Growing up in Scotland

THE number of children living in poverty in Scotland is totally unacceptable.


According to Save the Children today, 95,000 young people, almost 10 percent of all children in Scotland, are living with families that have less than £33-a-day to spend. The poorest families in Scotland are on average £113-a-week short of enough money to cover essential costs.

A year ago this week, we launched our Growing up in Scotland Report at Holyrood and presented the full report at last year’s General Assembly highlighting this issue. Poverty as this level questions our status as an advanced society.We will continue to campaign and to lobby parliamentarians north and south of the border to act to end child poverty.

In my parish in the Gorbals I see real human suffering because of poverty that grinds down the human soul and prevents people from believing that they matter. The news also released today in the Social Attitudes survey that only a minority of people in the UK think we should seriously address issues of inequality fills me with dread for the future.
Yet our politicians can take a powerful moral lead on this issue and whoever is in charge of running the UK and Scotland in 2010 will have the power to prevent poverty from blighting the lives of thousands of families everywhere and restore our claim to be an inclusive society.