UK double-dip recession: been there before

With Britain now in a double-dip recession for the first time since the turbulent 1970s, Panorama’s Adam Shaw offers an analysis of the nation’s ability to revive its finances and asks if the poor are increasingly being left behind.

We have indeed been here before. The last time we found ourselves in such dire economic times, the result was social unrest and political upheaval. So could today’s crisis destabilise the country in a similar way?

It is already having a severe impact on the lives of many ordinary people.

Hayley Gay is a school administrator raising two sons on her own in south London. She said there are months when she has to make the choice between new school shoes for her children or high-quality food for their dinner table.

“I don’t feel we’re on the poverty line by any means but I do feel we have to economise on everything we do. We either buy food or the school shoes and sometimes the shoes have to be bought. And therefore you downgrade on some of the food.”

Hayley’s circumstances are not exceptional. One in five UK families admit they are now financially living on the edge…

via BBC News – Hunting for a way out of Britain’s double-dip recession.