Welfare state does not treat inequalities

Britons accept the heavy cuts passed by the Cameron government through the well-known Spending Review. Although it is a truth hard to swallow, the results of the recent survey conducted by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) point out that a considerable majority of the British subjects thinks that the government should allocate less public resources to welfare state. It represents a significant reversal of public opinion, especially if we consider that in 1991, at the end of the Thatcher era, the percentage of those who were for a welfare state extension was 58% against the current 27%.

However, there is still a considerable majority of citizens (78%) who think that the inequality between the lower income ranges and the higher income ranges is too elevated.

In substance, Lady Thatcher’s supporters or not, British people perceive the illness but do not believe in the treatment anymore. Welfare state is not sufficient to reduce the gap of social inequality, and this is an additional reason of the victory of the Conservative Party in the latest elections.

Hence, the electorate believes in Cameron’s “big society” project, where citizens play a more active role within their community. This opinion has been exploited by conservatives in order to revive the British pride and to reduce the role of the state in the society through the devolution of power and the welfare spending cut.

But what have led Britons to bear this new deal of the Lib-Con government in such few time?

On the one hand, an answer could be the widespread fear of a high budget deficit which strongly emerged in 2010 with the Greek and Irish cases. On the other hand, the detractive campaign of Nick Clegg’s Liberals against the Labour Party and its budget excesses seems to have worked. In addition, the widespread perception that the welfare system, implemented by Blair and the Labour party, has not met the target of a reduction of inequalities.

That is the reason why 54% of the questioned answered that the gap poor-rich can be reduced by increasing the minimum wage, but definitely not by increasing unemployment benefits.