EVERY against the the Tories week titled:
Royal Standing Conference' the Prior rising unemploy- conclusion figures which defence - the South of Ireland the proposals; and and 1974-76, report is that started during Many worker ever wanted to defend the ability of trade that unions to fight effectively for higher living standards was spelt out soberty worded government-commissioned report enCommission the Distribution of Income and Wealth. it will Report No 7. Fourth Report of the The neport press because of its in the national press because of that during period of office the rich were getting richer and the poor poorer.
But equally striking were the testified just how unequal a country Britain remains. Indeed of the many countries for which figures are available only one had a less equitable distribution of wealth.
The figures dealing with the last 1974-16, Over one suggestion in the but the suggestion the process which these first two vears accelerated during the last three years of Labour's administration.
By 1976 the Commission found the too cent of th population held almost a quarter of the country's wealth, to be precise 24.9 per cent, compared to 22.5 per cent two years previously.
If this trend is continued the Tory budget is one guarantee that - this means that by 1984 the top one per cent will own one third of the country's wealth.
In strict money terms, from 1974 to 1976 the top 20 per cent increased their wealth by the tidy sum of f51 billion, and this is repeated whichever page of the Commission's report is For instance, • as far as land ownership goes, just oue per cent of the population owns 52 per cent of all land; and as far as company shares are concerned, the top five per cent own 80 per cent of all shares, listed and unlisted.
There are sections in the report which also display the ineffectiveness of Labour's equal pay legislation. According to the estimates reproduced, the average earnings of women workers in 1978 was f51.8, compared to the average male earnings of 282.
But either average is chicken-feed to that which the managing directors received "median total remuneration' of a managing director and £40,990, an increase of over £10,000 in just three years The Royal Commission agrees that its figures are not complete, nor are is estimates exgct. A numher oi tax dodges, 'fringe benefits', hidden ownerships and undeclared mean that the inequalities listed in the report are an underestimation.
Even so, the report points to two unchallengeable conclusions much wealth is country, and how few benefit from it.
This is perhaps why one of the first acts of the Thatcher government was to disband the Royal Commission and prevent it issuing further evidence.
Given the growth of inequality under the Labour government, Jim Callaghan won't be offering many protests about that particular cut in public expenditure:
their trade unions year. The these objectives.
year was of shifting assets Industry.
how produced in this justification repeated down the unions Star