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Dorset Equality Group letter to The Observer, Sunday, 7th February, 2021:
"Roy Hattersley's encouragement to the Labour party to make an abiding and overarching commitment to equality is timely. The pandemic has exposed so much inequality: to adequate income, good health, educational opportunity. The barriers posed by race, geography, gender and age have been laid bare.
The Equality Trust and its affiliated local groups champion vigorously the lessons of the Spirit Level, the seminal 209 book on equality: happier, healthier societies based on a fair distribution of income and wealth.
Seeking equality shouldn't be the sole preserve of the Labour party; the principles extend across the political spectrum at both national and local government levels. Greater equality ensures both a strong private sector and a well-funded and flexible public sector.
Fairness does not apply solely to human encounter; it applies to the way we treat the life support systems which planet earth affords us, reminding us to treat these with restraint and respect if they - and we - are to flourish."
Dorset Equality Group
Two updates:
Information about Universal Basic Income is available at www.basicincome.org.uk
Information about the Good Law Project, shining a light on government procurement projects is available at https://goodlawproject.org
Life during the pandemic
The COVID 19 pandemic has exposed both fantastic strengths and worrying weaknesses in our public services: education, employment and welfare, health, housing and homelessness, immigration and asylum, criminal justice. Whilst there is widespread appreciation of public sector staff there are also insistent calls for improvement to services which include:
•Larger budgets supported by fairer and more progressive UK taxation
•Transparent national policies governing public sector expenditure which facilitate both local implementation and flexibility
•Public services should be designed and operated by civil servants and staff within the public sector. The encroachment of the private sector should be strictly limitedor, better still, eliminated
Download the full article .pdf
Rishi Sunak: Do the right thing. Protect our NHS this winter.
I've signed the petition asking Chancellor Rishi Sunak to give the NHS what it needs to get through this winter. Will you join me? Click here to sign the petition.
Equality for all?
Proposed merger of DfID with FCO
During July several members of the Dorset Equality Group contacted their respective constituency MP raising concerns over the proposed merger of the Department for International Development with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Here is the text of the template letter which one of our members prepared and which each of us personalised.
Download .pdf Download editable .doc
Recent events
Mind the Gap
On 28th November, 2019 DEG ran a successful event - Mind the Gap: an Economy where ALL can Thrive - in St Mark's Church Hall, Talbot Village, Bournemouth, attended by around 50 people from across Dorset.
The main speaker was Wanda Wyporska, Executive Director of the national Equality Trust, who gave an informative and inspiring talk about the scale of inequality in the UK, the work of the Equality Trust, and the scope and need for action, arguing that "equal societies work better for everyone". A lively Q & A session was followed by work in groups to identify the implications for Dorset and to generate ideas for local action.
The DEG Steering Group met in January 2020 to discuss how best to progress ideas. As a result, we have prepared a brief factsheet on inequality in Dorset.
Equal pay
On 6th November, 2019, at an event in London (pictured below), The Equality Trust launched their #EqualPay50 campaign, in the run-up to the 50th anniverary of the Equal Pay Act 1970. The Trust's website has a tool for calculating an individual's potential lifetime earnings loss as a result of the gender pay gap.
The Divide
On 22nd October 2019, as part of the Purbeck Film Festival, DEG promoted a screening of The Divide at The Rex in Wareham. The Divide, directed by Katharine Round, is a documentary about the impact of inequality on the lives of people in both the UK and the USA, based on the book The Spirit Level by Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson.
The film was introduced by Annette Brooke, formerly MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole and a founder member of DEG. After the showing, Annette (below, with Rob Pearce) led a lively discussion with an appreciative and thoughtful audience.