{"id":728728,"date":"2026-01-29T14:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728728\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T14:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T14:20:11","slug":"politicians-can-avoid-division-and-build-better-future-for-all-the-nen-north-edinburgh-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/728728\/","title":{"rendered":"Politicians can avoid division and build better future for all \u2013 The NEN \u2013 North Edinburgh News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"\"><strong>WITH welfare and benefits in danger of becoming a political football in the Holyrood election campaign (see today\u2019s FMQs for starters \u2013 Ed.), Scotland\u2019s Poverty Alliance has spoken out:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nen.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/poverty-alliance-avoid-division.jpg?ssl=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1350\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/poverty-alliance-avoid-division.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-222430\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Poverty Alliance Policy &amp; Campaigns Manager Gary Christie said: \u201cWhen it comes to ending the injustice of poverty and investing in a better future, the Poverty Alliance works constructively with leaders from all political parties.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cOne of the things we ask of all is that they avoid creating false division between people. Very few politicians would criticise someone for using our NHS or claiming Pension Credit. So, it\u2019s morally wrong to point at others who use our shared social security system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cNearly 40% of the people on Universal Credit are in work. Nearly 1 in 3 people referred to Trussell Trust foodbanks are in working households.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe all pay into our shared public services, and we all benefit. People who don\u2019t pay income tax contribute every time they buy something that has VAT on it. And many people on the lowest incomes in Scotland have higher tax rates than the wealthiest in society. We are all in it together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cInstead of risking stigmatising and hurting our friends, neighbours and fellow citizens, it would be good for politicians to look at their own responsibilities first. They have the power to move towards a Minimum Income Guarantee based on fair work, strong services, and a just social security system for all of us. These must be pursued together, not traded off against one another to score political points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThe Scottish Child Payment is a vital building block of that future. It helps give a decent start in life to more than 300,000 of Scotland\u2019s children. <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cRather than talking about unjustly cutting some children off from that vital help, politicians can boost the value of the payment as one important stepping stone towards the Minimum Income Guarantee.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/>\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WITH welfare and benefits in danger of becoming a political football in the Holyrood election campaign (see today\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":728729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-728728","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115978831423375749","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728728","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=728728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728728\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/728729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}