Injustice and inequality

It has been revealed that the divide between rich and poor is at its most extreme level in the UK since WW2. This comes as no surprise to those living in ‘Broken Britain’ where morality, love and faith are dwindling economies and in which the super wealthy now live hidden away in gated communities largely oblivious of reality for the many in numerous unkempt housing estates that now litter our land.

Certainly the plight of the needy proves embarrassing for politicians on whose watch life for the poor has worsened! It is against this grim reality that the expenses scandal needs considering. What salt in the wounds that MPs grew rich creaming tax payer’s money whilst the vulnerable slid further into decay! How that same money might have benefited the deprived and the suffering. And how sick that these same politicians win favour by claiming to be passionate about justice and equality!

When one sits down and confronts the reality of life in modern day Britain it surely brings tears to the eyes. There is a moral void, a spiritual wilderness, and greed and selfishness thrive whilst the poorest children lead lives of dysfunction. What a fallen people we are! How in need of God’s favour and mercy! But instead of turning to Christ in repentance and hope, Britain continues to close its ears to the Gospel as it wreaks its own destruction.

And so we end up in a right old pickle whereby the chattering classes are encouraged to talk the ‘inclusive’ talk on their own terms but rarely walk the inclusive walk on the terms of others. We witness this when people like Harriet Harmon noisily fight for the rights of women (despite their gender already being well represented in positions of power) whilst the really tough issues such as class go ignored. The result is a shackling of children, male and female, to lives of abject poverty.

And so it is that in this week when Goldman Sachs announces windfalls of millions, so ‘Save the Children’ announce millions now living in deep poverty, with many children not even possessing a winter coat. It is a shameful reality that desperately needs addressing for this widening gap between rich and poor is surely a sign of a first world nation dangling on the edge of an abyss. And this urgency for action is heightened because, as is all too predictable, long term recession hurts the poor most acutely. A rise in tax might irritate the wealthy but it leaves the poor with a worse dilemma- choosing between food and fuel for their child. That really is how bad it is for many in Britain today, some of whom live in my parish.

Before tackling injustice we must of course accept that economics is complex. If we do not reward bankers in line with other first rate economies we will not generate the cash we need. (So is the solution a global one?) And sadly many families in poorer areas suffer through choice with drug and alcohol habits given priority over the needs of their young. But such things are only partial truths and must not be used as excuses.

There is a problem in the city as the banking crisis shows. Nor can we dismiss all the poor by bracketing them into a dysfunctional category. To do this is to be guilty of the worse type of prejudice. Indeed those involved in vice often have large quantities of illegal cash allowing for food to be put on the table, whereas the law abiding poor are left to live on a pittance.

Being priest of Saint Barnabas’ means I face the injustice of modern Britain daily for it is a pocket of poverty in an otherwise wealthy town. From my vantage point Britain’s main problem is two fold; an economy in which money does NOT trickle down from the top, coupled with a genuine decay in faith and morals caused by the rise in a hostile form of permissive secularism. It is these two things that largely create the violence, anger, crime and social breakdown that seems so widespread today. And it is not helped by a media obsessive celebrity culture that serves as a daily reminder to the poor of the growing divide between ‘have’ and ‘have not’.

It is certainly true that the gap in Tunbridge Wells is far too wide, where the prospects for most local families is bleak. In truth a town of opulence with tiny pockets of social housing leaves little room for social mobility. The problem is then compounded when we always seem last on the list of council spending. Witness how it took over five years for the grotty redundant loos to be pulled down from in front of our church and witness how the pose demolition area has been left as an eye sore with weeds poking through rubble and detritus at the entrance to our pre-school! Perhaps the council might consider what message that sends to our residents when we read of multi-million pound plans to develop the commercial estates? (This criticism of local governement is not levied at County level, the education department of the County have backed us to the hilt as has our County Councillor Kevin Lynes)

I end with a final observation made this year. When talking to local children I discovered that several received almost nothing at Christmas, one neglected soul gaining only a cheap chocolate Santa. Only yards from his cramped flat are more prosperous dwellings where children’s rooms are crammed with gifts that have barely been played with. How large is the gap? How easy the solution?

Kyrie Eleison.