The ministry of nostalgia and Inequality & the 1%

The ministry of nostalgia and Inequality & the 1%

Owen Hatherley and Danny Dorling at the Aye Write Book Festival, chaired by Lesley Riddoch, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, March 18th 2016.

Since 2008 the top 1% of the population has grown richer while the rest find life increasingly tough. The gap between the haves and the have-nots has turned into a chasm. In Inequality and the 1%, Danny Dorling lays bare the true cost of the division in our society and asks what have the superrich ever done for us? In his witty polemic, The Ministry of Nostalgia: Consuming Austerity award-winning critic Owen Hatherley questions the ways we have adopted the gospel of luxurious poverty: from ubiquitous ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ posters, the commercialization of thrift, the added value of artisanal, and the selling of a ‘make do and mend’ aesthetic. The discussion is chaired by Lesley Riddoch, author of Blossom: What Scotland Needs to Flourish.