FOR six years, I served as Vicar of Somers Town, a parish located between Euston and St Pancras stations in central London. The parish ranks 916th out of more than 12,000 parishes for deprivation, according to the Church Urban Fund’s (CUF’s) Look Up Tool (1 is the most deprived). Twenty-six per cent of children in this very diverse community, where 60 per cent of the population describe themselves as non-white British, are growing up in poverty.
Somers Town has an extraordinary past, welcoming royalty and dignitaries in the 1920s, as the Magdalen Missioner, the Revd Basil Jellicoe, led pioneering slum-clearance work. The community forms a significant part of the current Prime Minister’s constituency.
Like other churches, we had many funerals. Just up the road was the head office of the funeral directors Levertons, who served the Royal Family and locals alike. We worked closely together.
I remembering officiating at the funerals of people who (just) remembered Fr Jellicoe and slum clearance; but, more regularly, I officiated at the funerals of people who died at an alarmingly early age, ground down by the relentlessness of inner-city poverty, in all of its complexity.
Often, in the front of the hearse, I would play a silent game of celebrity-spotting, as we journeyed towards the crematorium in Golders Green or Finchley. The cortège would wind its way through Camden Town into Hampstead, a playground of the wealthy. Actors, musicians, and political commentators were seen, including Dame Esther Rantzen. I sometimes saw her standing in her front drive. Hampstead parish ranks at 11,271 in the deprivation statistics. Four per cent of children are growing up in poverty.
The juxtaposition between the poverty of Somers Town and the wealth of Hampstead could not have been more acute as we travelled with a grieving family.
DAME ESTHER’s hopes and lived experience have inspired Kim Leadbeater’s Bill to allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life (News, 15 November; Comment, 22 November). The Bill is due to have its Second Reading in the Commons today.
The Bill has been discussed passionately by diverse groups of people: journalists, MPs, political commentators, clergy, and other religious leaders. Many have expressed viewpoints that have been inspired by the stories of lived experience, which give particular credibility to their arguments. Many have voiced their hopes and reservations about what new proposed choices might bring. Safeguards are at the top of the agenda, which can be only good news.
But what of the impact of poverty? What is the nature of the relationship between poverty, life expectancy, quality of later life, and human flourishing? What if the data imply that assisted dying, associated with limited personal choice, is already tolerated and normalised?
CUF’s Look Up Tool is a powerful aid. A quick glance at this resource will show that a parish in Ely diocese has the highest average life expectancy for women: 95 years old. There are very low levels of child and pensioner poverty, and almost non-existent ethnic diversity.
Compare this with a Blackpool parish that ranks as the most deprived in the Church of England. Life expectancy for the men averages at 68 years old; 58 per cent of the children are growing up in poverty, as are 34 per cent of the pensioners. Eight per cent of the population describe themselves as non-white British.
Additionally, the difference in life expectancy between Somers Town and Hampstead (where I later lived, as the Bishop of Edmonton) is approximately 16 years. These communities are less than three miles apart.
There is significant complexity in these figures, but they imply a relationship between poverty and life expectancy, and that societal assisted dying (as opposed to individual assisted suicide) is tolerated, often unchallenged.
MUCH has been discussed about personal end-of-life care, quality of life, and the relational impact within families and friendship groups. This is an important and welcome discussion, and MPs need our prayers as they debate and vote on the Bill.
But end-of-life-care is also about poverty. Statistics published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation demonstrate that poverty has not decreased substantially for 30 years in England, since the dramatic rises in the 1980s. This is reinforced by the report Measuring Poverty 2024 , published last month by the Social Metrics Commission, which concludes that persistent and deep poverty continues to grow nationally.
Therefore, while we speak about palliative care, safeguards, and personal choices in certain personal circumstances, let’s also speak about what lies behind the lived experience of millions of people, whose life opportunities are often curtailed by the choices of others, and whose lives, on average, are much shorter as a result.
The Rt Revd Rob Wickham, a former Bishop of Edmonton, is the group chief executive of the Church Urban Fund.
cuf.org.uk/shinealight