I understood him, but I agree that the addition of zombies and cavemen to the metaphor was likely to confuse.

'Absolute poverty' is also problematic. How do you define absolute poverty?

The world average salary is just over £11,000 (worked out by the BBC from ILO figures in 2012). So, looking at today's figures published by the Treasury, the bottom centile in British society earn less than the world average.

But, if you take into account all the free stuff provided by British infrastructure, such as the NHS, education, etc, virtually nobody in Britain is poor in world terms.

I can't remember the exact figures, though 6.75 million working poor comes to mind. What I took from the programme was that there is a growth in the number of people where their paycheck barely covers the necessities and one small unexpected cost, such as needing to replace an appliance, could push them into making a difficult decision as to how they were going attain the money to cover it. Not so much living pay cheque to pay cheque as a gradual decline in their living standards.

.... or starving more slowly.

Relative poverty is a nonsense.

If Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and another dozen or so billionaires all moved, kit and caboodle, to the UK, and spent their money locally, clearly there would be a lot more money around, and there would (probably) be far less absolute poverty.

Relatively speaking though, we would all be far close to the poverty line.

Lies, damned lies and statistics.

This is why it needs to be a relative measure. The issue is that no one fully understands what the measure is. I think a good proxy, given that healthcare and to some extent shelter can be provided by the state, would be food spending. Some multiple or % of food spend. The consumer goods and experiences are a red herring.

and spot on.

Stop Press: Celebrity finds poo trees.

Jeremy Paxman attacks 'dog-owning morons' for spoiling beach - Telegraph

He's right to speak against it. Disgusting habit.

According to some people, poo trees don't exist.

Poo trees might be the softer option.

If there is one negative sentiment that I have had since returning to the UK in early August, it is towards the prevalence of dogs in pedestrianised areas/walkways with the obvious inevitability of soiling, which is simply not cleaned up at all or properly.

This often occurs right where people are sitting and eating in the open - it's simply disgusting and shows a complete absence of any sort of caring on the part of dog-owners.

I will say that this is more visible outside of areas perceived as being better residential, however any visit to rare green open spaces in this urbanised spot means that one always encounters loads of dog-owners with the obvious outcome. I wouldn't dare to walk down a public footpath unless it is well-worn with short grass.

In all honestly I have developed a look-down posture for fear of treading in something. I simply was not aware of the extent of dog ownership in urban areas in this country, which impacts on others as though we all live in Paris.

Thankfully, after over a month of no rain we have had two days of heavy rain to at least clean the streets up a bit.

I really dont see this dog poo issue or at least no worse than when we lived in Australia. If you live somewhere there are lots of dogs then you will inevitably have some people who wont clear it up. Its the same when I hear people talk about all the rubbish everywhere, I am glad we dont live in those areas.

Me too. So much of one's perception of Britain relates to the small geographic area in which they live, and many could resolve their frustrations by simply moving elsewhere in Britain.

Where I live at least 5 of every 6 houses have at least one dog. I have never seen poo on the sidewalk. Perhaps in some areas teaching your dog not to poo on concrete could rectify this.

This is what I dont understand, I had someone on Facebook a week or so ago talk about the 'shithole' they left to go to Australia. I mentioned that I most certainly dont live in a shithole and wouldnt it have been easier to move a relatively short distance to one of the 1000's of nice areas? They lived in inner Manchester and also said the whole country was over run by Muslims so you can guess the sort of people they were and quite frankly Australia is welcome to them.

Yes same as were we live, being in a rural area the village is literally full of dogs yet no poo on the pavements.