For example, government statistics reveal that the gap between rich and poor in Britain is at its largest in 13 years. Poverty levels under New Labour exceed those under the Iron Lady. The "Gini coefficient", an international measure of inequality, has increased from an average of 29 points under Thatcher to 35 points under Teflon Tony.
But it is still early days. After all, inequality was relatively static in the early Tory years but soared in the late 1980s. Ironically, it declined slightly after Thatcher was kicked out and began to rise again in 1995, continuing to rise under Labour.
The latest figures show that inequality under Labour is, on average, a sixth higher than the equivalent average under the 11-year Thatcher government and 10 per cent higher than the Conservatives' 18-year rule as a whole.
Hopefully this should come as a wake-up call for those who think political action is the way to combat inequality. If we want to stop the rich getting richer we need to organise ourselves and use collective direct action on two fronts. Firstly, to reduce exploitation in work. This will stop the rich getting richer off our (unpaid) labour. Secondly, to force the state to change its priorities. Rather than spend tax (i.e. our) money on war, bureaucracy, subsidising business, the Royals and other wastes of resources (and space), we can pressurise it to focus on real, human, needs. And as the fate of the Labour Party shows, any such movement would have to be extra-parliamentarian to be effective.
But this is for the short term only. It is only the first step in a movement that can get at the real root of the problem, namely the existence of capitalism and the state. We should not fall into the con of counterpoising the welfare state to the warfare state. Both, like the capitalist system they maintain, have to go in order to achieve real equality and a decent society.