Great Britain: The Rich-Poor Divide?

Question

How bad do you think the rich-poor divide in the UK is? With an administratively weak government, are we heading toward a greater socio-econimic division within the population?


What do you think?

Answer 1

Its an interesting one. SInce Labour came to power the gap between rich and poor has widened. However, the poor havent gone down, the super-rich have gone up substancially because of the housing boom. In other words, rich and poor have got wealthier, its just the rich have got wealthier quickly and proportionally more.

My view is that we shouldn't be too concerned about closing the gap if the poor have reached an acceptable standard of living and a 'living wage'. If the opportunity is there, we shouldn't continually ensure that they keep up with the middle-class through tax state subcidies.

Answer 2

So you're saying that Labour controlled councils are poorer because the Labour councils do a poor job of bringing prosperity to the area and instead leach off of wealth created by more prosperous conservative councils? Well I'm not so sure. You have to remember that local councils only have limited powers to decide what's what. Benefits and tax rates for example are decided by westminster not by local authorities. I think you're right in that poorer areas are more likely to have Labour councillors but I think they're more likely to have Labour councillors because they're poorer areas rather than they're poorer areas because they elect Labour councillors, if that makes sense. The Labour councillors aren't making them poor but they're being elected because the poor voters want a Labour councillor. Also a point about Bristol and Bath since I live in the area. Bath and North East Somerset council has an equal amount of Libdem and Conservative councillors and is currently a Libdem minority administration whilst Bath have sent a Libdem MP to Westminster since 1992. In local elections and in the last general elections the Libdems increased their share of the vote. It's true that Labour are nowhere in Bath but it definitely isn't a Tory stronghold. Bristol also is hardly a Tory stronghold, last local elections they got just 14 councillors out of 70 compared to Labour's 21 and Libdem's 36. In the general election the Bristol constituencies were won by 2 Tories, 2 Labour and 1 Libdem. So you're not being very honest when you say Bristol is run by the Conservatives. The whole country is subsidised by the South East, even us down here in the South West. That means all the rural Conservative strongholds and all the Labour inner city strongholds outside the South East are all subsidised by the wealthy South East. As I said before, councillors can't by themselves keep people in, or bring people out of, poverty, it's policies made in Westminster that make the most differance. The reason the wealth gap continued to grow for 30 years is because we've had 30 years of consecutive conservative government.

Answer 3

Just an observation from across the pond; the UK has become a seriously socialist state. Socialist states tend to favor the large corporations by stifling competition and paying the poor to stay poor.
Your legislative process is very fluid and favors the majority in a zero sum game.
Of course you are going to divide yourselves between the socio-economic divisions, you Brits stifle all hope of cross class mobility. Unfortunately, the same thing is happening to us here in the US. Our control freaks are called Democrats.

Answer 4

My partner is a driver/valeter for a hire firm and works 60+ hours per week for minimum wage. He would like to retrain to get skilled and hopefully earn a better wage but the Government refuse any help to do so if you are already in employment (only thing available is a Career Development Loan from the High Street Banks which we cannot get as we have a poor credit rating so all the banks have turned us down).

We struggle to pay a mortgage and feed ourselves. I currently have about 70p in the house until he gets paid on Friday. We have no savings. I have to buy my baby son's clothes and toys from charity shops, we struggle to keep gas and electricity on our meters and do not eat properly as decent food is too expensive. We nearly had our house repossessed last year and were *refused* council housing as the council say they have "no housing available" (most has been given to asylum seekers). So in order to haang onto the housing we have we are currently paying more than HALF our income in a mortgage payment. We never go on holiday or go out and have no social life. We don't have credit cards. Couldn't afford them if we did. We are being taken to court as we have fallen so badly behind with our Council Tax payments. We cnanot afford to decorate or make any improvements to our desperately shabby victorian terrace (worn out 1970s carpets, plaster coming off the walls, dodgy electrics, leaky ceilings etc) and have been refused a renovation grant as we are not on the "right" benefits (ie we are not benefit bums).

(and before anyone says "but you can afford the internet" - no we can't, my mother in law pays our internet subscription for us along with her own). Our computer was made for us out of spare parts by my partner's stepdad.

Thats how things are for a WORKING AND TAXPAYING British citizen (ie not a lazy scrounging "won't work" dole bum).

Yes we do get "Tax credits" but £30 a week doesn't really make a big difference, although it is welcome, it at least helps us keep warm.

Thats reality for the "working poor" in 2007 South Wales.

Answer 5

already have the rich are getting richer at a faster rate than ever , while there spending i dont know how much on silver marmite lids and tomato sauce cases !!! watched a program about this very question .

anyway yes the middle classes are being destroyed the economy is crumbling and people cant afford to pay there mortgage while the rich pay less tax per ratio of money and are getting richer and richer and theres becoming more of them .

pretty essential viewing for all heres why ------> http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=1070329053600562261&total=100&start=60&num=10&so=0&type=t100_gbr&plindex=63

Answer 6

Its seems to have always been there
the rich getting richer is the way of the world
working class people will always struggle through,
and the poor will get lumped in with the sick and bone idle
its the law of the jungle,
the object of human life is to make the best of what you have

Answer 7

It has been said that poverty is relative and this harsh statement has an element of truth in it. If a country has a cold hungry thirsty homeless ragged population it is impoverished by any standard. UK is far from that position but could get to it surprisingly quickly

Answer 8

yes, but i doubt its where you percieve it will be.

the greatest disparity in in those areas where we have keynsian full employment, and a socilly affluent society. the real problems arise when Mr Smith as No2 loses his job.

smithy is used to 35k, and has bill and a lifestyle to support... and losing 30k a year and going onto benefits, well thats where the real hardship begins.

smith would spend in one night, what hes supposed to live on for a whole week... this of course causes poverty, and despair, divorce and in too many cases suicide in the face of mounting debt and personal depression.

ive been in a wheelchair for 26yrs... were used to having bugger all. last holiday was 1986, my car is 15yrs old... but my daughter is off to uni to study medicine...

house prices are an irrelavance, we all have to live somewhere.. its holding onto it which seems to be the real trick... which is why im in a council house, and ive just had a 35k extention built... for free. i have already given my children their inheritance, they have university places, and the best education we could give them, (we both have degrees)

the socioeconomic divide wont be viewed in terms of personal disposable wealth, itll be viewed in terms of education, and qualification... the haves and have nots... only these have nots work at macdonalds flipping burgers.

Answer 9

with out a doubt. and the divide between people who own a house and those who don't will get bigger and bigger as well. there will be a lot of problems in the future that's for sure. it's a pity our politicians couldn't have looked further than the end of their noses before making some of the very silly decisions they made in just about every department they have interfered with.

Answer 10

It is very bad all those people you think are middle class aren't they are just using loans and credit cards to look like it. The lower class are so poor its terrible what people are expected to live like and there seems to be a massive jump from the middle class to the stupidly rich is unbelievable my parents said labour are eliminating the entire 'middle' class by stealth tax, if that's true then you haven't seen anything yet.