A look at the report of the National Equality Panel
Martin Wilkinson looks at the impact of inequality on society
Confronted by 460 pages of this report, or forty-five pages of summary, you may be daunted or confused. As Peter Kenway said (Poverty breakdown, 15 January), even if you focus on just one measure, such as child poverty, it is possible for several apparently contradictory statements to be true. But the way to make sense of it is by making comparisons, both with other countries now and with Britain in the past. As the report says: Inequalities in earnings and incomes are high in Britain, both compared with other industrialised countries and compared with thirty years ago. Where Britain stands internationally varies – slightly – according to what measure of inequality is used. But certainly we lie at the unequal end of the range of well-off nations, in the company of Portugal and the USA.
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