Special rapporteur Philip Alston's controversial new report follows a two-week 'human rights fact-finding visit' to the UK. He said: 'British compassion for those who are suffering has been replaced by a punitive, mean-spirited, and often callous approach apparently designed to instill discipline where it is least useful'. Prof Alston's trip to Britain is the second mission to a Western European country by a poverty rapporteur in the last 100 years, the first being to Ireland in 2011. Mrs Rolnik's 12-day mission was paid for by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which is supported by British taxes. 'When you think of the special rapporteurs on extreme poverty and human rights, you expect them to be visiting sub-Saharan Africa or Haiti.

Source: Daily Mail November 16, 2018 12:41 UTC