Gandhi said that poverty is the worst form of violence. He was talking about absolute poverty, whereas we now, in the UK and the US, are talking about relative poverty, but the point holds good. Even relative poverty has a tendency to disempower and disable people as surely as physical violence does.

The origins of the increase in inequality – and thus relative poverty – in this country are clear. The major welfare state retrenchments in the 80ies and 90-ies by the Thatcher government and its intellectual heirs is directly associated with an increase in inequality. Both the deregulation of labour laws, and the decentralisation of wage bargaining contributed to reducing union strength, leaving the less well educated and trained extremely vulnerable. Shrinking incomes for the worst off were compounded by the attack on state pensions.