Footballer and poverty campaigner says ministers should focus on efforts to end the ‘child hunger pandemic’Coronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageThe footballer Marcus Rashford has urged the government to end threats to social secu…
A tale of two towns: Rochdale and Braintree expose UK’s uneven asylum system
Relatively wealthy Braintree has supported just one asylum seeker in recent months while deprived Rochdale hosted 734Labour councils house eight times as many asylum seekers as Tory areas, analysis findsSituated in the heart of rural Essex, Braintree o…
The Guardian view on trying times: of course unhappiness has risen | Editorial
It is no surprise that anxiety is increasing, nor that it is distributed unequally. More money for mental health services is neededIt is 10 years since the UK government began to measure happiness. As part of its annual population survey, the official …
Wishful thinking will not close Britain’s widening inequality gap
Covid has made us poorer and increased wealth and educational disparities. Optimism alone cannot fix thisCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageOptimism helps get us through tough times, and the Covid pandemic has had plenty of tho…
‘The hypocrisy is nauseating’: Wes Streeting on state school arts cuts
Shadow child poverty secretary wants all pupils to have access to arts education after decade of Tory cutsWes Streeting can’t claim to be his inner-city comp’s most famous alumni. That claim goes to the Hollywood actor John Boyega who, like the shadow …
‘Hidden pandemic’: Peruvian children in crisis as carers die
With 93,000 children in Peru losing a parent to Covid, many face depression, anxiety and povertyWhen Covid-19 began shutting down Nilda López’s vital organs, doctors decided that the best chance of saving her and her unborn baby was to put her into a c…
Johnson faces rebellion over ‘intolerable’ hunger and poverty in home counties
Steve Baker, MP for Wycombe, urged ministers not to ignore the cost of living crisis in constituencies like hisBoris Johnson faces another backbench rebellion over the Treasury’s spending this autumn, as a high-profile Tory MP hit out at “intolerable” …
How Joshua Coombes became hairdresser to the homeless and example to us all
The 34-year-old has given free haircuts on the street since 2015, and has put the stories of some of those he has helped in a bookOne evening in spring 2015, Joshua Coombes did something that changed his life for ever. He was walking to a friend’s hous…