I’m writing a book about modern poverty. I’ve taken inspiration from Charles Dickens

Paris Since Hitler’s Visit is struggling to see the light of day. Recently I have finished writing two books and PSHV is the latest, my most recent attempt at writing a book about ‘the debris of history’. How history, the mistakes of the past, harm and threaten our present wellbeing, as well as our future. 

If only we did not have to deal with wars in the Middle East. If only we didn’t have to deal with the war in Ukraine. If only we didn’t have to deal with the 30 million people facing starvation in the warring battles in Sudan. 

All coming about because of events in the past returning to haunt us in the here and now. 

If only we had spent our time and money before Covid trying to kick a hole in poverty, so that poverty didn’t now dominate the NHS, with a reported 50% of people presenting for NHS treatment suffering from food poverty. If only we had clocked the damage that is being done to our children’s wellbeing by social media and realised the impact of turning everyone into a screen watcher. How many people do you meet now who are zoned out of the world because they are listening to things through the speakers shoved into their ears? 

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All these devices act as an antidote to the paucity of modern living, where life is largely a vast array of commodities. If only we had turned our minds to higher things rather than commerce and purchasing. But we didn’t. We’ve built an education and society that doesn’t even touch the sides in facing up to our need to express ourselves through what we buy.  

Hitler changed so much of our postwar world. In fact what he did in the war rippled out in a continuous wave of destruction beyond his own life. What his war did was build a formidable force that destroyed him. Those forces, the Russians and Americans, lived on after the war and added to their arsenal. The world was divided and wars of surrogacy multiplied, where Russia and America fought through their client states. Now we see it continuing and moving in the wrong direction, threatening our safety. 

Read more:

• My hiatus from work led to some new ideas around poverty prevention
• Big Issue founder calls for a Ministry of Poverty Prevention ahead of the general election
• Christopher Eccleston: Scrooge could be any one of those Tory ministers round the cabinet table

Of course I could write about the debris of history as if I was writing a manifesto, but I am taking a leaf out of Charles Dickens’s book. When he wished to lambast the wealthy employers for paying peanuts to their staff, and showing no human charity towards the poor, he first decided to write a manifesto. But at the last moment he chose to write a novel. His argument was, who reads manifestos? Only the committed.

He wanted to get the message of the greed and selfishness of the early Victorian businessmen over to each and every person. And he wrote A Christmas Carol to do so. Invented Scrooge and scroogism to show how squeezing every drop of value out of workers can only tread heavily on your own humanity. 

A Christmas Carol has never been out of print since and it has inspired dozens of TV and film versions. It hits the nail on the head. Sentimental and at times weepy, it nonetheless demonstrates that stories can change people’s feelings en masse. 

I, though, wish to do something more modest with PSHV, which is to get debates going as to why politicians are always dealing with ‘what is’. And rarely asking the question ‘Why is it as it is’? 

Why are we always having to negotiate the mistakes of the past? Why is it that so many people believed the NHS was about to implode that the call for appointments went up dramatically, as was explained to me by a far-thinking doctor. What are we doing to reduce this impossible burden, almost smothering the NHS? 

It is interesting, if you look at the health issues of millions of people, that they are mainly related to poor food. The poor food comes from poor incomes, and also from poor food education.

Poverty pushes the NHS into being a manager of the crisis of health and not a solution provider. Why? Because government is yet to concentrate its efforts on destroying poverty, rather than simply managing it.

Circa 90% of investment in poverty – yes, even social security is an investment in poverty – goes on emergency but precious little on cure and prevention. 

Why have we done so little to dismantle the frequent inheritance of the poverty that fills our hospitals, prisons and streets? 

Why? Because no one is asking the big issue: why is this? Why can’t it be something else? It’s frightening. Politicians are frightened. They only want to deal with what is possible. Without realising that we have to tackle the impossible to make it possible. 

A recent visit to the far side of the moon was, once upon a time, impossible. So we can do it scientifically, but we can’t do it socially. 

Will PSHV see the light of day? I hope so. But I am also struggling with A Slim Book on Big Thinking. ASBOBT is another vast canvas, hopefully delivered in a way that many will read it. 

Storytelling is the name of the game. To keep us optimistic – and bushy-tailed.

John Bird is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Big Issue. Read more of his words from our archive.

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