Daniel Davis notes that “[t]he sort of thing that generates the difficult cases for liberal political philosophy – increases in inequality which nevertheless benefited the worst-off, which would have showed up as a southwest-to-northeast upward slope – never happened.”
The other things that jump out is that Callaghan made people more equal while somewhat benefiting the poorest. And Thatcher made things much less equal while not benefiting the poor at all. And her recasting of Britain into a much-less-equal society sure has endured through every government since. Blair increased the incomes of the poorest, but didn’t lay a glove on inequality.
Chart created by Tom Forth.
