Social and economic changes have pushed people into ‘reluctant individualism’
Illustration Dom McKenzie Illustration: Dom McKenzie/The Observer
Illustration Dom McKenzie Illustration: Dom McKenzie/The Observer
Sun 28 Feb 2021 04.00 EST
Last modified on Sun 28 Feb 2021 06.48 EST
First, the good news. Britons see inequality as a major problem and divide broadly along traditional political lines in their attitudes towards it. Then, the bad news. Britons are also inclined to see inequalities as driven by individual behaviour as much as by social policy or structural factors.
So suggests Unequal Britain, a new study of public attitudes to inequalities published last week by the Policy Institute at King’s College, London. It’s a fascinating deep dive into perceptions both of the problems and the solutions.
For almost three weeks there have been mass protests on the streets of Myanmar. On 1 February, the Tatmadaw, or military, moved against the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, claiming fraud in last November’s elections, which her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), comprehensively won. Since then, civil servants and teachers, bus drivers and garment workers have taken to the streets. Myanmar’s main city, Yangon, was brought to a.