The myths of both left and right stop us seeing the true story of inequality | Torsten Bell

New data reveals that the recent history of wealth is more complex than we think

We live in a country shaped by our past but we are not very good at understanding it - not least when it comes to the debates about living standards and inequality that are central to our politics and economics. If we want to make sense of how Brexit Britain got to this point and where to go from here, the task is not just to recognise the legacy of decades past but also that times change, asking new questions of us as they do so.

Too often, the stories told on both sides of our politics drive towards the wrong questions and offer the wrong policy answers. For the left, that means asserting that inequality is always rising. This is not only wrong, but dangerous in spreading the idea it is normal, when it's anything but.