the home affairs select committee
"The Presidents Club charity dinner - a front for groping, harassment and appalling sexism by rich men. Is this what these men demand in order to donate to charitable causes? Utterly appalling and shameful."
Maria Miller, chair of the parliamentary committee on women and equalities
"British business need to take a long hard look at itself. If business leaders are simply paying lip service to Equality issues then perhaps it's time the government gives the Equality Act some real teeth?"
Melanie Leech, chief executive, British Property Federation
"The behaviour reported to have taken place at the President's Club charity dinner is shocking and totally unacceptable."
Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general, Nicola Horlick, City fund manager CBI Anne Milton, education minister:
"If even half of what's been written about this event is true, it is deplorable and confirms how far we have still to go to stamp out sexual harassment. We want all women to feel confident and respected in every walk of life. We can and must do better than this."
Jess Phillips, Labour MP
"These are some of Britain's top businesspeople and I can't understand how they can think it is appropriate ... 120 girls were there ... and some of them seem to have been very badly treated and, actually, molested, and that is a criminal offence. These people have to be held to account."

" I thought things had changed and it is absolutely clear that it hasn't changed. I think there is an association between rich, wealthy people and this sort of behaviour. We have to send a clear message that this is unacceptable."

"What happened is that women were bought as bait for men who were rich men, not a mile from where we stand, as if that is an acceptable behaviour - it is totally unacceptable."
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MP calls for tougher laws after women 'groped' at men-only charity gala

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Equalities chair says act needs 'real teeth' after allegations about men-only event The chair of the parliamentary committee on women and equalities, Maria Miller MP, has suggested strengthening the Equalities Act, after details emerged of a men-only charity dinner - attended by senior figures from business and politics - at which hired "hostesses" were allegedly groped, sexually harassed and propositioned by guests.

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Johan Lundgren voluntarily reduces salary to that of his predecessor, Carolyn McCall

The new easyJet chief executive, Johan Lundgren, has voluntarily taken a £34,000 pay cut to match the salary of his predecessor, Carolyn McCall.

The budget airline said Lundgren took the helm on 1 December on an annual salary of £740,000, but is now reducing it to the £706,000 McCall was on when she left last summer to take up the top job at ITV. Lungren's bonus and other elements of his remuneration package are identical to McCall's at the time.

Lundgren said: "At easyJet we are absolutely committed to giving equal pay and equal opportunity for women and men. I want that to apply to everybody at easyJet and to show my personal commitment I have asked the board to reduce my pay to match that of Carolyn's when she was at easyJet."

The FTSE 100 company has a large gender pay gap - the difference between average male and female pay - of 51.7%. This is because the vast majority - 94% - of its pilots, who earn far more than cabin crew and other employees, are male.

Only 4% of commercial pilots in the industry worldwide are female. EasyJet has set itself a target that a fifth of all new pilots recruited should be female by 2020, up from 6% in 2015 and 13% now. Last year it recruited 49 female pilots.

Lundgren said: "I also want to affirm my own commitment to address the gender imbalance in our pilot community which drives our overall gender pay gap. I want us not just to hit our target that 20% of our new pilots should be female by 2020 but to go further than this in the future."

McCall started her new job at ITV this month. She is one of only eight female chief executives of a FTSE 100 company, a number that increased with the appointment of Anne Stevens at engineering firm GKN earlier this month.

The broadcaster is paying McCall a base salary of £900,000, £41,000 less than her predecessor Adam Crozier, and her pension allowance has been reduced to 15% of her salary compared with his 25%. But ITV said that her overall earnings potential over a three to five-year period was greater than that of her predecessor, with more emphasis on performance-based long-term incentives.
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New easyJet boss takes salary cut as airline faces gender pay gap

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Johan Lundgren voluntarily reduces salary to that of his predecessor, Carolyn McCall The new easyJet chief executive, Johan Lundgren, has voluntarily taken a £34,000 pay cut to match the salary of his predecessor, Carolyn McCall.

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170 female BBC employees have accused the broadcaster of a "longstanding breach of trust, transparency and accountability" over gender pay inequalities and demanded a public apology.

In a submission to an influential parliamentary select committee, the BBC Women group said the corporation was breaking equality laws as a result of a "culture of gender discrimination".

While recent disclosures have revealed a significant gender pay gap among the BBC's top stars, the group said the same exists across all levels of the corporation.

The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee will grill Tony Hall, the BBC Director-General, on Wednesday as part of its inquiry into BBC pay. Carrie Gracie, the broadcaster's former China Editor who resigned earlier this month over pay inequality, will also be questioned.

