Young progressives Articles

Two heavyweight reports on inequality have thumped onto the desks of ministers and journalists in the past few weeks. Together they present us with a clear ‘we can’t go on like this’ moment. The question is whether politicians, business leaders and those in the City will take it. Or will they fall back on the notion, now thoroughly discredited, that inequality throughout society – and all the health, human and financial costs associated with it – is a price worth paying?

“NOW WE HAVE TO BAIL OUT THE EURO” screamed the front page of the Express last week, putting aside for once its obsession with the amount of money councils spend on translation services. Such mean-spiritedness is not just unattractive, it’s wrong-headed. We should show our struggling near-neighbours the same solidarity that we would hope to receive if similar difficulties were to befall us.

The sound and fury that attended the launch last week of the Robin Hood Tax campaign – the near obligatory Richard Curtis video, Goldman Sachs’ clumsy attempt at vote rigging – shouldn’t obscure the very serious intent of the campaign.

We face a stark choice. Not just in Britain, but globally.

There was a tremor in the House of Commons on Tuesday night that may yet be remembered as the start of a political earthquake. For the first time, a majority of MPs agreed that the voting system which gave them their seats is broken, and voted in favour of a referendum on the Alternative Vote. While AV is not a proportional system, change does create opportunities and may well begin to open things out enough for a new sort of politics to edge in.