The ability to buy sufficient, wholesome food, clean water, accomodation which is structurally sound and safe, clothing, public transport to work, school etc, and sufficient fuel for heating, and hot water to keep home and people clean. Maybe some extra to cover telephone, insurance of home and contents, and refunds of costs incurred for dentistry and spectacles, mobility aids, and children’s school uniforms and sports equipment.

TVs, broadband, computers, playstations, package holidays, gender re-assignment surgery, are not basic essentials.

As I write this, cases of real griding poverty are being shown on TV. Folk living in a cardboard and plastic shanty town in Paraguay.

And as for child poverty, the touchstone of one Gordon Broon, the worst poverty afflicting our children, is the fact that single mothers are bringing them into the world only to use them as a meal ticket.

if lots of bankers’ salaries disappeared during, say, an economic crisis, the median income falls and in doing so removes thousands of people from poverty overnight.

Well, prices are supposed to fall during a crisis too.

You argue there are no poor people in any developed or middle-income country. But this is clearly not how the vast majority of people use the word, saying things like ‘this is a poor area of the city’. Opinion poll data also shows that peoples view of poverty changes with income, i.e. a relative measure.