Press release: Global expert calls for urgent change to prevent escalating crises in the UK
Professor Danny Dorling, the Halford Mackinder Professor at the University of Oxford, joined a sell-out crowd in Edinburgh to preview his latest book Shattered Nation. Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State' hosted by the David Hume Institute.
Professor Dorling argued, Britain needs change on a scale not seen since the Second World War to prevent the escalating economic and social costs of avoidable crises:
““The enormity of the challenges we now face, mean we need a scale of intervention not seen since the second world war - we can choose to step up to the challenges ahead, we can choose to create a thriving economy and society that does not leave people on the scrap heap, or we can blunder on fooling ourselves that if we just get economic growth to increase all the other crises will be sorted.””
The discussion addressed the key theme of his forthcoming book - that the failure to tackle rising inequality and to invest in ways of meeting the basic needs of people living in the UK puts Britain at risk of becoming a failed state.
Dorling named Scotland as a source of hope citing policies such as the Scottish Child Payment and the announcement by the Scottish Government’s intention to move to a “Cash First” approach to reducing dependence on food banks.
““People need to know how much they stand to lose if we do not plan for ambitious change. After housing costs are paid, the average household in Britain is already less prosperous than the median in every other large European country. We have been moving down the ranks for decades, and the fall has accelerated recently. This is not inevitable. We can plan to end the huge inequalities that are a key feature of this decline.”
“What is happening in Scotland shows it is possible to avoid a poverty of ambition where you hope for so little and ask for even less.””
Reflecting on the ambitions of the 1942 Beveridge Report, Professor Dorling identifies the five giants of twenty-first-century poverty that now need to be conquered: Hunger, Precarity, Waste, Exploitation, and Fear.
Susan Murray, Director of the David Hume Institute, said:
“We were delighted to host Professor Dorling whose analysis of the data shows what can be changed, not just what has gone wrong. We know from our quarterly Understanding Scotland Economy Tracker that significant numbers of the Scottish population are losing sleep over their finances and cutting back on the basics such as healthy food and heating. Our ability to achieve many goals, including increased productivity, is placed in jeopardy when the people who power our economy are struggling to afford the basics needed for life today.”
ENDS
View the full David Hume Institute event recording with Professor Dorling
Notes to editors:
Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State by Professor Danny Dorling will be published by Verso Books and formally launched on 19 September 2023.
