Stewart Lansley
Stewart Lansley is a visiting fellow at the University of Bristol, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Council Member of the Progressive Economy Forum. His latest book, Planet Plutocracy, will be published later this year. His earlier books include The Richer, The Poorer: How Britain Enriched the Few and Failed the Poor, a 200-year History; Breadline Britain, The Rise of Mass Poverty; and The Cost of Inequality.
Britain is both an immensely rich and immensely poor country. Personal fortunes have reached new heights, while levels of poverty are close to record levels. After two decades of feeble growth, the nation has fallen to 28th place across the world in national output per person. Average living standards have been little better than static since the 2008 financial crash, and have been falling behind those of other comparable European nations. A poll for the children’s charity Barnardo’s found that ‘55 per cent of teenagers said they believed their lives would be worse than the previous generation while another 34 per cent thought the next generation of children’s lives would not be any better.’
