COMMUNITY RENEWAL NEWS: Shock tactics

The children's charity Barnardo's last week launched a controversial campaign aimed at highlighting the impact of child poverty. The "silver spoon" campaign aims at showing that babies born into impoverished circumstances have the odds stacked against them before they leave hospital. But Martin Barnes, director of the Child Poverty Action Group, said he was concerned that the ads (above) explicitly linked child poverty to drug abuse and alcoholism. "Poverty is much more likely to have a negative impact on education, health and future employment prospects," he said.