Dr Alf raises an interesting point via this Guardian article but this trend is now unstoppable.

The wealthy often have London property and other assets which shoot up in value, so are making money all the time even whilst sleeping. They have disposable income, so that they can make further investments and they can use a 5 flags strategy to nullify any tax liability.

The poor have debts and no disposable income, even if they are working (GE produced figures in 2007 which showed that 80% of people in the UK had less than £500 gbp in their bank accounts at any one time, hardly enough for a cheap holiday let alone an investment).

16% of the UK population cannot get access to finance on standard terms, so they are unable to realistically finance a business.

The wealthy have access to cheap money and the powerful connections necessary for putting lucrative deals together, whereas the poor have no such access.

The same goes for the children of the rich who through schooling, university, internships and lodge memberships from an early age are put into the frame for success.

For the great unwashed who do not know how this works and lack the drive to figure a way out of their financial prison there is little in the way of meaningful advice let alone practical help.

The public school and Oxbridge educated apparatchiks at the Guardian should save their mock surprise and stop pretending that they care about the poor. So far their record in terms of tax avoidance through Guardian Media Services and their record of non egalitarianism in that they usually hire from groups of left-wing champagne socialists, like themselves demonstrates their utter hypocrisy at every level.

John Gelmini