'Inequality in Britain and the

Pensioners’Danny Dorling

National Pensioners convention in the

Yorkshire region

Sheffield Town Hall, June 29th 2010 Featuring crossing outs and

corrections, this piece sold for £776,500 ($1,202,500) Recently

A talk based around today’s news

“I read the news today oh boyAbout a lucky man who made the gradeAnd though the news was rather sadWell I just had to laughI saw the photographHe blew his mind out in a carHe didn't notice that the lights had changedA crowd of people stood and staredThey'd seen his face beforeNobody was really sureIf he was from the House of Lords”

A Day in the Life (Lennon/McCartney) 1 June 1967

BBC news 29th/7/20101 Fixed retirement age to be axed • PEOPLE REACHING THE AGE OF 65 WILL NO LONGER BE

FORCED TO RETIRE FROM OCTOBER NEXT YEAR, UNDER PLANS ANNOUNCED BY THE GOVERNMENT.

• “Rules allowing employers to force staff to retire at 65 are to be axed by October 2011. It is good news for those nearing state pension age who want to keep working, but too late for others. ” – or more redundancy pre-65 – and forced labour?

“Suicide: the spatial and social components of despair in Britain 1980–2000 - Danny Dorling* and David Gunnell”

http://sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/publications/2003/dorling_and_gunnell_suicide.pdf

2 “Warning on local council pensions”

“COUNCIL WORKERS ACROSS ENGLAND FACE HAVING TO RETIRE LATER OR PAY MORE INTO THEIR PENSION SCHEME, THE PUBLIC SPENDING WATCHDOG HAS WARNED.THE LIABILITIES OF THE £130BN LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSIONS SCHEME (LGPS) WERE RISING AND ACTION WAS NEEDED, AN AUDIT COMMISSION REPORT SAID”

We could afford to retire in the 1940s but not now – make we become poorer – or just much more unequal?

3. “The Independent Budget Review panel is poised to release its report on options for prioritising public spending in Scotland. ”

Options are - pensions – free care support – tuition fees

“Why are cuts necessary? Britain's debt is far from being the highest in Europe, at 68% of national

income, but its deficit (the annual overspend that compiles over years to form the stock of debt) is higher than almost any other, also measured as a proportion of national income.

For every £10 we make as a country, £1.11 is being borrowed by government.

That annual overspend builds up into a big debt very quickly. Last year, British government had to borrow £156bn more than it spent. This year, the OBR says it will be around £155bn.

Borrowing is healthy in moderation, but there's nothing moderate about the extent to which Britain is currently selling bonds to investors”

Is this the BBC writing – or government writng through the BBC scared itself of being cut? Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10328591

Douglas Fraser “BBC Scotland Business and Economy Editor”

4. Cameron in India (bringing in money to pay for our pensions?)

“THE TWO GOVERNMENTS ALSO ANNOUNCED A £700M DEAL BETWEEN BAE SYSTEMS, ROLLS-ROYCE AND INDIA'S LEADING AEROSPACE COMPANY HINDUSTAN AERONAUTICS LIMITED, TO SUPPLY 57 HAWK TRAINER AIRCRAFT TO INDIA.”

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10797847

However: “The 57 jets will be built under licence in Bangalore by

Indian state-run firm Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) rather than at BAE's plant at Brough in East Yorkshire, traditionally known as the Home of the Hawk”.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Yorkshire-misses-out-as-defence.6445889.jp

The number of young people in long-term unemployment has almost doubled in the last two

years.

The number of 16-to-24-year-olds out of work for six months

or more has increased from 222,000 in summer 2008 to

412,000 in summer 2010. This is an increase of 85 per cent.

There has also been a significant increase in the

number of young people out of work for more than a year, from

114,000 to 211,000.

Meanwhile

And for pensions – never been as unequal – look at variation in LE

From The Mirror Newspaper

• British health inequality gap is greater now than in the 1921

• 24/07/2010 • The health inequality gap in Britain is greater now than in

the 1921, a study claimed yesterday.• Researchers found people living in the most deprived

areas are more likely to die younger than those in the wealthiest.

• They compared early death rates since 1921 and found by 2007, for every 100 deaths before the age of 65 in wealthy areas, 199 died in the poorest.

On wealth – BBC says “easing”

• House price inflation eases again • UK HOUSE PRICES FELL 0.5% IN

JULY, THE NATIONWIDE SAYS, CUTTING THE ANNUAL RATE OF HOUSE PRICE INFLATION TO 6.6% FROM 8.7%.

Note all this and the housing benfit cuts effect pensioners -http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10794461

And all the time…

“Sunday Times Rich List 2010: Britain's richest see wealth rise by one third”

“The collective wealth of Britain’s 1,000 richest people has increased by almost a third in the past year despite the uncertain economy, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2010”

“The multimillionaires are worth £335.5 billion, up £77.265 billion (29.9 per cent) on last year, according to the latest edition of The Sunday Times’ Rich List 2010.

The rise is easily the largest annual increase in the 22 years that the survey has been carried out.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/7624159/Sunday-Times-Rich-List-2010-Britains-richest-see-wealth-rise-by-one-third.html

Income share of best-off 1%

http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/injustice/

Inequality in mortality under age 65

http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/injustice/

NHS

The income distribution stretches up to the heavens

Social Stratification in the United

StatesStephen J. Rose

Bringing people together requires the top to come down

Social Stratification in the United

StatesStephen J. Rose

Allowing a few people to be rich is very expensive

Social Stratification in the United

StatesStephen J. Rose

When incomes at the top last came down, incomes at the bottom came up – more to go around

Social Stratification in the United

StatesStephen J. Rose

If you could see everyone’s income on the same page of a graph then society is more cohesive

Social Stratification in the United

StatesStephen J. Rose

Social Stratification in the United

States - transformed

In the USA need any household live on less than $25,000 or more than $75,000? What about UK?

Thank you