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All the major parties must address the issue of Britain become a country fractured

The promise of a better future is the strongest commitment of all politicians. Over the next three weeks, as the season unfolds policy conference, providing clarity for the general election of 2015 - as well as the limitation of infighting and energize the troops - dominate. Which is much less likely to be discussed is the evidence to a new report from the Foundation that important resolution without drastic action, in 2020, we will become a nation of two halves. The rich get richer while the poor and lower middle-income and frugal in their standard of living decline sharply. This polarization and drain Britain are already struggling in the middle, is detrimental to citizens, political and social cohesion body and future health of the wealth and well-being of UK plc. Should not be allowed to happen.

The results are the work of independent and highly respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Institute of Economic Research (IER). The report, titled "Who benefits from growth?" Consider that even if the economy returns to a "golden scenario" of growth, without further reductions already announced, a household with an income of £ 22,900, losing 800 pounds in 2020, down 3%. A couple of fight low-income £ 10, 600 (2009 prices) you can expect a decrease of 15% to paralyze £ 9000. Meanwhile, those of £ 50,000 more than a year can enjoy the cream of 1.5 million new jobs and see an increase of 0.2% of annual turnover.

trends outlined in the report follow a pattern that has emerged in the United States over the last 30 years. They signal the end of social mobility and the loss of security of the middle class. As many economists on both sides of the Atlantic have pointed out, this is mainly due to the rich have changed the rules.

financial deregulation, tax cuts for the rich, gutting unions, a story on toxic deserving and undeserving boom poor housing conditions and false leading to staggering levels of debt personal - they ensured that 20% now owns 84% ??of American wealth, while the middle is nice and tight and the poor lose their foot on the ladder.

In the UK, one of the challenges we face are an aging population, technological advances that eventually all occupations, global competition and widespread underemployment of individuals, mostly women , overqualified for menial jobs that are poorly acquisition. More than half of children living in poverty are households where at least one adult works. Add to that a personal debt, the actual constraint of a double-dip recession and blatant greed of the banking sector dependent bonus, the beneficiaries of generous tax cuts recently, and the results of the resolution of the Foundation of the potential gains growth over the next eight years will go to the already rich deeper seems unwise and unfair.

repeatedly in post-war Britain has reached a point where we need a new social contract and demanded a redefinition of the rights and responsibilities of the State and citizens. These historic moments occurred in 1945, 1979, 1997, and, no doubt, the time has come again.

Is it possible to have "fair shares for all", as promised in the manifesto of the Labour Party in 1945, when the public coffers were empty as they are today? How to reform the economy and reshape the welfare state? What is the appropriate role of markets in a democratic society? What type of support used instead of weakening the assets of individuals and communities in the society as a whole can not prosper?

Gavin Kelly, Director of the Foundation resolution, which ordered "Who benefits from growth?" For the non-partisan commission on living standards, rightly asserts that these times demand unpatched for but gradual reform approaches that are big, bold, radical and socially just. He said that the Commission proposes a set of policies that together can ensure a more equitable distribution of the fruits of growth. Suggests educational reform to invest more in vocational training, skills and abilities to meet the needs of a changing labor market labor supply for those at the lower end of the wage scale. Childcare argues strongly decreased. Childcare is a societal problem, however, more than one million women are unemployed for two years or more. Childcare expensive ruinous. If the work at the time, without help, many will stay on benefits - . global cost

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