Public and political discourses all too often spread negative perceptions about ethnic minorities and migrants and portray them as a 'burden' to European welfare systems and a constraint on economic growth in the EU. It's now time to put the facts right.

You seem to be a little confused as to why people have reacted so strongly to your recent comments about welfare reforms.

In a world where 854 million people are undernourished and 700 million are obese, the inequalities are stark.

The chancellor's autumn statement saw him take yet another opportunity to articulate his disdain for the poor, as he outlined the government's intention to deepen its attacks on the unemployed and benefit claimants. It also confirmed the abiding economic illiteracy which underpins austerity.

The announced increases in capital investment are welcome but the fact that they are funded by cuts in other areas of public spending mean the Chancellor is merely shuffling money from one pot to another, which will do nothing for growth.

What became clear in Four Born Every Second was that countries need to find their own solutions to maternal and child health and that aid will not be enough to sustainably eradicate poverty and ill health.

Political parties who want to be in the running for the next election will have to start taking notice of public anger about the UK's unacceptable levels of income inequality. They must set out credible and ambitious policies to achieve a meaningful reduction in our destructive levels of income inequality and arrest the damage to our health, society and economy.

It was clear from the 250 people who attended the panel's outreach meeting on Friday afternoon that we are indeed a diverse bunch. And rightly so - we are meant to be 'civil society', and if our claims to represent the more than one billion who live in poverty are to be taken seriously, we need to represent that range of complex inter-related needs.

The dire position of Britain with regard to social mobility is being worsened with time, deepening and entrenching divisions, and diminishing equality of opportunity for all. For Britain to succeed economically our politicians should be striving to improve our position and not make it worse.

The gap between rich and poor is at its highest level for 30 years, yet this August's Ipsos MORI issues index, which canvassed public opinion on the issues that matter, showed only 10% of people in the UK are concerned about it.

Young people are still unemployed, funding is still being withdrawn from the poorest and most vulnerable communities in society; those at the bottom of our society are still made to feel worthless and hopeless, so the incentive and willingness to riot remains.

Next summer we won't have an Olympics. It's down to all of us to make sure that an August without sport or troops on the streets of London won't result in the kind of disturbance we saw last year.