We were a centre for the industrial revolution, why not be at the heart of the social one too?
If ever there was a time to trial a universal basic income, this is it.
Furlough is almost at an end. Further redundancies are on the horizon. Rental evictions are inevitable. Many small businesses are considering shutting their doors for good. The absence of a financial support package for the excluded three million will continue to be felt as we head into winter and find ourselves in localised lockdowns. The pressure which will be placed on an already failing welfare system will be too much for it to cope.
Notwithstanding the devastating economic consequences of the pandemic which are being felt up and down the UK, Swansea has long been the victim of deindustrialization and impoverishment since the decline of its copper industry.
Copper put Swansea on the map. At its peak in the 19th century, Swansea produced 90% of the world's copper and had pre-eminent status as a world industrial centre. Swansea, otherwise referred to as Copperopolis back then, was at the heart of the industrial revolution.
By the end of WW2, the copper industry was in decline leaving in its wake alarming rates of poverty, food bank reliance and unemployment in Swansea. The city’s contribution to the UK’s overall wealth and prosperity during that period had been great but Swansea soon found itself left behind in this new post-industrial era. A casualty of the deindustrialization of the UK.
We all know it: the current system of Universal Credit is inadequate. It is complicated. It is inefficient. It is punitive. It disincentivises work. It stigmatises those that rely upon it. It is not by any stretch of the imagination, an adequate safety net. It has also become abundantly clear that the current system is not remotely an answer to poverty.
Broken down in its simplest terms - poverty is a lack of cash. It would therefore follow that by giving every person a regular cash payment each month, a UBI would be an effective way to reduce poverty. I say reduce and not eradicate because no policy by itself will ever eradicate poverty. But UBI must surely, if implemented properly, lift many out of poverty, reduce the depth of poverty, and remove the threat of poverty to those that are treading water above the breadline.
Times are changing. The younger generations are becoming increasingly aware and conscious of the inequalities and social injustices of society. We will not just sit back and accept that this is our lot, that this is how society is destined to be and this has been telling over the last decade. We have had the biggest climate justice movement led by Greta Thunberg the world has ever seen. The #MeToo movement broke the international silence surrounding sexual abuse and harassment across the world. The BLM movement involved some of the largest protests in US history. It is time for another movement. The basic income movement.
And the idea of a basic income is indeed catching.
A 12-year basic income trial is underway in Kenya. A basic income scheme in California is moving into its final stretch. It was piloted in Ontario in 2017 albeit the pilot was prematurely cancelled following a change in the Canadian Government.
Thanks to Andrew Yang, a candidate at the 2020 US democratic presidential primaries and a big advocate of UBI or as he refers to it “the Freedom Dividend”, the idea has become more mainstream in the US and globally.
In Europe, the first national, government backed basic income trial took place in Finland in 2017. Spain has launched a basic income scheme in response to the pandemic targeting the most vulnerable. Researchers in Germany are currently piloting a UBI.
Closer to home, the Scottish Government recently commissioned a study into the feasibility of running a basic income pilot in Scotland which recommended piloting UBI. City councils across Scotland, England and Northern Ireland have also endorsed plans to run a pilot.
A motion was passed in the Welsh Senedd on the 30th September 2020 to trial a UBI across Wales and calling on the UK Government to fund it.
Three of the biggest political parties in the UK are now calling for a Basic Income. UBI was proposed by the Green Party in their 2019 manifesto, the Liberal Democrats recently voted in favour of adopting UBI as official policy at their party conference, while Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP said in May that "the time has come" for the idea.
Around the world, and a bit closer to home, countries are talking about basic income, running pilot programs to test it, or implementing a version of basic income.
The descendants of those 19th century Swansea workers that contributed so greatly towards the UK’s wealth and prosperity should also be a part of the discussion. After all, Swansea was at the heart of the industrial revolution, why should it not be at the heart of the social revolution? Why should it not be part of the movement? The UBI movement.
More about the author
Lowri Walters - @LowriWalters1
Swansea, Wales
Lowri is a Family Solicitor in Swansea and the co-founder of the Swansea Lab.