mo4ch:>‘Punitive, mean-spirited & often callous’: UN tears apart legacy of austerity in UK | Mo4ch News

Austerity policies have inflicted “great misery” on the British people, the United Nations poverty envoy has found, following a fact-finding mission in the UK.Philip Alston, the UN’s rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, slammed the “punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous” policies, undertaken as a “political choice” rather than for economic necessity.The damning 24-page report will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next year. Alston’s stunning declaration focused on Britain’s rising level of child poverty, the "Orwellian" Universal Credit scheme and the increasing reliance on food banks to feed Britain’s hungry.READ MORE: 'This is shameful': Tory austerity pushes 1.5 million below breadline, 3.7 million to food banksAccording to figures, noted by Alston, that were compiled by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; 14 million people – a fifth of the population – live in poverty, and 1.5 million are desti…