Professor Richard Wilson calls on end to inequality - Author of 'The Spirit Level' wants activists to support ethically run companies

Published: 27 January 2011
by TOM FOOT

PROFESSOR Richard Wilkinson – co-author of the globally acclaimed best-selling book The Spirit Level – has called for Camden activists to create a movement supporting the borough’s most ethically run companies.

Professor Wilkinson’s book argues that  society’s main problems – such as crime, poverty and low life expectancy – are aggravated by the income gap between rich and poor.

Speaking at a meeting in Haverstock School on Tuesday, he said it was time to “take our custom” to the co-operatives and employee-owned companies that he said were champions of cultural and economic fairness.

“I think we have to reign in the bonus culture, we have to narrow the differences in work organisations,” said Professor Wilkinson. “Inequality exists because the people at the top feel they don’t have to answer to anyone. The way to respond is to emphasise economic democracy. We should have something like the fairtrade movement, here in Camden – a consumer movement favouring companies with fairer differences.”