What is really beyond the headlines?

I was travelling to the Labour Party Conference, to be on a panel at a Child Poverty Action Group Fringe event, and to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to it. My son and I have taken a catastrophic hit to our household income as he could not access the currently available post 16 provisions for young people (he has had a hugely fractured education journey and has additional support needs), and the DWP withdraw the children’s element of UC when our children aren’t in education, training or employment.

I live in poverty, not material poverty, but my son and I have been there. It is the ever expanding poverty of SEND/SEMH and a fractured social care and education system. The poverty of systemic bias and a lack of opportunity. I didn’t want to be at the conference because I am angry at the government, and I am tired of nothing changing for my son and I.

Within minutes of our train to Liverpool setting off from Manchester Victoria, a man approached from the opposite end of the carriage. The train manager was checking tickets and two men were sat to the side of me having their tickets verified. I am not going to go into detail, but a very disturbing, very frightening and very saddening verbally threatening racist attack took place throughout our whole journey. When the man initially started to question who had paid for the two seated men’s tickets, I thought, I am not having this and stood up to intervene. At first, I was alone in my challenge, the train manager half-heartedly supported what I was saying and it worked eventually, but the attacker came back and, in the end, myself and a young woman in the seat behind defused the situation. She called the Transport Police. Nothing happened, and that is probably the worst part of it on reflection.

I could not process anything about the attack, the hatred and the white privilege this self-proclaimed ‘patriot’ had raged with, until I later sat with friends and colleagues from CPAG, and they made space. I think it changed the way I felt about being there, it changed my own feeling about who I am and who I represent when I am in spaces where people who can make change happen, are listening.

Arriving at the conference felt surreal, the feeling of being in a theme park for politics nerds was overwhelming. I just didn’t feel that I belonged there, it felt so at odds with what was happening for me at home and for millions of other people as prices rise and we continue to pick ourselves up from each financial hit. I feel that I am living in such a completely different reality than many of the other people I could see and hear, although, I spoke with a lady when I arrived and she was angry - she said she had campaigned for Andy Burnham in Ashton in Makerfield, and that the ‘segregation’ in the conference had made her furious. She said if Coldplay could get everyone into the space to hear them play, the prime minister could do it for his speech and not doing it was exclusionary. She also mentioned the fact that you had to pay for some of the events, that some were private and that this was no way to treat the people he was claiming to care about and wants to work with. I think I agreed with her, she said she will write to the PM - I hope she does.

Nyla Chowdhury was our chair for the fringe event and I met her whilst a cup of tea was organised. Everyone was excited to be there. The other panellists were: Baroness Sherlock, Minister of State, DWP, Mayor Kim McGuinness, Sara Ogilvie, Director of Policy, rights and advocacy at CPAG, and of course, our excellent chair. Having someone young and very able taking the lead was exhilarating to see and to be part of, I really felt heard too.Being supported to attend things like this is a core part of what happens for us as participants on the Changing Realities project, and although it wasn’t our regular team, Tom from CPAG was fantastic, everyone was, I started to feel more relaxed.

I listened to what the other panellists had to say - some of it felt a bit disconnected from reality, not because I believe that is the intention, but perhaps because we can’t always cover everything when we are talking about children, young people, anti-poverty strategies and devolution. These are not small topics and an hour, not long enough.

I was grateful to my fellow panellist, Mayor Kim McGuinness for voicing her dislike of the acronym ‘NEET’, it is hardly complimentary and sounds like it was dreamt up by someone who has no idea about the reality for our young people. But still, some things jarred a bit for me.

The child poverty strategy we worked towards with the government was always meant to be a starting point. We were always going to be that critical friend and many of us, I think, would have appreciated more ambition from the strategy. Of course, I want to celebrate the strategy and the work we all did, particularly the Taskforce and willing political partners, but it is nothing alone, without true, consistent, accountable action. I feel that as we are giving with one hand at times, we are taking away with the other and some of the details about the very real hardship we are facing can get lost as we celebrate the headline wins. I don’t think we should lose sight of the details, ever, when it comes to making people’s lives about more than simply surviving.

There is no doubt that the government have done a lot to address some of the very significant issues the public are facing right now. Is it enough? No. Is it the deep listening I know we need? I don’t think so, at this point, but what I do think, is that a willingness to even have those conversations with us and to invite us into the heart of power in the UK, shows me that the theme of this year’s conference, ‘hope’, is probably higher for me after hearing Andy Burnham’s speech, in spite of the feeling there is still a connection to be made with the UK’s people.

Children should not be commodities for private equity to make fortunes from, social care should not be a private equity playground - and all our children, I know we agreed in that space, deserve the same start, opportunities and support to be the best they can be. It isn’t an easy task and the incident on the train reminded me that perhaps the most significant thing we could do for children and young people right now is lead by example and display a zero-tolerance approach to racism, fascism and the rise of the far right in this country and beyond.

The language we use for and about our young people shapes their perception of the world and what is possible - and we need to do better.

The only other person to stand up to the racist man on the train was the young woman I mentioned before - she looked to be in her early twenties. When I spoke up against that man, and I said that to me he was more frightening than the two he was harassing, she too, stood up. She called the British Transport Police, and made it clear that to her, this man’s behaviour was frightening and that he was disgusting, that the rise of the far right, is disgusting, her words.

That told me so much about where the responsibility for change lies and whose voices we must hear in the policies and economic ambition of our government. I don’t mind that I felt uncomfortable at the conference; I didn’t go to have a great time, I went because I really didn’t feel like I could, and that has never stopped me before.

We, belong in those spaces because we challenge what isn’t working and our ideas are valuable, our experience is important to inform the people who are disconnected from our realities. Getting the next bit right for the UK means so much to us all. As our campaign a while ago said: ‘Hope Starts Here’, and it might have been a stuttering start, but I might just finally believe that.