Brown’s legacy of inequality, poverty and joblessness

We all know Labour has failed to run an efficient economy or public services, but what’s little discussed is its failure to achieve even its own goals. Had Brown bankrupted the country but, say, made the poorest much better off, then Labour members might not be facing such an existential crisis. As it stands they won three victories, trebled health spending, redistributed some £1.5 trillion – and will end up with a society even more ‘unequal’ than it ever was under Thatcher. I look at this in my column today, and thought I’d share a few of the points with CoffeeHousers.

First, equality. This (rather than making the poor better off) is the great leftist goal – and it can be nominally achieved by hurting the rich. But let’s look at the Gini index – which John Rentoul, who has written a book about inequality, regards as the most reliable measure.