Writer and commentator Owen Jones was the keynote speaker at the recent Anti-Poverty Conference held at Craigroyston Community High School.
Introduced by MSP Kezia Dugdale as ‘someone who tells it as it is’, Owen Jones didn’t disappoint. His hard-hitting speech covered the Thatcher years, the demonization of benefits claimants and some of the myths surrounding poverty. He also addressed the oft-repeated notion that ‘we’re all in this together’:
“It’s just nonsense – it’s still boom time for the people at the top. Look at the Sunday Times Rich List – the wealth of those at the top went up by nearly a fifth last year. There are tax cuts for the rich from this government of millionaires. But for the rest, living standards are declining at their fastest rate since my gran was born in the early 1920s. A Save the Children study has found that more and more parents are having to decide between heating their homes and eating, and many are skipping meals to allow their children to eat. School meals are being cut, breakfast clubs being closed. We’re the seventh richest country on Earth but we can no longer afford to feed our poorest children? It’s a disgraceful onslaught on people who are being made to pay for a crisis that was not of their making, that had nothing to do with them whatsoever. That’s the reality of Cameron’s Britain – a shame on this government and on this country”.
He concluded: “We won’t get change through the generosity and goodwill of the people at the top – the way we get change is by forcing our demands on those at the top, force them to listen. We must rally round a coherent alternative that gives people hope – we’ve got to give a voice to those who will otherwise be airbrushed out of existence. If we can do that we can not only take on this government and austerity, we can also lay the foundations of a new Britain, a new Scotland. We stand together, we fight together and we will win this together.”
Around seventy people attended the conference, which was organised by North Edinburgh Fights Back, STUC and Edinburgh Trades Union Council. The event offered a good mixture of speakers, workshops and information stalls and while numbers were down on the first year – mainly due to a similar event being held in the city centre – organisers were satisfied with the day’s programme.
North Edinburgh Fights Back’s Barbara Robertson said: “Thanks to everyone for attending and helping to make the second Anti-Poverty conference so successful. It is so worthwhile to get together in this fight against poverty and inequality”.
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