As one former prime minister returned to government this week, another told a London audience packed with business leaders why they must urgently back an idea forged in Fife to tackle poverty.
Gordon Brown had a stark message for the powerful group, made up of some of the world’s biggest companies including Amazon and Google, warning the country a winter “crisis” lies ahead, with poverty unlike any he’d seen in his lifetime.
The message could not have been more timely, with a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggesting 3.8 million people in the UK, and 1 million children, faced destitution in the last year.
But rather than just words, the former prime minister also arrived armed with a potential solution developed in the heart of Fife.
He is calling on businesses big and small to help boost the rollout of the multibank initiative, a way of channelling support efficiently and to where it can have the biggest impact.
And it is a project which has had real success, supporting hundreds of thousands of people in the Kingdom in dire need.
Mr Brown and The Big Hoose in Lochgelly, alongside their partners Amazon, have proven the concept works.
The e-commerce giant alone has donated more than 1.5 million goods to support families in addition to staff time and expert support.
Meanwhile, committed ambassadors including Mr Brown have encouraged businesses large and small to do their bit.
While Fifers can be proud that this idea born out of the community response to poverty could inspire work across the UK, the clear and urgent need for the most basic essentials such as nappies and toilet roll should leave us all ashamed.
Amazon and Comic Relief have jointly committed £1 million to fund the expansion beyond the three existing multibanks in Dundee, Fife and Wigan, but more is clearly needed to rise to the scale of the growing challenge.
As well as support in the form of the essentials these multibanks need, companies big and small can also contribute cash donations or even staffing, transport and logistics.
And the solution presented by Mr Brown is not only anti-poverty but anti-pollution as well, providing a way to meet ambitious climate targets in a way that gives back to the communities businesses rely on.
Multibanks enable firms to divert excess stock and returned goods away from landfill and instead put them to good use where they are needed most urgently, reducing harm and investing in the future.
Those in Fife who saw the need – and responded with care – have shown us the fate of those we live and work alongside cannot just be the responsibility of someone else.
They have shown the difference those who join Gordon Brown’s coalition of compassion can make – and provided a solution that lights the way to tackling the very worst of the havoc wreaked by poverty.
COURIER OPINION: Gordon Brown shows how project forged in Fife could help take on growing poverty
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18.11.2023
As one former prime minister returned to government this week, another told a London audience packed with business leaders why they must urgently back an idea forged in Fife to tackle poverty.
Gordon Brown had a stark message for the powerful group, made up of some of the world’s biggest companies including Amazon and Google, warning the country a winter “crisis” lies ahead, with poverty unlike any he’d seen in his lifetime.
The message could not have been more timely, with a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggesting 3.8 million people in the UK, and 1 million children, faced destitution in the last year.
But rather than just words, the former prime minister also arrived armed........
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