In times of darkness, we look for the light. That was why sales of Rebecca Solnit’s ‘Hope in the Dark’ spiked after Donald Trump's election. Yet Trump’s approval ratings are still to tumble: whatever we might wish, sometimes the darkness persists.
‘Our Other National Debt’ is a collection of essays that tries to see beyond our present darkness. In it, some of the UK’s leading campaigners and thinkers about health education, poverty and the interests of migrants and minorities propose the next steps the country’s policymakers could take, each trying to answer the question, how do we repay those to whom we owe the most?
The responses, and the faith the authors have in their chance of success, ranged from bleak to no more than nearly optimistic. I fear that those who foresee the bleakest outcomes may be right.
