i think if you want to address the proximity garp, then you have to look at education, the labor market and the democratic institutions in bretain. And so, you know, it begins with the abolition of private school. It begins with e a kind of resulgence and a sort of modern trade unionism that reflects the 20 first century. You need to get ount of the n graty of what ist about westminster, that's unreachable. Whas about westminster that doesn't take an common calls. I mean, if you had normal people unde the house of lords, than you would never have ad the six week arbitrary torture of being paid your benefit
The failure of British politics and public institutions to tackle social inequality is down to proximity, so says the writer, performer and activist Darren McGarvey. In The Social Distance Between Us: How Remote Politics Wrecked Britain he looks at the huge gulf – geographic, economic and cultural – between those who make decisions and the people on the receiving end of them. He tells Adam Rutherford it’s time for a meaningful discussion in which the voiceless and powerless get heard. The Social Distance Between Us is BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week.
The poet Jo Clement gives voice to the stories and people of her family’s Romany past. In her collection Outlandish she has no time for Romantic impressions of British Gypsy ethnicity as she moves from ancient stopping-places to decaying council estates. Her poems are imaginative protests that cast light on a hidden and threatened culture.
It’s a far cry from the world of former broker Brett Scott. But in his latest book, Cloudmoney: Cash Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets he argues that social inequality will only increase if cash is allowed to disappear. A cashless society is the vision of big finance and tech, and he warns that it will end up only benefitting the few, while infringing the privacy of the many.
Producer: Katy Hickman