To invite any member of the Steering Group (Kate Pickett, Richard Wilkinson, Bill Kerry or Kathryn Busby) to speak at your event, please contact them directly using the email format firstname.lastname@equalitytrust.org.uk

This is a briefing for people who have invited Richard Wilkinson, Kate Pickett, Bill Kerry and/or Kathryn Busby to speak at an event & had their invitation accepted:

Thank you very much for your invitation. We hope this briefing will answer any queries you may have - if your question is not answered here, please contact Kathryn Busby on kathryn.busby@equalitytrust.org.uk or 020 7922 7927.

Biographies

Richard Wilkinson has played a formative role in international research on the social determinants of health and on the societal effects of income inequality; his work has been published in many languages. He studied economic history at the London School of Economics before training in epidemiology. He is Professor Emeritus of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School, Honorary Professor at University College London and a Visiting Professor at the University of York. Richard co-wrote The Spirit Level and is a co-founder of The Equality Trust.

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Contact Richard: richard.wilkinson@equalitytrust.org.uk

Kate Pickett is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of York and a National Institute for Health Research Career Scientist. She studied physical anthropology at Cambridge, nutritional sciences at Cornell and epidemiology at Berkeley before spending four years as an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago. Kate co-wrote The Spirit Level with Richard Wilkinson and is a co-founder of The Equality Trust. 

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Contact Kate: kate.pickett@equalitytrust.org.uk

Bill Kerry is a co-founder of The Equality Trust and works for the Trust as a part-time consultant. He speaks regularly for the Trust and has written and blogged for various organisations including Oxfam and the pressure group Compass. Prior to the launch of the Trust he worked as a Company Secretary across the private, charitable and social enterprise sectors. 

 

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Contact Bill: bill.kerry@equalitytrust.org.uk

Kathryn Busby joined the Trust in February 2009, shortly prior to its launch, and works full-time as Policy & Campaigns Manager. Kathryn has nine years experience of working for charities and campaigning organisation; these include Shelter, the Forgiveness Project and the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). She is now a member of the CAAT Steering Committee and recently became their Treasurer.

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Contact Kathryn: kathryn.busby@equalitytrust.org.uk

The Equality Trust

Compelling new evidence shows that more equal societies – with smaller gaps between the highest and lowest incomes – have better health, fewer social problems and stronger communities. This evidence was published in 2009 in the best-selling book The Spirit Level by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.

The book's findings inform and inspire the work of The Equality Trust, which the authors and Bill Kerry co-founded. The Equality Trust aims to reduce income inequality through a programme of public and political education designed to achieve:

• a widespread understanding of the harm caused by income inequality
• public support for policy measures to reduce income inequality
• the political commitment to implementing such policy measures.

Travel expenses & fees

Bill and Kathryn live in London, Richard and Kate live in York. All are happy to travel to events if their travel expenses (and accommodation expenses where necessary) can be refunded.

They do not charge a set fee for speaking but request that, where possible, a donation is made to The Equality Trust in lieu of this.

Suggested title for talks

The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone

Abstract

Comparing life expectancy, mental health, levels of violence, teenage birth rates, drug abuse, child wellbeing, obesity rates, levels of trust, the educational performance of school children, or the strength of community life among rich countries, it is clear that societies which tend to do well on one of these measures tend to do well on all of them, and the ones which do badly, do badly on all of them.  What accounts for the difference?

The key is the amount of inequality in each society. The picture is consistent whether we compare rich countries or the 50 states of the USA.  The more unequal a society is, the more ill health and social problems it has.

Inequality has always been regarded as divisive and socially corrosive.  The data show that even small differences in the amount of inequality matter.  Material inequality serves as a determinant of the scale and importance of social stratification. It increases status insecurity and competition and the prevalence of all the problems associated with relative deprivation. Particularly important are effects mediated by social status, friendship and early childhood experience. However, although the amount of inequality has its greatest effect on rates of problems among the poor, its influence extends to almost all income groups: too much inequality reduces levels of well-being among the vast majority of the population.

Slides

Due to the number of speaking engagements undertaken, we are unable to provide a copy of any power-point presentation in advance. If you wish to look at the basic collection of slides which may be used, you can do so here.