Kirk leader in attack on UK austerity plan

Senior News Reporter

Tuesday 22 May 2012

THE retiring leader of an influential Church of Scotland group has launched an attack on Westminster's austerity agenda.

ATTACK: Rev Ian Galloway, convenor of the church and Society Council, in Edinburgh.

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BRIAN DONNELLY

The Reverend Ian Galloway – head of the body's Church and Society Council, which addresses social issues – told the Kirk's annual gathering that the UK Government's push was hitting the poorest the hardest.

In an unusually politically charged address, he claimed that, as a result of the wave of austerity measures, "the most vulnerable are being punished out of all proportion".

Behind closed doors the Kirk is understood to be growing in confidence, with the perception that politicians will be listening to its stance more so now than previously because independence is under debate.A Church Economic Commission, set up to examine society's approach to poverty, echoed Mr Galloway's concerns yesterday and added there was a need for greater policing of short-term loan firms as many who use them have "income far less than their borrowing".Mr Galloway, who is retiring after his four-year tenure, told the 1000 commissioners at the General Assembly at The Mound in Edinburgh: "Austerity is a word we hear a lot at the moment. It has a sort of moral, stiff-upper-lip quality about it. It sounds like something that might do us all good."The reality is somewhat different. Food banks – places for desperate people to find something to eat – are opening across the UK at a rate of one every four days."If austerity means we all have to tighten our belts – and maybe especially those who can most afford it – then so be it. "But what is really happening is that the most vulnerable are being punished out of all proportion."The Church of Scotland's Special Commission on the Purposes of Economic Activity also agreed to urge businesses with which the Kirk is involved to end the practice of using tax havens.Professor Charles Munn, chairman of the commission, said: "We are in the middle of an economic crisis such as we have never seen before, certainly not in our lifetime."And it's not just the poor that are getting poorer, pretty much everybody else is suffering as a result of the economic crisis. "Other countries cap interest rates [for borrowing], some states in the US cap interest rates. There seems to be little political appetite for it, however."We are very conscious of the levels of interest rates some people are paying for consumer credit. "Very often, that means people borrowing money just to meet very basic human needs. "Some were using payday loan companies, some of which charge 4000% interest for their loans."And so it's pretty clear that sort of activity is doing a great deal of damage in our society and we need to change it." But he added: "This would not be easy – the only way to do it is to place a cap on interest rates."We've made a mess of our economy and in the process have done a lot of damage to our society. "We talk about our economy and society as if they were quite separate entities. They are not. They are part of the same unity."There are a lot of people hurting because of what we have done in the past, and are still doing."

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Kirk leader in attack on UK austerity plan

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