Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Sep 17, 2025

The growing virus of inequality under Covid will fuel popular rebellions across the world – and, sadly, an authoritarian backlash

The growing virus of inequality under Covid will fuel popular rebellions across the world – and, sadly, an authoritarian backlash

As the gap between rich and poor rapidly worsens during the pandemic, you can detect a surge in support for revolutions and remedies. But instead of truly tackling the underlying problems, governments will react with repression.
There’s a sense of some relief in the UK that the Covid-19 year of lockdowns, illness and industrial-scale death tolls that have seen our health care services overwhelmed may finally be coming to an end.

Even a Tory-hating cynic like me has to grudgingly admit that the country’s vaccination programme has been a success. The sheer numbers of people getting the jab – 20m-plus as of the start of this week – has been impressive. It has started to open debates about possible summer holidays, travelling to see family, even going to festivals and gigs – a welcome silver lining.

But the rhetoric coming from the government that better times are on the way is just political BS. The hope of a brighter future is misplaced. There are some dark storm clouds of reality moving in at a fast pace that may well be more deadly that the virus: the spectres of growing global inequality, of widespread poverty and mass unemployment, and of the vast majority of us being under the control of an emboldened elite that through the pandemic has increased its wealth, power and political influence.

Research shows that those who were already rich have increased that wealth exponentially, while those who were at the bottom have sunk even lower. An Oxfam report earlier this year showed not only that wealth inequality was deepening and becoming more entrenched, but also that policies enacted by governments around the world have resulted in giving even more billions to the super-rich while denuding the poorest.

In Britain, we have a great deal of research and data on how the pandemic has affected different parts of the UK and different communities. The evidence is stark. It is beyond argument that by whatever measure you take – health, wealth, housing, employment, food, and so on – inequalities have worsened under the pandemic.

But Covid-19 has simply, if sharply, exacerbated trends that were already in train. Over the last ten years, wages in real terms have been falling, especially in the public sector, where workers have endured pay freezes or below-inflation wage increases year on year, to the point where their pay has now stagnated. In the private sector, low pay and poor, unstable working conditions are now built into companies’ business plans without fear or shame.

Our housing system is completely broken. The government’s preferred method of using the market to solve housing needs, either through private mortgages or through private landlords, has failed miserably. Buying a house is beyond the scope of most families on low to average incomes, and in the absence of good and affordable social housing, the private renting system has become a modern day evil – where renters are forced to pay as much as 60-70 per cent of their income on rent, when in a civilised world it should be more like 25%.

Simultaneously, away from the cities and the large towns, there are large swathes of the country that have been forgotten and which are suffering great hardship, with few jobs on offer and no resilience to weather the austerity.

The measures taken to tackle Covid-19 have disproportionately attacked low paid workers and condemned families to live in poor, overcrowded and expensive housing, while those ‘lucky’ enough to still have work have had no choice but to put their health on the line, while continuing to stack the supermarket shelves or finish building luxury apartments for the better off.

It’s a similar story across Europe and the US.

And all the while, governments around the world have used the pandemic to attack personal and individual rights, restricting movement, making mask-wearing mandatory and shutting down pubs, cafes, gyms and restaurants – extinguishing what little joy was left to us.

As we come out of our lockdowns blinking in the light of our empty and boarded up town centres, global civil unrest seems inevitable. Studies have shown that when inequality worsens, revolutionary fervour grows and states become unstable and unsafe. We can see the first rumblings, from anger in Poland, riots in the Netherlands, to protests in Denmark, Belgium and France and sporadic demonstrations in other countries.

How far will it go lies in the hands of governments. In past times of hardship, governments have used the welfare state as a prop to keep their populations from the edge of starvation and away from full-blown insurrection. But most are running out of road this time. They’ve hugely increased borrowing to keep a semblance of their economies going during the shutdowns, and have little room for maneuver.

After the banking crash of 2008, most governments slashed and burned their welfare states to bail out the bankers and now do not have that crutch.

Governments all over the globe are going to have to make tough choices. Are they going to genuinely confront the growing wealth inequality, which they know destabilizes democracies as the social contract is compromised and broken? Will they tackle the burgeoning billionaires, holding them globally to account? Will they confront the housing crisis and admit that an ever-overheating housing market can only ever lead to further rifts between those who own property and those who do not? And as millions find themselves unemployed, will governments have the balls to stand up for their people and refuse to allow them to be exploited further by the circling capitalist vultures?

Or will they tinker at the edges, giving 1% pay rises here and there, offering new incentives for those that have reasonably well-paid work to get involved in the broken housing market, and allow the vultures to land with the hope that they may not be vultures after all?

I fear the latter, combined with governments increasingly trying to use the power of the state to control an unequal and unstable society. But these law enforcement crackdowns will simply be touch papers to riots and further civil unrest. No society can thrive on such unequalness.

Thus far, and as always, the UK has been behind the curve to the rest of Europe in terms of Covid protests – but those of us who remember the 1980s know that, although the Brits do not readily come out into the streets, when they are pushed right to the edge of misery they will fight back.

There’s been increasing talk recently of reparations for the victims of slavery, a cause I have no quarrel with at all. I wonder, too, if the time has come for reparations for the working class more generally, to right the wrongs of generations of exploitation by the ruling classes?

Unless our rulers recognise and repair the wrongs of at least the last 40 years – wrongs that have been like cancers in our communities – they run the risk of full-scale rebellion. While the threat of Covid may be waning, a new threat will appear out of the desperation of working people and democracy itself will be the victim. If the political system doesn’t work for the greater good, but only for a small elite, then the masses will see no point in saving it.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump to pause billions in foreign aid
Charlie Sheen says his father, Martin Sheen, turned him in to the police: 'The greatest betrayal possible'
×