‘We’re not all in this together…’
Barbara Forbes asks: Where is our testimony to equality?
Britain is one of the most unequal societies in the world: the top twenty per cent are 7.2 times wealthier than the bottom twenty per cent. The corresponding figure in Japan is 3.4, in Finland 3.7, and in the USA 8.5.
Why is this important? We know that the recent Labour administrations made successful efforts at wealth redistribution and managed to lift many children and families out of poverty, yet the overall inequality of our society did not change. This inequality affects all aspects of our lives: life expectancy, literacy and numeracy, infant mortality, murder rates, teenage pregnancy, obesity, mental illness and trust between individuals. An unequal society is bad for everyone, and the people who are at the very bottom of the pile suffer the most severely. Measured on all of these indices, the UK cannot claim to be a good country to live in. In Cuba, Costa Rica and Chile, for example, people have a similar or higher life expectancy than we do.
The Equality Trust was founded by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson, authors of the influential and widely acclaimed book The Spirit Level, to continue their research, disseminate their findings and create a structure for local groups who wish to campaign on issues of equality.
In February Alex Bax, of the London Equality Group, addressed a well-attended meeting at Jesus Lane Friends Meeting House in Cambridge. He quoted statistics from The Spirit Level and from Injustice: why social inequality exists that demonstrated disturbing facts on inequality: in London the wealth divide is 273:1: the top one per cent have an annual income of above £930,000 while the bottom ten per cent have below £3,500. The top 1,000 individuals in the UK have a combined wealth of £335,500,000,000 (billion).
For many Quakers, the testimony to equality is just as crucial as our testimony to simplicity. How should we then react to a government whose budget plans will hit the poorest most? There is evidence that Labour-run councils in deprived areas are facing cuts of over eight per cent, while Conservative-run councils in more affluent areas are facing cuts of less than one per cent. Each and every one of us could tell stories of cuts that are affecting our lives and the lives of those around us, whether it be library-loving children, disabled people who will lose their mobility allowance, parents whose local nursery has closed or teenagers from low-income families who will lose the vital EMA payment that enabled them to continue in education.
All this, and more, is being done on the pretext that ‘we’ need to get rid of the UK’s debt. Evidence shows, however, that the UK deficit was greater for most of the twentieth century and that our deficit is not as great as that of some other countries. Japan, for example, has a deficit twice as large as that of the UK.
It is clear that we are not ‘all in this together’. When a government contains eighteen millionaires, it is hardly likely that they will be able to understand that people in society need support and a functioning infra-structure that is not left to the vagaries of the market.
If we, as Quakers, feel that we need to stand up for our testimony to equality, what can we do?
The Equality Trust is about to launch a Wage Ratio Campaign proposing a ratio of 10:1, including the wages for contracted-out services such as cleaners. (It would be interesting to know if Friends House meets this standard.) We should support this campaign.
We should urge councils to adopt a Wage Ratio Kite Mark for companies that they do business with. We can write letters and sign petitions – do all the things that we are good at doing.
If Friends feel passionate about the increasing inequality in our country, together we can make a change.
See www.quakersocialists.com for more information.
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