Growth is not the answer to inequality

Thomas Piketty might argue that we need growth to resolve inequality, but this is just a comforting half-truth our politicians can use to justify business as usual

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our politicians focused on things that matter, like the kind of society we want to live in, instead of squabbling over TV debates and "empty chairs"? Why couldn't they be a bit more like actor Michael Sheen, for instance, whose barnstorming defence of public values went viral after he turned out for a rain-soaked St David's Day rally in support of the NHS?

The closest we've come to that kind of passion is Ed Miliband's measured attack on the perils of inequality. "Tackling inequality is the new centre ground of politics," claimed the Labour leader in his Hugo Young lecture last month, citing Obama's State of the Union Address, the election of New York mayor Bill de Blasio and the Pope.

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