Dual City- London's Dispossessed

Next week we begin topic four which links together the notion that 'global cities' such as London and New York are increasingly divided between the very, very rich and very, very poor with street crime and corporate crime. In preparation for this I suggest that you follow the Evening Standard this week as they are running a 5-day special on 'the dispossessed'. The tag line for yesterday's first instalment was: 'London is a shameful tale of two cities. In the richest capital in Europe almost half our children live below the poverty line. These families are cut off from the life most Londoners take for granted. They are the dispossessed'. Yesterday's issue had a feature on modern day pauper's graves (harking back to Victorian London- those who went on the walk will remember this) and single mum who who lives on an estate in Southwark just four stops from the financial centre of Canary Wharf although she has never seen it up close. While people in London's reviralised Docklands bring home huge salaries and live in multi-million pound apartments, she cannot afford a cot for her baby.

It promises to be an interesting series of reports... every night this week in the Evening Standard.