Archbishop leads House of Lords debate on Income Equality and Sustainability
Date:
Thu 7th May 2020
The Archbishop of York yesterday led a debate in the House of Lords - “To move that this House takes note of the case for increasing income equality and sustainability in the light of the recent health emergency”.
During his introduction to the debate via video link, Archbishop Sentamu said,
I commend Her Majesty’s Government for its rapid action in the current crisis, and through unprecedented public spending working to protect jobs and avert millions of redundancies.
It is in light of this recent Health Emergency that I am beseeching your Lordships’ House to “Take Note of the case for Increasing Income Equality and Sustainability”…
...As long ago as 28 April 1909, Winston Churchill, President of the Board of Trade, gave a speech, in the Other Place, and said,
“It is a serious national evil that any class of His Majesty’s subjects should receive less than a living wage in return for their utmost exertions.”
Though much has since changed, that principle remains as strong as ever in our national life.
Ten years later, in 1919 after a world war and a global flu pandemic The International Labour Organisation Constitution affirmed,
‘Peace and harmony in the world requires an adequate living wage.’
The economic argument that workers should be paid a fair and living wage was not new even then. In 1776, Adam Smith, said to be the father of modern market economics, wrote:
“Servants, labourers and workmen of different kinds, make up the far greater part of every great political society. But what improves the circumstance of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.”
Many jobs fall far short of this ideal for millions of workers across the UK. The truth we now see is that the vast majority of front-line key workers are hard-pressed on poverty wages...
...Let us make the paying of the Real Living Wage the litmus test for a fair recovery and let us help our country become a place where the wellsprings of solidarity, of a new, undivided society, can begin to spring up. And then go beyond the Real Living Wage.
Income inequality is the Giant of our time, which we must slay. The Real Living Wage is a crucial tool in our armoury. But the Living Wage is a first and vital step in challenging inequality.
Let me end by sharing with you the four guiding principles which have impelled me to work tirelessly to promote the Real Living Wage:
First, that all human beings are of equal worth in the sight of God. There is no one and no group of whom we can say “they are less important” or “they don’t matter”. The needs of the other person are always as important as my own.
Second, a commitment to offer everyone the opportunity to flourish. A society is only well-ordered in so far as it offers ways of flourishing to all its members.
Third, a recognition of our human inter-relatedness and inter-dependency. As the East African proverb says, “When a tiny toe is hurting, the whole body stoops down to attend to that toe”.
The reality is, we are all inextricably bound up with each other’s welfare. We rely on each other; if one suffers, sooner or later we all suffer. COVID-19 and the Lockdown have vividly demonstrated this.
Fourth, is the need to accept our duty of responsibility by using our God-given potential both for ourselves and to serve others.
My Lords, I beg to move:
“That this House takes note of the case for increasing income equality and sustainability in the light of the recent health emergency.”