In Britain, the rich are richer but the poor far poorer than in Europe | Torsten Bell

When calamity strikes, people on low incomes face the toughest time and in the UK their margin of comfort is thin

Ask an economist how unequal the UK is and they'll answer by reeling off our nation's Gini coefficient - currently 33.5. This will not help you much. Sometimes, they'll note this is a high level of inequality, compared with 33.1 in Germany or 28.5 in France. That will provide a sense of ordering - UK income inequality is high - but not much by way of meaning. Gini chat is not exactly what our newly reopened pubs are full of. So this week's Insight comes in chart form to illustrate what abstract talk of different inequality levels means and why it matters.