A letter to yesterday’s Times (link behind a paywall):
Sir, Statistics indicate that 100,000 children sleep rough in the UK every night. Evicting rioters from their homes would only add to this shameful number and it would fall on already overstretched charities to protect them. It will also create a disaffected underclass as can be found in countries like Brazil and Mexico.
Trudy Davies
Co-Founder of the Consortium for Street Children charities (CSC)
Wimbledon SW19
There are about 11.8 million children under sixteen in Britain, so according to the statistics cited – or at least mentioned as existing somewhere – by Trudy Davies, about one in 118 of them sleeps rough every night.
Strangely, a six year old document produced by Charlie Bretherton, a Trustee of the very same Consortium for Street Children Charities, gives a less alarming picture, although it does also include a figure of one hundred thousand. It says:
How many young people are involved and where are they?
‘Runaways’: The Children’s Society estimates that about 100,000 children under 16 run away from home every year. Most stay away for between one and three nights, but some stay away for longer. The Social Exclusion Unit estimates that at least one in eight runs three times or more. Most do not travel long distances; only one-fifth travel further afield than the nearest city. The majority will stay with friends or sleep in garden sheds, fields or bus stations.
Homeless: There are few statistics on youth homelessness. Centrepoint in London provides a place to stay for over 500 young people every night; in 2000 one in five were 16 and 17 year olds.
Street Homeless: The last rough sleeper count found only two under-18 year olds sleeping rough on the streets. However young people who run away often choose to sleep in dangerous places.
Emphasis added. From two to a hundred thousand in six years. I blame the Tories.
I’m sure we can have every confidence in these numbers. They appear to be just as accurate and robust as the safe drinking, child abuse, child obesity, child poverty, smoking death, human trafficking and other figures provided by similar organisations.
I often hear these – not to put too fine a point on it – bullshit figures, usually quoted by people who need to inflate the importance of their pet issue. Just the other day I saw someone claim that 1 in 6 British people are deaf. Or you hear that 1 in 20 people are autistic, or that one third of people have mental health problems.
What I want to say to these people is just “stop and think for one minute about what you’ve just said. Does it sound remotely plausible to you based on common sense and experience?”
Anyone with eyes could tell you that there are not anywhere near 100,000 under-18s “sleeping rough” in the plain meaning of that term. It is utterly bizarre that anyone would think that they could get away with such statements.
How dare you quibble about numbers in such a matter?
Don’t you realize that even one is too many?
This problem must be solved at any price. “Cheese-paring” worries about costs in such a crisis are the cruellest sort of inhumanity.
(Of course when it comes to thievery by Roma or Travellers, or terrorist acts by Moslems, we must not allow a few isolated incidents to justify ill-considered panic actions…)