Peak inequality: Britain’s ticking time bomb

Abstract

Peak inequality: Britain's ticking time bombPolicy Press 404 pp ISBN: 978-1-4473-4907-5 (pbk) Danny Dorling's book, Peak inequality: Britain's ticking time bomb, is about decades of neoliberal policies and developments in the UK that have led to social problems and disintegration. Using one of his fields of expertise, that is, social mapping, Dorling presents an overview of the consequences of austerity politics, realised not only by the Conservatives, but also by social democracy (Labour Party), which has betrayed its early socialist beliefs and visions. Dorling shows how neoliberal policies influence almost all aspects of people's lives, such as education, healthcare and housing. Dorling also demonstrates that such 'big damages' have even changed traditional policies, such as the UK's demographic policies, by which immigration had been considered to solve the country's 'shortage of working people'. This has been changed by introducing a more restrictive policy by which immigrants have been seen as a threat to the UK.With clarity and strength, he supports his critical arguments with a variety of empirical data, including his own published works on inequality in the UK, the critical use of official statistics and presenting facts and figures from social atlases. This provides a new way of illustrating key social and geographical features in the UK and across Europe from social and demographic data.The book is divided into seven sections: inequality, politics, housing, demography, education, health and a discussion on the future. In the first section -'Inequality' -Dorling introduces the reader to the 'strange political times' in the UK. He discusses current social issues and inequalities in the UK context of neoliberal globalisation, neoliberalism and nationalist populism, and the role of the European Social Model in post-Brexit Europe. The introduction includes an outline of the key welfare themes and questions in the book, as well as some thoughts on what we can hope for, or what just might be possible in the future in terms of another and more just society. The second section -'Politics' -is dedicated to illustrating the patterns and politics of inequalities over decades, rising inequalities, priorities in public spending, and growing income gaps. By linking the consequences of neoliberal austerity politics to different areas of welfare, he shows that such transformations in society have not passed without resistance and riots, though in forms of both new 'hopeful progressivism and alarming book review