I think that the whole pandemic/lockdown has at least made many more people aware of just how big the issue of uneven distribution of wealth is in the country but doubt the situation will sadly change much. Ketts is right in that it is very difficult for any party to appeal to all because of this level of diversity in wealth.

Job opportunities and salary potentials remain as uneven as ever. There are plenty of those who are wealthy enough still to purchase their regular new cars/continue with a couple of holidays abroad a year and for whom the impact of the cost of living rises will be felt but will be relatively small compared with others. On the other end of the spectrum there are also far too many on either poor wages or zero hour contracts who will find their financial struggles almost insurmountable.


A recent report states that about 59% of "higher skilled" employees amongst the generation Z and millennial age group are looking to change employer to seek better wages and positions to allow them to work from home more. Good luck to them, but they are amongst the group on better wages in any case. As for sectors such as the care industries where salaries are low, these will find it increasingly hard to recruit -especially as they face competition for potential employees from areas such as the hospitality sector which has had to raise its salaries to attract staff.

The furlough scheme failings highlighted other issues too and-whilst not acting illegally-some took advantage of the scheme to protect their own profit margins at the expense of their staff. Some of these rich owners could easily have afforded to pay their staff out of their own profits but chose not to. Many smaller businesses on the other hand tried to use the scheme in the spirit intended to ensure their staff got paid and the business survived. Many others fell between the cracks and lost both their businesses and savings.

The majority of "key workers" during the pandemic were amongst the more poorly paid-care workers/nurses/retail workers/couriers etc- and many of these had to work extra hard over this period and certainly had a more stressful life than those who were able to sit at home taking full advantage of the scheme. In fact many of these were little worse off financially as the savings in not having to travel to work made up for being paid 80% of their wages. Many of these now want the right to continue to work from home although all the evidence seems to point to a reduction in productivity with such home working. The key workers may have won some measure of salary increases since but this has simply been swallowed up by the cost of living rises.

The challenge for any government is to protect the poorest and most vulnerable whilst still appealing to the rest of the electorate and trying to encourage business and economic growth. Sadly, the Tories are currently very much for protecting the rich and doing little for anyone else but, perhaps sadder still, Labour seems to be unable to offer a viable. People are fed up of Boris and co. but don't trust Labour hence the recent success of the Lib Dems and others in local elections. Personally, I don't begrudge anyone their wealth if it is made through their own hard work and abilities just as long as it is not built upon the exploitation of others and that includes paying a decent wage. Money certainly seems to beget money and I also believe that the super-rich should pay more taxes as they seem adept at finding legal loopholes to avoid doing so. The current vast divide in this country in equalities is something that needs addressing by more than just empty rhetoric about "levelling up" from a government made up of too many of the privileged elite.