The ONS data, much favoured by Tory propagandists (why are you using it?), takes no account either of inheritance or of capital gains. Data published by the DWP tells a different story, but even that research is called into question by a 2017 report by the Resolution Foundation which paints an even bleaker picture (or a brighter one, for those who consider wealth inequality to be a good thing and fair reward to bankers and speculators for being "wealth creators").But, more than anything else, I cite the evidence of my own eyes, and the clearly growing number of people sleeping rough in the streets in every major city and town that I visit.Furthermore, I would ask how it is indeed possible for wealth inequality to do anything other than grow, when those who are both most obsessed with making money and best equipped to do it are unchecked by government and indeed encouraged to accumulate more and more by the neoliberal ideology which has driven every British government over several decades.Inequality is the inevitable and unavoidable consequence of unfettered capitalism. I am entirely familiar with the "trickle down theory" much heralded by the likes of Thatcher and Blair, but when all is said and done there is only one thing that trickles down upon the rest of us from the super-rich and that certainly isn't wealth.
Phil Andrews ● 2769d