What drives me is the simple realisation that so many people sleeping rough are self-medicating for trauma and distress with drugs and alcohol in exactly the same way my dad did. Everyone I’ve ever met sleeping homeless has been hit, hurt and knocked down by some sort of twist of fate. The rollback of every public service now means our social security is in systems failure. At his memorial service, homeless citizens lit candles in his memory. • Liam Byrne is Labour MP for Birmingham Hodge Hill and former chief secretary to the Treasury

Source: The Guardian October 01, 2019 15:25 UTC