When societies come under strain, the impulse to fracture along national or geographic lines can be powerful. It is more than an impulse – the reversion to protect our own is visceral. (At least that is how I experience it). Yet political nationalism often turns attachment to home into suspicion of neighbours and contempt for minorities. Societies do not heal by narrowing belonging. Renewal requires cooperative, structural policies that address the root of collective anger: severe economic abandonment.
The scale of that abandonment is stark. In Great Britain, the wealthiest 10% of households held £1,200,500 or more in wealth in 2020–22, while the least wealthy 10% held £16,500 or less. In the UK, the richest 56 people now hold more wealth than 27 million people combined. Faced with such insecurity, political leaders too often divert anger towards migrants, minorities, or neighbouring nations rather than confronting structural injustice.
Two Tests for a Just Society
To move beyond blame and judge how we should rebuild, two moral tests are useful.
The first is John Rawls’s “veil of ignorance”. Rawls asks us to design society without knowing whether we will be born rich or poor, powerful or powerless. From that position, no just society would allow vast wealth to accumulate at the top while millions live in insecurity. Inequality is tolerable only when it benefits the least well-off.
The second is Christ’s warning: “By their fruits ye shall know them.” It requires us to judge politicians and economic systems not by patriotic rhetoric, but by their effects on human dignity.
Judging the Recent Past by Its Fruits
Applying these tests to recent UK governments—assessed roughly a decade after they left power—reveals stark differences in outcome:
Margaret Thatcher: She came to power on the back of economic turmoil arising from industrial dispute under the previous labour government. This era prioritised market deregulation over protections for the least advantaged, contradicting the Rawlsian premise. Its fruits included a sharp rise in inequality: overall poverty rose to around one in four people by the mid-1990s, pensioner poverty increased from 13% to 43%, and child poverty more than doubled.
Tony Blair: New Labour raised the economic floor through the minimum wage and increased social investment. Child poverty fell by around 600,000 children, and absolute pensioner poverty declined significantly. Yet overall income inequality barely shifted, as top incomes continued to rise. Alas, the end result was economic destitution.
David Cameron: Austerity eroded support for the least well-off, placing much of the burden of fiscal consolidation on vulnerable communities. Central government funding for local authorities fell by over 50% in real terms between 2010–11 and 2020–21. The consequences include persistent child poverty and long-term damage to public health, reflected in British 19-year-old boys falling from 28th to 39th in global height rankings between 1985 and 2019.
The Time Horizon of Justice
For structural repair to last, it needs to be build on strong and practical foundations. There are no short cuts. Did the Russian revolution, with all of it’s bloodshed lead to a just society – or new Czars by another name? Redistribution, or any major policy shift, must be phased over a measured time horizon so that we can build on what is working amongst our own peoples. A Rawlsian society raises the floor through gradual uplift, not abrupt and punitive extraction.
Radical, yes – but not sudden. There are calls to levy immediate taxes on pockets of wealth. Oil and banking could simply depart. Sudden extraction from income-poor pensioners would force many to sell their settled home in their old age. It is the fear of such changes that provokes fierce resistance. A long-term, generational vision of fairness avoids punitive shocks and is more likely to command the broad public support needed for durable change.
To reverse the damage of the last decade, we must recognise that geographic and constitutional rifts—whether North versus South or Scottish and Welsh separatism—distract from a shared condition of economic abandonment. They drain energy from housing, education, and social care, serving those who benefit from a divided working class.
Rather than divide the map, a better politics must widen belonging. Practical Christian socialism—grounded in solidarity, the dignity of labour, and carefully managed redistribution—can offer both moral clarity and broad public appeal. By rejecting scapegoating and committing to cooperative repair, we can build a society that passes the test of its fruits.
Therefore, ask yourself..
Who should we lend our vote to? We only have the words, rather than actions of politicians, so we can only guess at the fruits. We can though look to similar politicians in the past and judge where they led. I, personally would not support anyone who appeals to division – any kind of nationalism, to self-interest or who canvas our vote on the basis of blaming the “other”.
Is there a way in which which compassionate policies can be allied to practical economic management? Let us hope so.
References
Bible: The Gospel According to Matthew, 7:16. (King James Version).
Oxfam GB (2026): Billionaire wealth jumps three times faster in 2025 to highest peak ever. (Corresponds to the claim about the richest 56 people holding more wealth than 27 million people combined).
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) (2013 / Various Years): Living Standards, Poverty and Inequality in the UK. (Corresponds to historical poverty rate changes during the Thatcher and Blair administrations).
Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) (2024): UK Poverty Report. (Corresponds to data on child poverty rates and the impact of the 2010s austerity programme).
Local Government Association (LGA) (2020): Local government funding: moving the conversation on. (Corresponds to the 40% reduction in central government funding for local authorities).
NCD-Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) (2020): Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries. The Lancet. (Corresponds to the drop in global height rankings for British 19-year-old boys).
Office for National Statistics (ONS) (2025): Household total wealth in Great Britain: April 2020 to March 2022. (Corresponds to the £1,200,500 vs £16,500 household wealth statistics).
Rawls, J. (1971): A Theory of Justice. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. (Corresponds to the “veil of ignorance” philosophical framework).