Did anyone else end up in competitive ‘prolier than thou’ conversations at university? The need to establish your authority as as a REAL person who knew about HARDSHIP? I suspect it is probably just an Oxbridge thing, and a stupid and self-indulgent thing at that.
I grew up in Cornwall, which is a much poorer area than most people think, but it’s not exactly the ghetto, let’s face it. But a lot of London-born people I know still have a trace of that rivalry – ‘at *my* school the drug-dealers weren’t waiting at the school gates, they were in the staff room’ etc…
London’s Poverty Profile is a useful resource not for settling those arguments, but for reminding you that while there are certain areas that are clearly deprived, poverty in London nestles right alongside prosperity. As the poverty indicator page about inequality says: ”Haringey is London’s most divided borough. Its 19 wards contain four of the richest and five of the poorest wards in London.”
The site is the product of serious research and it’s a fascinating tool for studying patterns of disadvantage, I’m sure it will be useful for nipping outpoormanship conversations in the bud, but also for campaigners who want to make a fairer city.