Budget neglect of poor attacked

by Richard McMahon IN THE WAKE of the Chancellor's budget last week Catholic organisations have reacted angrily to what they see as Mr Lawson's rejection of the problems of the poor and the unemployed.
Fr Jim Kennedy, Secretary to the Deans group in East London, said the local community feel they are not getting their fair share of the wealth of the country. In his church last week a bidding prayer asked that this Ciovernment might share the country's wealth between all of us and not just among the few. He said "this budget is not good news for us but we weren't expecting it to be good news".
The Church Action on Poverty group has criticised the Chancellor's failure to tackle the problems of housing and poverty. John Battle, their national co-ordinator, said "the withdrawal of wage councils marks the shift to a low wage economy". He regretted the Chancellor's failure to raise child benefit and comillained that "extending the Manpower Services Commission schemes is short-term tinkering".
Nicholas Come, AssistantGeneral Secretary to the Bishops' Conference, was more guarded in his reaction, but said that although the extending of the MSC schemes to two years and the easing of National Insurance for small firms may lead to a short-term reduction in the employment figures he did not sec it as a long-term solution.