This afternoon I went to the launch of My Fair London at the Old Vic Tunnels.
The campaign has been set up by the London Equality Group, described as an "autonomous collective of more than 200 Londoners loosely affiliated to the Equality Trust".
This group is setting out to reduce inequality in London. Their first big action is this awareness raising campaign - My Fair London - which wants each mayoral candidate to sign up to their manifesto by polling day (3rd May). So far, Ken Livingston (Labour), Jenny Jones (Green) and Brian Paddick (Lib Dem) have signed it... that just leaves mop-haired Boris.
Why not bash of a quick email to Boris and ask him to sign up? His email address is mayor@london.gov.uk.
They need you to sign their petition [find it here] - they have a target of 10,000 signatures by 3rd May. In a city of close to 8 million people, that shouldn't be too hard if we help spread the word.
There is an absolute truckload of research out there proving that inequality in a society causes enormous problems - and not just for the poorest, but for the rich too. This became national news in 2009 when Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson published their book The Spirit Level. It contains a wealth of information on why inequality is bad for us all.
You can read more evidence in detail here at the Equality Trust and there are more links to other sources at the bottom of this post.
Essentially, it's been proven that life expectancy, health (both bodily and mental) and crime rate amongst other issues are worse in countries and cities with greater inequality.
The graph below shows you this according to countries. The more unequal the country, the worse the social problems are:
The Equality Trust also says this:
If the UK were more equal, we'd be better off as a population. For example, the evidence suggests that if we halved inequality here:
- Murder rates could halve
- Mental illness could reduce by two thirds
- Obesity could halve
- Imprisonment could reduce by 80%
- Teen births could reduce by 80%
- Levels of trust could increase by 85%
So that's the research behind this drive against inequality. Of course there is also a rather large moral argument, but people like a bit of empirical data in their morality stew these days.
You can view My Fair London's manifesto here - it's accessibly written and very clear.
It asks the mayoral candidates to say that if they win, they will do a number of things to promote greater equality in London. The main area it focuses on is pay inequality.
Pay inequality has been all over the place lately - see my previous post on the maximum wage idea here. There's also the London Living Wage campaign, which I'll do a post on soon.
This isn't about levelling out pay until everyone earns the same amount. It's just about making the gap between the people earning the most and the people earning the least a bit smaller. That would reduce inequality across society.
It's hard to estimate the pay ratios that we actually have at the moment because, unsurprisingly, most companies don't go around shouting about how much their CEOs earn.
But as an example, Barclays paid its Chief Executive £4,365,636 last year. Meanwhile, their Customer Advisors in the lowest pay bracket earn £12,665/year. This is a ratio of 344:1. That rates rotten haddock on my Commonsense Sniff-o-meter. [figures from here and here].
They also want the Mayor to establish a Fairness Commission for London to bring together all the evidence about inequality in London and use it to inform strategy.
There are several other components to the manifesto that you can see on the 4th page of this PDF.
Kate Pickett was co-author of the immensely influential 2009 book The Spirit Level, which everyone who's interested in society should read (so, everyone basically). She's also co-founder of the Equality Trust.
Andy Hull, this guy was amazing. He's on Islington Council and is vice-chair of the Islington Fairness Commission which is truly an example to hold up high for a fairer, happier society.
"Britain's Livelihood Crisis" - a pamphlet by Steward Lansley for the TUC on how rising prosperity has not trickled down to those workers at the bottom
The Equality Trust - set up in response to the Spirit Level
The campaign has been set up by the London Equality Group, described as an "autonomous collective of more than 200 Londoners loosely affiliated to the Equality Trust".
This group is setting out to reduce inequality in London. Their first big action is this awareness raising campaign - My Fair London - which wants each mayoral candidate to sign up to their manifesto by polling day (3rd May). So far, Ken Livingston (Labour), Jenny Jones (Green) and Brian Paddick (Lib Dem) have signed it... that just leaves mop-haired Boris.
Why not bash of a quick email to Boris and ask him to sign up? His email address is mayor@london.gov.uk.
There's another really easy action you can take...
They need you to sign their petition [find it here] - they have a target of 10,000 signatures by 3rd May. In a city of close to 8 million people, that shouldn't be too hard if we help spread the word.
What's wrong with inequality?
There is an absolute truckload of research out there proving that inequality in a society causes enormous problems - and not just for the poorest, but for the rich too. This became national news in 2009 when Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson published their book The Spirit Level. It contains a wealth of information on why inequality is bad for us all.
You can read more evidence in detail here at the Equality Trust and there are more links to other sources at the bottom of this post.
Essentially, it's been proven that life expectancy, health (both bodily and mental) and crime rate amongst other issues are worse in countries and cities with greater inequality.
