Spectacle and reality: inequality in the second Elizabethan age

John Holmwood looks at changing income inequality and welfare institutions during the Queen’s 60 year reign. While the Jubilee celebrations were a spectacle of unity, the truth is that inequality has been dramatically on the increase in Britain during the second part of the monarch’s reign. The public institutions inaugurated during the first half of the reign have been dismantled and marketised in the second half, contributing to the growing wedge between the haves and have-nots.