It comes after The Independent revealed MPs' concern that the BBC is using non-disclosure agreements to "silence" victims of gender discrimination and harassment. In addition to the DCMS Committee, the Women and Equalities Committee is also looking at the issue.

Since the BBC was forced to admit to gaping pay discrepancies, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has taken up the cases of more than 120 female BBC employees who believe they are being paid unfairly in comparison to male colleagues.

A recent audit found the BBC has a gender pay gap of 9.3 per cent. However, BBC Women said the problem was not just a disproportionate number of men in higher-paid roles but the fact that many women are being paid less than male counterparts in exactly the same jobs.

In written evidence to the DCMS Committee, they said: "BBC Women are very concerned that this publicly funded body is perpetuating a longstanding breach of its stated values of trust, transparency and accountability. We believe the BBC must put these matters right by admitting the problem, apologising and setting in place an equal, fair and transparent pay structure."

They added: "For many years women at all levels and in all grades and positions in the BBC both on and off air, staff and freelance, working in the UK and abroad had suspected they were not being paid equally - even when management expressly assured them they were."

"Following the publication of the list as women began to come together, sharing salary details with each other and with some male colleagues, a shocking picture of illegal pay discrimination and obfuscation began to emerge."

Suggesting the pay gap is part of a wider problem, they said: "Behind the headline and most important issue of equal pay at the BBC we believe there is a wider culture of gender discrimination which can be seen in the patterns of promotion, especially after women take maternity leave.

"Too often talented BBC women are overlooked in favour of male colleagues or outsiders brought in - sometimes at inflated rates - without the appointment being made through any transparent appointment process. Older women worry about their futures at the BBC and younger ones about their chances of career promotion.

The group also criticised the BBC for not consulting them on a largescale review of pay inequality.

"Despite repeated requests to Lord Hall, the Director General, there has been no consultation with us on this review and no clarity around the people included in it", they said. "Therefore women at the BBC can have no confidence in the review's conclusions."

The submission included testimony from a number of female BBC employees.

One national radio reporter said she had discovered that two men with less experience than her were being paid 25 per cent more per programme for some trial presenting shifts.

She said: "Then I found out that the existing male presenter was being paid 50% more than me per programme. When I asked for pay gap to be corrected the line manager told me "the BBC doesn't do equal pay", and that in raising the issue I was being "aggressive". I refused to back down and eventually was given the same rate as my male colleague and it was backdated.

A different reporter said: "My full time equivalent salary for making identical programmes is about half my male counterpart. I challenged my grade and asked for an equal pay review. The BBC took months to deal with my enquiry and refused to recognise that it was a claim for my legal right to equal pay for equivalent work.

"Eventually I was offered a series of increases adding up to a total of between 20-25%, with minimal back pay, which I felt I had no option but to accept because of the stress involved. It has brought me nowhere close to the salary of my male colleague.

In a separate submission to the committee, the NUJ accused the BBC of "unnecessary secrecy, a lack of transparency and widespread misuse of managerial discretion" that it said had "enabled a culture which has clearly normalised an approach to pay that the NUJ believes to be discriminatory and unlawful".

It said the cases it is fighting on behalf of members are not limited to gender pay inequalities but also include "complaints of related discriminatory practices, such as unlawful pay disparities on grounds of race, discrimination against women returning to work after periods of maternity leave, and discrimination against part-time workers and/or those who request flexible working".

Mr Hall is likely to be quizzed on the claims when he appears in front of the committee on Wednesday.

Its chair, Damian Collins, said: "The Equality Act 2010 states that men and women must be paid the same for doing the same work, like work and work of equal value. Yet the evidence we are publishing today highlights many cases where the BBC has failed to meet these requirements.

"There are also complaints of a culture relating to pay and contracts within the organisation that is unnecessarily secretive and lacking transparency. This has led not only to large pay disparities between people doing essentially the same work, but has also seen some BBC Women being required to work under inferior contracts, and so denied access to benefits like sick pay and maternity leave.

"It is clear that the BBC still has a big problem in terms of gender pay. Whilst a few big names on high salaries have been the focus of media attention in recent weeks, we are concerned to see evidence suggesting a much deeper cultural problem that exists."

A BBC spokesperson said: "We look forward to an informed debate at the select committee based on all the facts.

"The BBC is committed to equal pay, and we don't accept the assertion we have not been complying with the Equality Act, nor do we offer inferior contracts based on someone's gender or race.

"We employ people in a wide variety of different ways, from fully employed to freelancer, often to suit the individual, and different types of contracts come with different benefits.

