The caller told James O’Brien about getting out of poverty – and listeners said it was a must-listen for political parties.

John called in to talk about his experience of growing up in poverty.

He said that he grew up with stepfather figures who were heroin “addicts” and “dealers” and you could not imagine a “more impoverished estate”.

He said: “I am one of seven. The other six are all adults now. In and out of prison, drug addicts, alcoholics. Every single person, more or less.”

He added: “The reality is that we talk about the kind of life expectancies going down, things were that bad then now and they’re only getting worse now.”

When he was a kid, he said, £30 a week meant that he could afford to eat and go to college.

He explained: “The means that were available to assist me in climbing out of the hole I was born into have been stripped away systematically and continuing to be stripped away systematically.”

Michael Rosen writes:

“1. I’ve met people who think that there are no Jews left in the Labour Party.
2. I’ve met people who think that the Chief Rabbi is in some way or another in charge of, or a representative of all Jews in Britain.

Neither of these statements is true or anything like true.

There are several Jewish candidates for the Labour Party. There are thousands of Labour Party members who are Jewish. Several times in the media people have said how it’s impossible or ‘not safe’ for Jews to stay in the Labour Party. It’s not impossible. If the media had wanted to, they could have asked Jewish MPs, Jewish candidates in this election ‘Is it impossible or unsafe for you to be in the Labour Party?’ It has been dishonest of them to have not done that.

There are also Rabbis who have either said that they will vote Labour and/or have expressed great concern over the way Jewish religious leaders (Rabbi Romain and the Chief Rabbi) have intervened in this election. You can read about these Rabbis in the Jewish Chronicle online: Rabbi Danny Rich and Rabbi Howard Cooper.”