Continuing need to help the vulnerable

The opening words of the George Sims’ poem are well known and there are many parodies of this work some of them quite rude. The full 21 verses tell of a pauper who rejects the largesse of the well-to-do contributors in providing the workhouse Christmas feast. Instead he dares to accuse them of killing his wife by denying the starving woman food outside the workhouse doors.

Not a very cheerful start to a Christmas article I hear you cry and what has this to do with our modern yuletide? Never fear this is not a tract about the relief of poverty in modern day Britain. But in researching aspects of workhouse life recently I was struck by the continued need for and provision of philanthropic and charitable deeds not least in the context of resolving tax...