"We want to help women progress in their career and have set out ambitious targets to close the gender pay gap, as well as for half of roles on air and in senior management to be filled by women. We've also set out action to achieve them.

"We have already set out how we plan to deliver real pay transparency for our staff, and today we'll publish proposals to significantly change how we manage on-air pay so we have a clear, transparent and fair system for the future."

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170 female BBC employees demand apology over gender pay gap and 'culture of discrimination'

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170 female BBC employees have accused the broadcaster of a "longstanding breach of trust, transparency and accountability" over gender pay inequalities and demanded a public apology. In a submission to an influential parliamentary select committee, the BBC Women group said the corporation was breaking equality laws as a result of a "culture of gender discrimination".

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The Irish government has confirmed that it will hold a referendum on reform of the country's strict anti-abortion laws by the end of May. The cabinet agreed to give voters in the republic the chance to repeal the eighth amendment to the country's constitution on Monday.

After a four-hour meeting, the Fine Gael-led minority coalition also decided to ask the electorate to endorse enabling powers to allow the Dáil (parliament) to draw up a new law that would eventually permit abortions in Irish hospitals up to 12 weeks into pregnancy.

Speaking after the meeting, the Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, said: "We have abortion in Ireland, but it is unsafe, unregulated and unlawful, and in my opinion we cannot export our problems and import our solutions."

His cabinet agreed to establish a referendum commission which will bring in opposition parties to help frame the exact wording of the national plebiscite.

Varadkar's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Simon Coveney, emphasised that the government was united on the issue. In a statement, he said: "The status quo of how women are treated in crisis pregnancy cannot remain. I am united with my cabinet colleagues in agreeing to repeal the eighth amendment and allow enabling legislation.

"While there are differing viewpoints on the content of that legislation, particularly on 12 weeks' access unrestricted, that is a matter for the Oireachtas [legislature] to now debate. My views are clear on that and I expressed them at cabinet."

The eighth amendment was added to the republic's constitution following a referendum in 1983. It recognises the equal rights to life of a foetus and the mother during pregnancy. Pro-choice campaigners say the amendment creates a "chill factor" in the health system preventing medical teams from carrying out abortions even in cases where a woman's life may be at risk. They say physicians fear they could be prosecuted and sent to prison if they carry out terminations even in extreme cases such as when women are suicidal or become pregnant through sexual violence.

Map of abortion rights in Europe

Before the meeting, the health minister, Simon Harris, described today as a "very key and significant day" in the country's history. He said it was his preference to hold the vote in May. "I will ask government to agree to the approach to take with the wording of the referendum and obviously the government will hear from the attorney general."

Confirming that in the event of a yes vote, the Irish parliament would be granted powers to draw up laws allowing for abortions up to 12 weeks, Harris added: "I will also ask permission to go ahead with the draft legislation we would put in place should the people of Ireland vote yes, and I will be asking government to come an agreed approach to that legislation."

Varadkar's own party is split over arguably the most contentious issue in Irish politics. While 18 Fine Gael TDs are openly in favour of a yes vote for abortion reform, four TDs have come out to oppose change, with 28 other Dáil deputies undeclared.

The main opposition party in the state, Fianna Fáil, is also split on the issue, although its leader, Micheál Martin, has come in favour of a yes vote.

Pro-choice campaign group the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment said they had hoped the announcement would include holding the referendum in May. Veteran abortion rights campaigner Ailbhe Smyth, the Coalition's chairperson, said May was the preferred date as Ireland's students were still in the country at that time.

"Come June and the broad mass of Irish students are on their way to other parts of the world such as the United States to work over the summer to pay for their studies. We have told the government it makes sense to hold the referendum in May as the students will still be in Ireland. And it's only fair to have it then because this issue affects them more than most.

"It is their generation that will feel the impact of any change in the constitution and the subsequent legislation that will reform Ireland's abortion laws. The Union of Students of Ireland, along with ourselves, have been lobbying for a May vote and we hope - we think - the government has listened," Smyth said.

This article was amended on 2 February 2018 to update the map.
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Irish referendum on abortion reform to be held by end of May

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The Irish government has confirmed that it will hold a referendum on reform of the country's strict anti-abortion laws by the end of May. The cabinet agreed to give voters in the republic the chance to repeal the eighth amendment to the country's constitution on Monday.

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Homeless people living in Sheffield Tent City have been evicted from the site at Park Hill flats.

Sheffield Council workers and South Yorkshire Police officers arrived at the site this morning and told people that they must leave.

