The Social Distance Between Us Audiobook Libro.fm

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Britain is in a longdistance relationship with reality

From poverty and policing homelessness and overrun prisons to Grenfell and hostile environments Britain has long been failing those who need our help the most There is arguably one unifying theme that links all these afflictions proximity Proximity is how close we are to the action and how that affects how we assess relate to and address whatever that action happens to be Almost every job requires a level of experience and training with the notable exception of the most powerful people in the country our political class

So this is a book about the distance whether geographical economic or cultural between those who make decisions and the people on the receiving end of them The distance between the affluent and the poor how their interests and values diverge and the assumptions they make about each others experiences and intentions in the absence of any meaningful interaction How even those with the noblest aims inadvertently cause harm as a result of their social remoteness and fail to advance anybodys interests but their own misguided ones

Could Britains problem be not that there is a lot of inequality but that for generations a small group of people who know little about it have been charged with discussing debating and sorting it out At what point do we look for answers not to the people who are hardest up but the apparently educated and sophisticated whose dominance of Britains institutions has been virtually unbroken for centuries

Praise for Darren McGarvey

The standout authentic voice of a generation Herald

Utterly compelling Ian Rankin New Statesman

Brilliant Russell Brand

An absolutely fascinating individual Owen Jones

Offers an antidote to populist anger that transcends left and right articulate and emotional Financial Times

McGarvey is a rarity a workingclass writer who has fought to make the middleclass world hear what he has to say Nick Cohen Guardian

Darren McGarvey 2022 P Penguin Audio 2022