From Richard Wilkinson, co-director of the Equality Trust
We’re asking all party leaders to assess the impact that their policies will have on income inequality and ensure that the rich, rather than the poor, shoulder the main burden of reducing the deficit.
Reducing the deficit could be the perfect opportunity to narrow the record gap between rich and poor in the UK. But if the wrong policies are chosen, inequalities will widen still further, damaging peoples lives and the social fabric of our society.’
A letter signed by charities and academics have called for the main party leaders’ commitment that tax rises and spending cuts will not hit the poorest hardest. Groups including the Child Poverty Action Group, Gingerbread, Barnardo’s, the TUC, and the Equality Trust, call on the leaders to commit to a ‘Fairness Test’ on any action needed to reduce the deficit. The test, undertaken by the government, would measure the likely impact of any policy to ensure it did not increase income inequality and, as well as better informing government decisions, would allow greater scrutiny by independent bodies.
And as we know neoliberalism is about inequality and oppression. In contrast to the rich list which the Sunday Times likes to revel in, we need to understand that these huge concentrations of financial power in the hands of private individuals who are dedicated to their own self advancement damages the whole fabric of society.