It comes after the local authority was granted a possession order at court which gave it the power to issue those residing there an order to move on.

More than a dozen homeless people had been living at the camp outside Park Hill Flats which has been in operation since December 16.

Campaigners set up a 'tent city' to provide shelter for people living on the streets.

Camp organiser, Anthony Cunningham, said those at the city had been working together as a community and helped to keep the issue of homelessness contained.

The 31-year-old, who has been living at the site, said: "We worked together as a proper community. It was keeping everyone contained.

"The beauty of this was that everyone was helping each other out. One guy gave up alcohol because he had support of others."

He warned that people would now take up camp elsewhere in the city.

Coun Jayne Dunn, cabinet member for housing at Sheffield Council, said: "There are lots of organisations in Sheffield, including the council and local charities, working very hard to help rough sleepers.

"People sleeping rough are often dealing with lots of other issues, such as drug and alcohol addictions, and need help with these too. That's why services work so closely together, to offer wraparound support as well as accommodation.

"Tent City is not a safe place for people to stay. We have real safeguarding concerns about the site and do not want it to attract vulnerable people who can get support and accommodation from established services.

"Outreach workers have spent a lot of time at Tent City and, to the very best of our knowledge, everyone sleeping there either has somewhere to stay or has been offered accommodation.

"Officers from the council and various charities have also spent lots of time trying to work with the organisers, and we're keen to work with people who want to help.

"We will continue to offer support to anyone sleeping rough in Sheffield and ask that people contact us if they're worried about someone."

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Sheffield United: Blades boss Wilder urges referees to clamp down on timewasting

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Tent City homeless evicted from Sheffield's Park Hill flats

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Sheffield Council workers and South Yorkshire Police officers arrived at the site this morning and told people that they must leave. It comes after the local authority was granted a possession order at court which gave it the power to issue those residing there an order to move on.

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Mic Wright

With the government hardly looking at its most fresh, last week's announcement by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn of plans to abolish sell-by and display-until dates was a satirist's dream. But while the policy might be manna from heaven for headline writers, it could save Britons millions of pounds in wasted groceries. Speaking to the thrillingly named Chartered Institution of Waste Management's Futuresource conference, Mr Benn put the cost of waste at over £10bn a year.

Best-before and use-by dates are mandatory under European law but ministers want them to be easier to understand. "Too many of us are putting things in the bin simply because we are not sure, confused by the label or just playing safe," Mr Benn said.
The humble sell-by date actually has a surprisingly short history. It was introduced in Marks & Spencer's storerooms in the 1950s before making its way on to the shelves in 1970. It wasn't even actually called a "sell-by-date" until 1973. Marks is so proud of its innovation that Twiggy trumpets it in their latest ad campaign.

Most people know in their heart of hearts that sell-by-dates are little more than a supermarket invention to encourage shoppers to buy more and best-before dates are generally a shield against lawsuits from the kind of people who need "warning: contents hot" labels on their takeaway coffee. But there's something about those digits that can make even the most fearless foodie paranoid - "If I eat that past its sell-by-date yoghurt, killer bacteria is going to sweep through my guts like a pathogenic panzer division."

On the other hand, for braver sorts there's an enormous sense of achievement to be had eating some very ripe cheese or bread you've scraped the mould off. Suddenly you're planning your own misery memoir - My Battle With The Bad Bread - and telling strangers about how strong your immune system is.

The trouble comes when these two sorts of foodie - the sniff-and-hopers and the chucker-outters - live under the same roof. My friend Katie says she ignores sell-by-dates but her boyfriend "refuses to eat anything past them, even when it's clearly perfectly fine". Meanwhile Joe applies a more tried and tested approach: "If it smells OK and there's no unseemly slimy bits on it you're not going to die."

Well before Mr Benn began his crusade against food waste, plenty of people were already realising that loads of products have longer shelf lives than sell-by and use-by dates let on. Freegans ( including WoM's own Alex Renton) have been diving in supermarket bins seeking decent but ditched food for years, while charities like Fareshare are working to distribute tonnes of otherwise fine produce to the homeless. You can join in with the Love Food Hate Waste campaign. It offers up recipes to use your leftovers and slightly po-faced tips on how to preserve you potatoes and make apples last longer.

So do you pay close attention to sell-by-dates or do you just follow your nose?
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Food waste: Has 'best before' reached its sell-by date?

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Mic Wright With the government hardly looking at its most fresh, last week's announcement by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn of plans to abolish sell-by and display-until dates was a satirist's dream. But while the policy might be manna from heaven for headline writers, it could save Britons millions of pounds in wasted groceries.