The graph below shows you this according to countries. The more unequal the country, the worse the social problems are:
 |
| from the Equality Trust here |
If the UK were more equal, we'd be better off as a population. For example, the evidence suggests that if we halved inequality here:
- Murder rates could halve
- Mental illness could reduce by two thirds
- Obesity could halve
- Imprisonment could reduce by 80%
- Teen births could reduce by 80%
- Levels of trust could increase by 85%
So that's the research behind this drive against inequality. Of course there is also a rather large moral argument, but people like a bit of empirical data in their morality stew these days.
You can view My Fair London's manifesto here - it's accessibly written and very clear.
It asks the mayoral candidates to say that if they win, they will do a number of things to promote greater equality in London. The main area it focuses on is pay inequality.
Pay inequality has been all over the place lately - see my previous post on the maximum wage idea here. There's also the London Living Wage campaign, which I'll do a post on soon.
Tackle pay inequality by...changing pay ratios
The key idea in this issue is pay ratio.
 |
| I like to think of pay ratio as "Who ate all the pie?" |
The main figure bandied about as the ideal pay ratio is 10:1 - i.e. the top earners would not earn more than ten times what the bottom earners do. Other figures vary from 7:1 to 20:1.
 |
| The Green Party have been onto this whole 10:1 business for a while |
 |
| The Commonsense Sniff-o-meter on youcanarguewithstupid: rotten haddock - eggy - pine fresh |
So My Fair London wants the mayor to tackle this by:
- Challenging all employers to publish the income gap between their lowest and highest earners.
- Challenging London’s wealthiest citizens to sign a petition asking parliament to increase their income tax as a sign of of their commitment to make London more equal, like the Patriotic Millionaires [see here for this truly impressive campaign] in the USA.
- Reduce the pay ratio within the Greater London Authority (the administrative body for Greater London) from highest to lowest earners to 10:1.
- Require all employers used by the GLA to pay their workers the London Living Wage.
- Vigorously lobbying the government for more progressive taxation policies and for changes to business regulations to encourage fair pay ratios.
They also want the Mayor to establish a Fairness Commission for London to bring together all the evidence about inequality in London and use it to inform strategy.
There are several other components to the manifesto that you can see on the 4th page of this PDF.
What happened at the launch today?
Well, we all got free Oyster card wallets with the My Fair London logo on them, not to mention the free cupcakes decorated with the logo too!
The 4 panelists spoke on a range of issues relating to inequality. They were:
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| Kate Pickett with The Spirit Level co-author Richard Wilkinson |
Michael Robinson, BBC journalist who presented the documentary The Wealth Gap.
 |
| Andy Hull, smiley guy |
Dr Faiza Shaheen, from the New Economics Foundation [previous post on their big idea for a shorter work week here].
Alex Bax of the London Equality Group managed the show and gave a galvanising introduction to the themes of the campaign. As is often the case with panel events, there was rather a lot of waffle, so I'm culling all that to give you some basic points in a nutshell.
Kate Pickett said that:
- Inequality in most areas has increased since 2009
- There is a growing awareness of the need for better social cohesion (Cameron's Big Society) and yet it seems to be a lot of talk and less action
- We no longer think greed is good - the anti-bonus backlash
- "Our current economic model isn't working. Our current ideology has failed us. Austerity might be needed, but austerity for whom?"
- We need redistribution and rebalancing
- Those at the top that would pay more tax etc may think that they would be disadvantaged, but actually they would benefit - The Spirit Level showed that in more equal societies, everyone - rich and poorer - benefits in myriad ways
Adam Hull spoke about what the Islington Fairness Commission has been up to since it was established in June 2010. It is a truly impressive body. I'm going to give it its own post, rather than make this one overlong, but suffice to say if you read the manifesto of my Fair London and think, gee whizz, that's never going to happen, the Islington Fairness Commission is showing that changes really can be made.
All in all, My Fair London is a great campaign which will serve to highlight the endemic inequality we have across London in every area (geographical and social). If it gets enough support (and signatures, don't forget to sign it here), it will hopefully mean that whoever our next mayor is, he/she can't afford to ignore the public wish for change and a more equal London in the future.
youcanarguewithstupid
Sources/further reading:
The High Pay Commission which led an independent inquiry into pay in the private sector
"Does income inequality cause health and social problems?" - a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation
London's Poverty Profile - independent source of information about poverty and inequality in London
New Economics Foundation report on pay ratios here
"Britain's Livelihood Crisis" - a pamphlet by Steward Lansley for the TUC on how rising prosperity has not trickled down to those workers at the bottom
A selection of articles written by Kate Pickett for the Guardian here
The Equality Trust - set up in response to the Spirit Level
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