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Big thanks
Just to say, from an organisation working closely with asylum seekers in Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland, we have noticed and very much appreciated your work highlighting the impact of Home Office policies in causing homelessness among newly recognised refugees and refused asylum seekers. Just finished reading this one of yours online [How the UK is going backwards on immigrant rights] – so clear and persuasive. I’ve sent it around our organisers to share with the people they’re working with, both from the refugee community and the wider homeless community here. Their issues are converging, and your work helps them to understand each other – makes building solidarity that much easier!
Paige Jennings, policy officer, Participation and the Practice of Rights (PPR), Belfast
Hungry for recognition
I think a lot of social issues could be tackled better if social enterprises and charities like ApparelXchange, Launch Coffee, Well-Fed, Social Bite – and not forgetting The Big Issue – were given more prominence in the media and more government backing.
These organisations are already making a huge impact on those facing poverty, though there’s still a lack of public awareness about what they do and how to contact them.
It would be really helpful if our government produced leaflets for libraries, hospitals, health centres, community centres, bus stations etc, listing these bodies and other like-minded organisations with a short precis on how they benefit their users.
What no one really appreciates is that without these bodies our NHS would be completely overwhelmed by entirely preventable diseases. It’s insane that in the 21st century we have children in this country facing malnutrition, clothes shortages and left to fend for themselves. This is especially frustrating when our two main political parties seem more concerned with not limiting bankers’ bonuses while the cost of living crisis hits those at the bottom of the ladder the hardest.
This is not so much trickle-down economics as flood upwards economics, whereby those at the top of the food chain rake in huge profits while those at the bottom are left to starve.
Stephen McCarthy, Glasgow
Painful reminder
A BIG thank you to your articles showing replies and views about hysteroscopy [Issue 1600, 29 January]. When I was 22 I was told by the doctor it woul
