The editorial pages of the Torygraph were given over to a moral lesson on the deserving and the undeserving poor this weekend.
“Some people choose a life on the streets”, read an editorial in The Telegraph this weekend, attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s plan to tackle homelessness.
In the editorial, the Torygraph unleashed, frankly, Victorian views on homelessness, claiming some were deserving of help, but others not: “more should be made available for the truly indigent and less for those who don’t need it”,
The dim and outdated views expressed by the newspaper were accompanied by an article which, in an attempt to score some cheap political points, wilfully ignored the scale of the homelessness crisis in the UK.
The article was entitled ‘Corbyn announces Labour will buy every homeless person in the country a house’, which, in an attempt to frame Labour’s response to homelessness as exaggerated and overzealous, was patently incorrect.
The right-wing newspaper conflated homelessness with rough-sleeping, one of which is much more prevalent than the other.
About 300,000 people in the UK – one in 200 – are estimated to be homeless according to the most recent estimates, whilst about 5,000 people are estimated to be sleeping rough.
Which figure did the Telegraph latch onto to attack Labour? Well, obviously the far smaller one.
Corbyn promised a Labour government would buy 8,000 homes for homeless people – this is actually just a drop in the ocean when looking at homelessness overall.
The newspaper’s editorial completely ignored the far higher 300,000 figure, and talked about homelessness as if it only affects a fraction of that:
“While the increase in rough sleeping is to be lamented, it needs to be put in perspective. The overall number is estimated at around 6,000 people, with about one quarter of them in London.”
It’s laughable that the Telegraph, a newspaper that thinks living on the streets is a lifestyle choice, should think it’s advice relevant. But using the homelessness crisis to score cheap points against Labour is low even for the this Tory rag.
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7 Responses to “The Telegraph says homelessness is a ‘choice’ and then attack’s Labour’s plan to tackle it”
Michael
Shouldn’t the Torygraph be better called the “Boris Johnson Appreciation Society?”
NMac
The good news is that the Torygraph circulation is falling dramatically. Nasty reactionary propaganda for moron who don’t want to see any other viewpoint.
Martyn Wood-Bevan
It is the Daily Mail for Graduates – utter waste of space and journalism…
William
You remember, believe nothing that you are told, half of what you read and everything that you see.
Susan Calvo
This head line and articleis just so ignorantly inflammatory, as is not meant to be anything else. To say that Jeremy Corbyn announced ‘Labour will buy every homeless person in the country a house’, .. is just so ridiculous, and an outright lie. He has not ever said this…. but, headlines and articles like this have their effect on people who blindly follow and wear blinkers. It is only a pathetic attempt to stir up opposition to the Labour party, nothing else.