8 New Stour & Avon, December 31, 2021
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‘Fat Cats’ will be celebrating soon Welcome to the New Year. Fat Cats’ Payday falls this year on Wednesday, January 5, (assuming Fat Cats enjoyed the full New Year holiday). So who are the fat cats and why is Wednesday, January 5, 2022, Fat Cats’ Payday? They are the chief executive officers of UK companies – most of which are household names. During the morning of January 5 many CEOs (assuming days off on January 1, 2, 3) will have accrued as much money as the average full-time wage of employees across the UK: £31,500. Does this matter? Are we really convinced that the CEO of a UK company, with leadership responsibility for a workforce that may be several thousand employees or more, is actually worth a salary two or three hundred times that of the average employee? How can that be justified? And in Dorset many wages fall below the UK average. Employment in seaside towns is seasonal and precarious, and rural employment is often scarce and sometimes stressful or lonely. Whilst inflation gathers pace, wages in the public sector have been held back. No wonder one media report after another mentions the damage which inequality is doing to UK lives and livelihoods: in health (both mental and physical), wellbeing, happiness, community
cohesion, hope for the future. And it’s not just wage earners who are affected. The mental health of children and students has been severely impacted not only by Covid, but also by growing inequality and the climate emergency. In October Danny Dorling, an Oxford professor of geography and noted campaigner for greater equality, in an online webinar for the Dorset Equality Group, contrasted two families: one on annual household income of £600,000 (not many Dorset families are on that sort of money, but there are some) and another on under £10,000 (after housing costs). The ultra-rich family can spend 100 times as much a day on their children as the poorest. It doesn’t have to be like this. Dorset Equality Group campaigns for Fairer payscales: restraining pay at the top, boosting pay at the bottom; Recognition that the climate crisis provides the opportunity to create well-paid, long-term jobs which operate within the boundaries of what the planet can sustain; Observance of the maxim that ‘there is enough for everyone’s need but not for anyone’s greed’. For more details, email: dorset equalitygroup@gmail.com. Rob Pearce Dorset Equality Group Wimborne
OFF THE WALL...
Cartoon by Lyndon Wall justsocaricatures.co.uk
We’re too soft towards ‘illegals’ So, Mr Horitz believes Mr Chope is offensive, athough most of his constituents would agree with him on the subject he wrote about. After reading Mr.Chope’s article, he referred to illegal people in to our country, not refugees. I am afraid, Mr Horitz, most of us feel that illegals should be turned back to France or the first safe country they arrive at. Our Governments have
become soft towards illegals etc, costing the taxpayer over a billion pounds a year to keep them. This is against the wishes of the people of our country. We cannot afford those who seek ‘a better life’ but want to keep their customs, dress, religion the same as where they originate, and often disliking the western way of life and the people... us. Glad Brown Ashley Heath
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or contacting Corfe Mullen Library directly on 01202 659755 or via corfemullenlibrary@dorsetcouncil. gov.uk’. Jessica Burford Library Manager
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