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Growing social divide in Britain
Blair seeks to refute new study on the widening gap between rich and poor
By Simon Wheelan
11 December 1999
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Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair has returned to London from a two-day tour
of northern cities to promote the Labour government's report entitled “Sharing
the Nation's Prosperity”. Stung by recent evidence that graphically illustrates
that the fabled North-South prosperity divide between Britain's regions is as
wide as ever and growing, Blair has embarked upon a campaign to refute what he
calls an oversimplified myth.
By seeking to deny the existence of a north/south divide, Blair has unwittingly
drawn attention to the more fundamental division in Britain, that between the
social classes. “Poverty and prosperity are neighbours in every part of
Britain. The greatest division which exists in every region is between the
haves and the have nots,” he declared..
The prime minister's tour and new report are intended to counteract the
damaging publicity created by a study released last week by the Townsend Centre
for International Poverty Research at the University of Bristol, "The Widening
Gap". The report has been described as the most comprehensive work of its kind
since the infamous Black report, which was suppressed by the Tory government in
1980. George Davey-Smith and his colleges draw attention to the neglected but
incontrovertible fact that money equates with good health, poverty means
illness and earlier death, and that class position correlates with the state of
one's health.
The researchers at Bristol University specialise in the scrutiny of comparative
death rates, in order to demonstrate health inequalities. They believe that the
health gap between regions is the widest on record and growing. Increasing
inequality of income, lifestyle, educational opportunities and jobs results in
thousands of extra deaths every year in deprived communities. Life expectancy
for professional men is now nine and a half years more than for unskilled
manual workers and 6.4 years more for equivalent women.
If Britain were divided into two nations, one containing the richer regions and
the other the poorer ones, there would be nearly 80,000 more deaths every year
in the poorer nation because of inequality. Epidemiologists would normally call
this a plague.
The study, which looked at health and wealth indicators by parliamentary
constituency, found that the Scottish city of Glasgow topped the poor health
table. Six of the city's constituencies are included in a table of the UK's
worst 15. Infant mortality rates are twice as high in Glasgow Annesland than in
Esher and Walton in Surrey. Average household incomes in the worst health areas
are only 70 percent of those in the best health areas.
The researchers state that the gap between rich and poor has widened more
rapidly in Britain and levels of poverty are higher than in the vast majority
of mainland Europe. The health gap mirrors gaps in income, education and
employment. So it comes as no surprise to find that those areas suffering the
most sickness and the highest death rates contain Labour's traditional working
class voters. Blair and some of his cabinet have their constituencies in the
northeast of the country, an area which has been negatively affected by the
collapse of industry and manufacturing over the last two decades.
The Labour government's report in response, "Sharing the Nation's Prosperity”,
highlights the same kind of class discrepancies, only on a more fundamental
intra-regional basis rather than on an inter-regional one. The exposure of such
phenomenon by the government can only be described as an act of extreme folly.
Blair claims that the programmes his government has introduced—like the New
Deal workfare programme, a minimum wage and working families tax credit—have
started to reduce divisions. “We are narrowing the gap for the very poorest of
people in the country,” he said.
The report draws attention to the fact that despite London and the southeast
being the richest area of wealth and economic activity in Europe, 16 of
London's boroughs are among the 50 most deprived local authorities in the
country. The northern city of Leeds is now one of Europe's most affluent, with
a per capita output 9 percent above the EU average. However just 30 miles down
the M1, Sheffield's per capita income is only 75 percent of the EU average. Of
the smaller towns—which surround Sheffield in the region of South
Yorkshire—Rotherham, Barnsley and Doncaster average just 65 percent of the EU
average.
Even these disturbing figures don't tell the whole story. Leeds' economy may be
in a healthy state, but the city is home to extremely deprived wards such as
Hyde Park and Seacroft. Sheffield on the whole is very poor, but its Hallam
constituency is ranked fourth in the country's good health league table,
according to "The Widening Gap” report. Hallam has the highest concentration of
professional qualifications of any constituency in the country, making it
effectively Britain's most middle class suburb.
The day after Blair's offensive, further evidence was released that compliments
the findings of the Bristol University report. A Joseph Rowntree report, in
conjunction with the New Policy Institute, utilises a collation of income
distribution, social class and other signs and symbols of inequality and social
division. Contrary to the claims of the Labour government that it is narrowing
inequalities, the report contains evidence that the opposite is
occurring—inequalities are widening and the process is accelerating.
The report finds that Labour's policies are making little if any impact upon
levels of poverty and inequality. There is “no general pattern of improvement”
and health and education indicators are possibly getting worse. The evaluation
is based upon a number of indicators of social exclusion, ranging from the
number of people on low incomes, rates of obesity and depression. Many of the
worsening indicators relate to health, buttressing the claims made by the
Bristol University. Peter Kellner for the Public Policy Research argues that
the cult of low taxation cultivated by the Labour party means “The distribution
of money incomes is certain to remain unequal, and may become more so.”
The government is currently compiling an alternative index of social exclusion,
but critics believe its criteria will correlate closely with the government's
main policies, i.e., job creation rather than the reduction of inequality.
After their election in 1997, Blair remarked that he and his party would not
deserve reelection if inequality had not been reduced by the end of this
present term. This promise has since been quietly dropped and in its place they
have pledged to end child poverty in the next 20 years. Trade Secretary Stephen
Byers proclaimed wealth creation to be more important than wealth distribution.
The prime minister's advice to those areas of the country currently failing in
the global market is to “get out and sell themselves to the outside world”. The
north must become globally competitive like the southeast, he stressed: “We
need to do it consistent with a strong economy and also there's no way that we
are going to put in additional money unless we are also getting the change and
modernisation that we need.... We can't just throw money at it.”
But that very process of selling the workforce to international investors, to
make cities competitive, necessitates the further retrenchment of welfare and
social provisions in order to create an investment-friendly environment of
cheap labour, low corporate taxation and hefty subsidies. He gave his usual
promise of jam tomorrow, by making vague references to possible extra spending
on public services if his party wins the next election. One area he deemed
deserving of extra spending was transport, the other being law and order—a good
indication of just how much Blair believes he will reduce inequality.
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