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The Social Issue of Begging

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The Social Issue of Begging
Beggars of Britain
Matilda Hocknell
The writer of this text is obviously very opinionated. Tony Parsons displays a strong stance against the social issue of begging. Parsons makes readers aware of his strength of feeling on this subject through language use, tone, ideas, a personal anecdote, point of view and use of evidence. Readers are left feeling influenced by Parsons’ strong stance and cannot help but agree on some level with him.
The reader isn’t really addressed in this article. Parsons is just telling the reader his views, almost enforcing them – ‘this is what I think and what I think is correct’.

Parsons’ ideas in the article display his feelings on the subject of begging. He feels that beggars “will be with us forever now” like a plague and therefore his hatred of this issue is shown. Parsons’ main idea that “They have no shame” is very explicit and also shows his strong feelings of beggars. Readers can agree with Parsons when he states: “beggars where you live”. This engages readers as it suggests that begging happens all around and readers therefore agree with Parsons as they too feel that begging infects the places where they live.

As the article continues Parsons’ complete disapproval of begging is further displayed by his use of language such as: “cheap lager”. This is condescending and therefore suggests that Parsons feels he is superior to the beggars. However, through Parsons’ use of a minor sentence – “Lots of them” the magnitude of the social issue of begging is emphasised. Readers begin to feel a sense of understanding for Parsons’ point of view and can start to agree with his opinion on some level.

You can tell that Parsons is in a privileged position. He was born in to a working class family and has never had to deal with severe poverty and has therefore never got to a point where he has had to beg for money and food. To me, this makes him sound biased. What does he really know about the struggles of the brutally poor? All the

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