The Resolution Foundation’s prediction that inequalities are going to grow ( UK faces return to inequality of Thatcher years , 1 February) makes gloomy reading. Sadly it is underestimated because it takes no account of cuts in what Barbara Castle , when she was secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Security 40 years ago, called “the social wage”. By this she meant “the publicly provided services which mean so much to family healthcare, education, housing and a good environment”. She estimated that in 1975 the social wage added £20 a week to the average working […]
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