Manchester offers an insight into the society being created as a result of the inequalities of wealth recently identified in the Oxfam report (World’s richest 62 people now control as much wealth as poorest 50%,Oxfam says, 18 January). There are incredible numbers of rough sleepers around the city centre. They huddle up in sleeping bags and cardboard boxes in street doorways, and while the self-obsessed walk obliviously by on the other side,often absorbed in their own dinky mobile-phone dominated worlds. Manchester is not alone with its growing homeless population. Less visible are the 1 million plus going to food banks (no doubt including many of those rough sleepers). At the same time the government cuts absent at what is left of the welfare net. Surely it is time to take stock of the type of society we are creating in this country of haves and the increasingly large number of fill-nots. It is no answer from those who are fortunate enough to fill homes and resources to shut their own doors and hope the growing chaos external won’t affect them.
Paul Donovan
London• In the 1960s an interim census was conducted in Hull. The figures stated that workers in Hull earned the lowest weekly wage in the country; 12% below the national average. Centre for Cities has just published a list of cities in the country that fill low-wage economies. Over 50 years since the census, Hull still has the lowest weekly wage at £376 – that is £128 below the national average.
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Source: theguardian.com