Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Green Party and the Party’s work and pensions spokesperson, has hit out at “victim blaming” anti-begging posters that reinforce negative stereotypes about marginalised people.
Bartley has welcomed the Advertising Standards Authority’s ban of the posters (1) that were posted by Nottingham City Council earlier this year.
One of the posters, seen in May and June, showed a person smoking a roll-up cigarette and said: "Begging: Watch your money go up in smoke. Begging funds the misuse of drugs #givesmart", and a second showed a homeless man in a sleeping bag with the warning: "Watch your money to go a fraud. Beggars aren't what they seem."
Bartley commented:
“The posters are a disgrace and it is right that the ASA has issued this ruling. The posters imply that those who are forced into begging are all engaged in criminal and anti-social behaviour.
"Victim blaming and scapegoating tear away at the fabric of our society, sow division and contribute to a growing compassion deficit. Rather than compounding exclusion we should be working to tackle inequality in this age of insecurity. We have the world's sixth largest economy. No-one should be left so unsupported or have their choices so limited that they end up begging on the streets."
1) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-37488612