congratulations

take a bow 'the evening standard'. london's free evening paper has been running a campaign and gathering a fund to help what it calls 'the dispossessed'.
the reason why it is shouting about it on it's front page is that it is about to hand out £1.25 million in grants to grass-root charities fighting inequality. so far the paper has raised and doled out something like £3 million. pretty impressive.

also pretty depressing when you (just to take an example)that this is football's january transfer window and that some players will be bought and sold for much more than that - and several of them will see their wages top that amount.

david cameron likes it because 'the dispossessed campaign has stirred london's conscience and will have a big impact in helping people to climb their way out of poverty.'
for cameron it jibes with his 'big society' no state people are doing it for themselves malarkey.

boris johnson says of it 'i am grateful to the eveing standard for again highlighting the poverty and deprivation that shame this city while giving every londoner the chance to help remedy the situation.'

it is almost like they can't do anything - except both of them can. for instance they could both campaign for a living wage, obviously they won't because that will upset their mates in business who will complain 'we can't afford that...after all we have had to put up director's pay by 49% without any appreciable improvement in our businesses'. (do you remember the old adage 'pay peanuts and you get monkey's' what should be the eqivalent? 'pay the best get the least worst'. answers on a postcard please).

in boris' case it is even more sanctimonious as he has just presided over a transport fare hike that hits the lowest paid worst. (ken livingstone has already made the fares as the main plank of his mayoral campaign - but he could also add in simplifying the zones and charges - is there really a need for as many zones as there are and various prices that go with them? he could also add in targeted help for the poorest).

a doff of the cap to 'the evening standard'.
a big rasberry to cameron and johnson.