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"A Play for Today" © Andrew Jackson

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"Ken Loach's Cathy Come Home was broadcast on BBC1 in 1966 as part of their Play for today series of dramas. At the time it would cause a public outcry and would highlight the issues of homelessness and the ways in which the welfare system was failing.

Forty-four years after Cathy come home was broadcast I would meet the woman in this photograph, Leonora, in June of this year having being introduced to her by her caseworker Carol from Christians Against Poverty in Nottingham. Leonora and her children had been served with eviction orders from their home and were a few days away from being made homeless.

Up and down the streets of England, perhaps behind close doors, the spectre of poverty is being experienced within a thousand and more sad tragedies that are being played out silently and unseen. The fallout of economic decline are real, tangible and sadly their affects long lasting.

With the results of the comprehensive spending review soon to be revealed and the prospect of up to 40% public spending cuts being proposed by the coalition government the situation can only be seen to be compounded and drag more into the trap of poverty.

Ken Loach has made 11 of his films free to view on You Tube, Cathy Come Home can be viewed here.

The image above comes from the beginning of an ongoing work exploring the poverty trap."