The Social Distance Between Us: How Remote Politics Wrecked Britain

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This is McGarvey at his best, asking discomfiting questions of many-most?-of his readers and also pointing out that class inequality is endlessly reproduced by people who either do well out of it or are too institutionalised to see what is in front of them. The quality of McGarvey's reporting and storytelling is first-rate... he makes no end of astute points John Harris, Observer (Book of the Week) Join Darren McGarvey on a journey through a divided Britain in search of answers. Here, our latter-day Orwell exposes the true scale of Britain's social ills and reveals why our current political class, those tasked with bringing solutions, are so distanced from our lived experience that they are the last people you'd want fighting your corner. Darren ‘Loki’ McGarvey is a legend. I love his opinion’s in this book that I’ve read so far, and from having him as a Facebook friend I see his opinions on different subjects daily so I really am enjoying this book. How can we solve our biggest social and economic problems if the people in power so rarely understand what it’s really like to be at the sharp end?

Ugaz’s case is all too familiar in Peru, where powerful groups regularly use the courts to silence journalists by fabricating criminal allegations against them.’Although I don't agree with everything Darren McGarvey says in "The Social Distance Between Us", I do think he is spot on locating where the major problems in Britain reside. Early in the book, he introduces the concept of "Proximity", which he uses to refer to the distance (politically, geographically, economically, etc) between those with the power in society and those who are either powerless or have little power.

He analyses the failures of both Tory and Labour governments and of both the Blairite right wing in the Labour party and the Corbynite left wing.This is McGarvey at his best, asking discomfiting questions of many – most? – of his readers and also pointing out that class inequality is endlessly reproduced by people who either do well out of it or are too institutionalised to see what is in front of them. “If you’re a teacher,” he says, “you could stand up to your colleagues who believe placing children who misbehave in social isolation as punishment represents anything but child cruelty… If you’re a copper, you could grass up some of your colleagues now and then instead of turning a blind eye… If you run a business, you could commit to paying your staff a little more than the living wage and if that is unaffordable, you might question why the business model you have adopted only works when you pay poverty wages.” Funder reveals how O’Shaughnessy Blair self-effacingly supported Orwell intellectually, emotionally, medically and financially ... why didn’t Orwell do the same for his wife in her equally serious time of need?’ A troubling tale of disaffection between classes in Britain – it's resolute in its class-based analysis, despite how out of fashion that is, and after reading this book it's difficult to disagree. That makes it an uncomfortable read for any middle-class person, since it's the middle class who takes the brunt of Garvey's assignment of blame. By allowing the working class to be demonised, and by allowing the creation of a benefits and support environment at least as "hostile" as that facing immigrants, the stage has been set for a breach between people that allows everyone to be manipulated by those in power. As I steadily plod on in years, the number of experiences I've had that reflects Darrens commentary or insight similarly grows. I've seen first hand the effects that Darren discusses in his book, not least due to living in similar communities but also in working in the homelessness sector in Scotlands biggest city. He absolutely hits the nail on the head with this commentary and explains valuable and thought provoking concepts in an incredibly real and expressive manner. I found myself saying 'Exactly!' out loud several times in agreement with his, and other folks, observations.

