Bad news, injustice – and hope: Danny Dorling

Injustice, poverty and inequality in the UK are high, and the toll they take on all of us is huge. But they need not be permanent, says inequalities expert Danny Dorling, which is why, despite all the statistical evidence about the state of our nation, he has hope.

Audio recording of a talk given on 6 December 2024 at The Long Table in Stroud, in which Professor Dorling discusses his recent books Peak Injustice: Solving Britain’s Inequality Crisis (Bristol University Press) and Seven Children: Inequality and Britain’s Next Generation (Verso).

“Scotland shows what you can do. What Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer could do, if they wanted to do it. They don’t think they can. But there’s all kinds of things we could do. We could certainly institute the equivalent of the Scottish Child Payment in the rest of the UK. There is an enormous amount that is possible.

“We talk ourselves into saying it isn’t possible, because a number of people understand what it would do, and do not want their lives to change. If we became a slightly more equal country – and we’re starting to do that already – then you can’t live parallel lives.

“You can’t separate your children from other children – it’s incredibly expensive. We spend a third of everything we spend on secondary education, on 7% of children. Where we are paying for them not to mix with other children. Not for a good education, but simply not to mix with other children. Oh, and to have a lot of resources so that they’re going to get a lot of As and Bs. That isn’t a good education – that’s just getting plenty of As and Bs. You can only do that if you are incredibly unequal. The only other country in the world that did that was Chile until 2019, when they had a mini-revolution.

“So I’m optimistic. A lot of that optimism is purely statistical – it is when you have got to the bottom of so many league tables, it is really hard to stay down there,” Professor Dorling says.

Read more about The Long Table, a community interest company (CIC), community restaurant and social hub based in Stroud that poses the question: “What if everyone in our community had access to great food and people to eat it with?”

Read more about Peak Injustice:

Read more about Seven Children:

Visit Danny Dorling’s website for book and research information, news of forthcoming events, and resources: