United Nations, May 23 -- "The results of the austerity experiment are crystal clear -- record levels of hunger and homelessness, falling life expectancy for some groups, even fewer community services and greatly reduced policing." This damning assessment of the UK Government's austerity policies comes from Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, whose report on the UK was released in Geneva on Wednesday. Mr Alston condemned austerity as an "ideological project" which has seen UK standards of well-being descend fast "in a remarkably short period of time, as a result of deliberate policy choices." Although the UK unemployment rate is at a historic low, said the independent UN expert, millions of worke...