Homelessness is a national disgrace. Let’s make Britain humane again | Philip Pullman

The death of an old student of mine, who was homeless, brought home how toxic and unkind this country has become

The plight of homeless people, and our reaction to it, are part of the hideous tangle this country has got into. There are so many strands leading into this appalling knot, that if we pull any one of them, the tangle gets worse.

So the question of why decent men and women find themselves able to walk past people begging in the street, or huddled up in doorways with only layers of cardboard to keep out the cold, is all mixed up with the flagrant deficiencies of Britain's democracy, and the craven desire to suck up to the US that brought us the "war on drugs" among other idiocies, and the extraordinary grip that the public schools seem to have on the levers of power.

Lies, cowardice and betrayal leak from the very pores of our political leaders; trust limps after them like the poor little dog following the murderer Bill Sikes in Oliver Twist

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