{"id":1104248,"date":"2026-07-22T09:11:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1104248\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:11:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T09:11:28","slug":"the-latest-prime-minister-must-address-poverty-undermining-britain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1104248\/","title":{"rendered":"The latest prime minister must address poverty undermining Britain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n

That most unlikely group \u2013 Reform UK<\/a> \u2013 are, aside from a few frog-like jumpers out of the Tory party, not cut from the usual political cloth. Their leader, though middle class, is more golf club middle class and therefore more stridently right wing in an unfussy way. He\u2019s not like the old-fashioned middle class who dominated polite Toryism, who pretended to a kind of reasonableness. Farage is outraged golf club middle class. Capable of talking about immigration, not tax dodgers, with a tireless energy, often holding a drink as if to underline his
simple honesty. And by so doing he can stir up support from a vast number of people who feel this shrunken society is not for them. People who ask angry questions about illegal immigrants and the enormous quantity of promises pumped into the ether by politicians seeking office.<\/p>\n

So, what plans does the new prime minister, Andy Burnham<\/a>, who managed to win a Reform-drenched constituency, have for this multitudinous-problem-strewn society?\u00a0<\/p>\n

What new vistas will he open up for a pissed-off electorate who are of a mind to tear up the old middle-class domination and replace it with domination by a golf club middle class mixed in with a few hard-working tradesmen.<\/p>\n

The power of Reform is all predicated on their lack of being responsible for the decline of the UK since even before the time of Thatcherism. They have a clean slate and though they are known to have bumbled on occasions in local politics, the electorate is not listening to that. Reform seems to be listening to the many\u2019s sense of not living safely in their own country.<\/p>\n

The fact that often the jobs taken by people from elsewhere are not the jobs that the indigenous workforce want is not a part of the discussion. Rather, it\u2019s them that are floating over from France that stoke their fears.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

Not the fact that the NHS<\/a> would collapse without the contribution of citizens of the world who come to the aid of our overstretched health service. Nor, as I observed recently at 5.30am on a London Underground train, that our cities would not wake up for business if the citizens of the world did not flock to us.<\/p>\n

What new tools will Burnham bring to politics that are not more of the same? Will he seriously address the poverty that undermines our health service, our schools, our prisons and our streets? That breeds crime and hopelessness?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I am intrigued by what new dimensions our latest \u2018get out of jail card\u2019 politician will bring to politics. How will he defuse the fears of the many and enhance prospects for us all?<\/p>\n

John Bird is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Big Issue. Read more of his words\u00a0<\/strong>from our archive<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this?\u00a0Get in touch and tell us more<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Advertising helps fund Big Issue\u2019s mission to end poverty<\/p>\n

Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week \u2013 and always take the magazine. It\u2019s how vendors earn with dignity and move forward.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Subscribe to the magazine<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0support our work with a monthly gift<\/a>. Your support helps vendors earn, learn and thrive while strengthening our frontline services.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Read more: That most unlikely group \u2013 Reform UK \u2013 are, aside from a few frog-like jumpers out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1104249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[8916,748,393,7056,4884,46340,384,1144,391,386,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-1104248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","category-uk","category-united-kingdom","tag-andy-burnham","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-from-the-magazine","tag-great-britain","tag-john-bird","tag-nigel-farage","tag-northern-ireland","tag-opinion","tag-reform-uk","tag-scotland","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1104248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1104248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1104249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1104248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1104248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1104248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}