Overview

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. City workers earn millions. Manual workers earn less than they did thirty years ago. The widening gap is tearing apart the fabric of our society. In this urgent polemic, Guardian journalist Polly Toynbee and the Guardian's economics editor David Walker present a worrying portrait of Britain today. Their gripping investigation takes them to a Cable and Wireless AGM, a chairman of a FTSE 100 company, a council estate, an inner city school and a Sure-Start programme. The editor of Tatler bemoans paying private school fees on a middle class salary and young city lawyers justify earning 100 times more than teachers because they work so hard. High earners have little idea that half of British people earn less that GBP22,300, and are amazed to learn that a third of the population live below the poverty line. Polly Toynbee and David Walker argue that our attitudes to pay and standards of living have been distorted. They shred the myth that executives require astronomical salaries, and put the case for higher taxation of the very rich. This was once the heart of Labour ideology, but politicians now seem almost embarrassed to raise the subject. Toynbee and Walker demolish the arguments against higher taxation, and show how government policy could revitalise British society. Unjust Rewards sets the agenda for the next general election.

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9781847080936

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Polly Toynbee is a political and social commentator. Previously she was the BBC's Social Affairs Editor. She is the author of, among others, Hard Work: Life in Low-Pay Britain; Hospital; and a collection of journalism. With David Walker she has written two audits of the UK Labour parties first and second terms: Did Things Get Better? and Better or Worse, Did Labour Deliver?. David Walker is a member of the council of the Economic and Social Research Council, a non-executive director of the National Centre for Social Research and a trustee of the Nuffield Trust for health policy studies. He is the author of The Times Guide to the New British State and co-author of Sources Close to the Prime Minister, Did Things Get Better and Better or Worse, did Labour Deliver?.

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