Inequality at the highest for 30 years. Who did you vote for again?
Who says inequality is at it's highest?
I'm not picking a fight, I just wondered whose figures you are using.
There's no simple picture when it comes to measuring success in terms of reducing inequality - there have been some great successes under Labour such as the biggest drop in child poverty and pensioner poverty (mainly due to tax credits), all three and four year olds get nursery schooling, SureStart is improving child development and parenting, everyone's health has got better, young people's welfare has got better (since the 2001 data used in the Unicef report that put the UK at the bottom) - but having said all that, the wealth gap between the richest and the poorest has risen and is one of the worst in Europe
There's plenty of academics and economists that show that, if the conservative policies of the 80s and 90s were to have continued that the poverty gap would have been far higher [Actual and simulated Gini coefficients
http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/05ebn9.pdf] So, let's be thankful for that.
I suppose that, if you are interested in these things, it is far better to have a government that is committed to reducing inequality than to have a government that could give a stuff about it. Thatcher couldn't care less about inequality and poverty and her commitment to trickled down as a philosophy was shameful. I remember Spitting Image the week that she was ousted - a montage of all her best bits, to the soundtrack of "Walk on by".
Equally, Peter Mandleson saying that Labour were "Intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich" - was a low point, and one that I suspect even he regretted.
I've always voted Labour - used to be a member and an activist up until 1997 - it kind of felt odd to be active in the party of government when I'd spent so much time campaigning against the government (previous lot) so I left and got on with my life. I'm disappointed by a lot of the things that Labour have done since 1997 (war, rise in fear of terror and fear of difference, ignoring the rise of the BNP) but there is also loads to be grateful for (minimum wage, surestart, investment in NHS and Education infrastructure...).
I know where I'll be placing my cross come the election.
Dave