This week we learned that, on the latest available figures, City bonuses in the UK are more than double the earnings of everyone on minimum wage. Elsewhere, an enterprising landlord has been able to offer a single bed in their kitchen for rent at £400 a month on the outskirts of London. 

These ridiculous stories continue to roll out with monotonous regularity. Even if the official statistics tell a story of flatlining inequality, the feeling that more than 4 out of 5 people have is that we are too unequal and they are right; we still remain, embarrassingly, one of the most unequal of all developed nations. 

Most of the main political parties did respond to the challenge of inequality in their manifestos in differing ways and to differing extents. We have had some encouraging responses to our call for an Inequality Test but the focus of most of the manifestos was towards enabling equality of opportunity and fostering social mobility. Clearly the penny has not yet fully dropped that a high level of inequality undermines people’s ability to get on in life, in the same way that a mountain is harder to climb than a hill.

So there is more work to do and we must re-double our efforts. There are MPs across the new House of Commons who recognise the damage that inequality does to our country and we will be working with them to ensure that inequality is raised in this parliament. If you want to add your voice to our efforts please join us, either as a supporter or as one of our local group activists. Our elected representatives are far more likely to act if there is a vociferous movement of people demanding that they act to reduce inequality.

Bill Kerry – Supporters & Local Groups Manager