Covid lockdowns had a “catastrophic effect” on the UK’s social fabric and the most disadvantaged are no better off now than at the time of the financial crash, a new report claims.
The country is in danger of sliding back into the divisions of the Victorian era, marked by a widening gap between the mainstream and the poorest in society, according to an inquiry by the centre-right thinktank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
About 13.4 million people lead lives affected by family fragility, stagnant wages, poor housing, chronic ill health and crime, the centre says.
I suppose it’s unsurprising that a centre right think tank would pin the blame on lockdown not the decade+ of Tory misrule.
The social fabric was strained and people took a financial hit but the cause of the widening gap between rich and poor are the preceding years of austerity.