<p><b>*A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK*<br>*SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*</b><br><br><b>''An Orwell for today''s poor'' - <i>The Times</i><br>''This is McGarvey at his best'' - <i>Observer</i><br>''Breaks your heart and boils your blood'' - <i>Big Issue</i><br><br><i>If all the best people are in all the top jobs, then why is Britain such a fucking bin fire?</i></b><br><br>Britain is in a long-distance relationship with reality. A ravine cuts through it, partitioning the powerful from the powerless, the vocal from the voiceless, the fortunate from those too often forgotten. This distance dictates how we identify and relate to society''s biggest issues - from homelessness and poverty to policing and overrun prisons - ultimately determining how, and whether, we strive to resolve them. So why, for generations, has a select group of people with very limited experience of social inequality been charged with discussing and debating it?<br><br>I''ve sat on cold pavemen