At the end of the book, he makes a number of quite radical recommendations as to how we could close the distance between us. I learnt a lot from many of the stories that he told throughout the book, All this autobiography is trotted out because I (rather like George Orwell, I suppose) grew up with middle-class attitudes and had to shed them one by one. I had that choice. I have had "the poor" (alcoholic, hopeless, queer) in my house, and I have seen how humiliated they are - and how frightened of every agency of the state. Northern Ireland had a Dole and Remittance Economy (with almost 25% unemployment weighted against Catholics), and I bore no stigma for being designated Unemployable - probably because I was "well-spoken"! It is in his castigation of middle-class people that McGarvey is most challenging. His dismissal of their woolly liberalism, and their distance from the grinding reality of poverty, is full of sweeping generalisations. But maybe that’s the point. Working-class people face sweeping generalisations all the time. Maybe he is holding a mirror up to middle-class prejudices, and we just don’t like our own reflection. Towards the end, he worries success will blunt his firebrand tendencies. But then he provides a manifesto for transforming Britain that includes the abolition of fee-paying schools and the strengthening of trade unions, and it’s clear his enduring radicalism is a given. And yet. As with Poverty Safari, the book that won him one of 2018’s Orwell prizes, the quality of McGarvey’s reporting and storytelling is first-rate. And with the direct encounters and personal experiences underpinning his arguments, he makes no end of astute points. A big problem with 21st-century attitudes to childhood, he says, is that “belts have just been replaced with time-outs, naughty steps and shame culture”. There is a wealth of material about the “over-policing” of deprived people and places and its overlooked consequences for the ways that lots of people – young men, mostly – understand power and their relation to it. McGarvey also asks potent questions about the links between our school systems and a low-end labour market millions of us are only too happy to take advantage of, with barely a thought for the iniquities it perpetuates: “If young people from poorer communities didn’t drop out of school early or fail to achieve high enough grades to go straight to university,” he asks, “then who would do those low-paid, precarious jobs? Who would be there to answer your call about your car insurance at 11pm? Who would be working the drive-throughs when late-night hunger strikes?”

My main issue is this. As an immigrant myself and from own experience Britain's concept of poverty seems to be through the a capitalist lense, excessive materialism and consumerism. This was an angrily written book in the best way possible. Many books about social inequality and poverty appear to have a sort of detached viewpoint and write it as a matter of fact - Darren McGarvey is seething and bitter in his exposure of the systemic issues of a multitude of facets like health, housing, and class. There are stories of people leaving rehab early because they’ll lose their home - the state won’t pay rent and rehab. People having their benefits stopped because they’re late to an appointment with no discretion - one man was trying to help his suicidal sister… Why are the rich getting richer while the poor only get poorer? How is it possible that in a wealthy, civilised democracy cruelty and inequality are perpetuated by our own public services? And how come, if all the best people are in all the top jobs, Britain is such an unmitigated bin fire?

Something that Darren did not point out: for the most excluded and socially-deprived, intellectually-unstimulated kids, the very set-up, the very classroom of a school, the very accent of a teacher can intimidate them into "stupidity" and refusal to learn. Sadly, in my lifetime (or what is left of it) that is never going to happen. Career politicians, opportunists, the rich and the already powerful are never going to give up without a fight and right now, they make the rules to suit themselves as we see in parliament on an all too regular basis. He describes how inequalities in education, housing, jobs - in fact just about everything - make it extremely difficult for those born into poverty to escape. Because the majority of people in local and national government, the criminal justice system, social services, and all the others who make decisions about the lives of poor people haven't experienced the same problems, their "solutions" often only make things worse. He also examines different political positions - literally left, right and centre - and how they have all failed the poorest and most vulnerable. He is fair in his assessment of how some actions have been well meaning but have not achieved their aims, while others may have been based on inflexible and outdated beliefs.It all boils down to education. I moved to France because of Brexit, being ineluctably middle-class, and the blessed Irish Nationality which, being a middle-class protestant, I had to claim. (When Thatcher sold off council houses I tore up my imperialist British passport.) I was ashamed to be British and to be white, as well as ashamed of my class. France has a terrible education system based on rote - but not based on class. Class is a much more simple and honest thing in France : it's the small élite versus the rest, just as it was before the Revolution. The book covers topics such as unequal health outcomes, addiction, aspiration, class and much more, using this lens to show how inured many people's lives are from seeing the reality around them. Join Orwell prize-winning author, BAFTA nominated broadcaster and celebrated hip-hop artist Darren McGarvey for his new show centred on his recent book, The Social Distance Between Us. In it Darren confronts the scandal of class inequality with passion, humility and a dose of humour.