Closing Address Danny Dorling Equality Trust, First annual conference London 30 October 2010 'In England, for instance, Londoners are three times more inclined than the residents of the industrial Midlands to believe that 'the economy is on the mend' and that over the next year it will improve. That gap is hardly surprising, considering that it took time for the recession to overflow from London's City banks to the factory floors of the Midlands, and that it will take a similar length of time, if not even longer, to chase it away from the households of jobless factory workers than from the homes of the beneficiaries of lavishly state-subsidized bank dividends and the profits of outfits servicing the rich.‘ Bauman, Z., (2010), 44 Letters from the Liquid Modern World, Letter 34: Is there an end to depression? Cambridge: Polity Press: Page 139 (originally published in La Repubblica delle Donne, 2009)

With Bethan Thomas I’ve been working on a new atlas with a new map We use a single new population projection throughout the new atlas, but can draw many different boundaries on that projection as it preserves topology while making area proportion to population and minimising angular distortion. Here are the major towns and cities by built-up area (‘State of the Cities’ areas).

Constituencies note – approximations shown by size variation

To understand these maps you have to first learn the geography of Britain anew But – often one or more countries are missing, and the latest dates is 2007 or Data sources will all be given in the published atlas (spring 2011) a list is at the end of these slides. Here are some examples from the atlas… Greater London Kent Avon Surrey Strathclyde West Midlands Hants W Yorks Lancs Norfolk Cheshire Greater Manchester S Wales Derbyshire Essex County Suffolk Dorset Staffs Devon & Somerset Fife Herts Tyne & Wear Merseyside S Yorks Wilts Humberside Cornwall Leics Lincs Cumbria N Yorks Notts W Sussex Oxford- shire Grampian N Wales E Sussex Tayside Cleveland Lothian & Borders Royal Berks Cambs Mid & W Wales Warks Bucks Shrop- shireNorthants Gloucs Hereford & Worcester Northumberland County Durham & Darlington Highlands & Islands Central Scotland Isle of Wight Dumfries & Galloway Beds & Luton Isles of Scilly

2007 children living in poverty (%), local authorities, England & Scotland

From 1899, to 1910, to 1933

To 1945, to 1950 (the pond), 1964

Schools, universities: up, income inequality down – what did Mr Wilson read?:

No-one owns the truth, or will escape attacks and ridicule if they question others’ versions of it – especially effectively

Some deserve ridicule more than others, But 35 years ago, 7 months (and a few days) events turned on a knife’s edge… and stayed there for 4 more years

There are butterfly effects

Some of our maps are of change: 2010–2011 reduction in main revenue grant allocations (%), local authorities, England This is a map of the future of ‘just’ £6billion cuts Zoom forward to John Major, John Smith, Tony Blair, ask why everybody who got in Danny Alexander’s way has an unfortunate accident… (joke), to Gordon Brown, to ‘Dave’ Cameron to … Gideon:

While: 2007/2008 mean average income of the self- employed (£), local authorities, Britain

If you want a taste of where the evictions will be in future, then look to the geography of where they are now and expand on that. ‘Just’ 5 households in every thousand were evicted from Kensington and Chelsea when council house rent was £87 a week eviction orders rate (‰ households of all tenures), local authorities, England & Wales 2003–2008 annual count of eviction orders granted, Kensington & Chelsea per 1000 households

These two maps compare general elections some 81 years apart. Ceremonial counties have been coloured by which party gained the most votes. Labour is red, the Tories blue, the Liberals yellow, Nationalists are green: London’s changed

When it comes to paying off the national debt it is worth considering the distribution of the national wealth. If the economy really “were a household”, wouldn’t we ask the richest member for help? Where do that tiny proportion of people live who are so very rich that they still qualify for paying inheritance tax? - Here: 2007/8 Inheritance tax paying estates, numbers, regions & countries

On the right is shown proportion of children who can say yes to two out of these three: 'When I’m worried about something I can talk to my mum or dad' 'When I’m worried about something I can talk to my friends' 'When I’m worried about something I can talk to an adult other than my mum or dad' Adults’ well being is highest in the home counties, but children’s emotional health appears better in the North On the left below) is adult subjective “well-being”

Contrast the map of civic participation in England (left) with that of volunteering in England and Scotland (right). Society is big in different ways in different places. Asking people slightly different questions gets very different maps

Across most of the country people have been consuming less electricity as they have tighten their belts since But not everywhere. In some parts of the country people contribute five or ten times as much to CO2 pollution simply by how much they drive their cars as compared to those living in other areas.

Inequality and meat Meat consumption in kg per year per person Inequality Source: - see presentations: is more equal more greenwww.shef.ac.uk/sasi Japan Germany France Spain UK USA

Inequality and waste Japan Germany France Spain UK USA Inequality Singapore Municipal waste collected (kg per capita per year) Source: - see presentations: is more equal more greenwww.shef.ac.uk/sasi You need to be in a good position to get a good view and, see clearly. Its just possible here is just such a place Under the America, A fraction more unequal than Isreal In the UK, in 2010.