Terry Pratchett ’s work inDiscworldmay have flung us into a charming world of animated luggage and daring sorcery , but its insightful , often furious view of class dynamics and societal injustice is what made it sucha strongly suffer serial publication . Now it ’s lending some of that vehemence to spotlight a new campaign against poverty in the UK .
This week the Pratchett estate and Pratchett ’s daughter , writer Rhianna Pratchett , backed a newfangled drive by food writer and anti - poverty campaigner Jack Monroe . As theGuardianreports , the Pratchett mob ’s association is in the name of Monroe ’s new toll index finger , the Vimes Boot Index , intended to bring home the bacon a third - party choice to the consumer toll indicant furnish by the UK Government ’s Office for National Statistics , charting the effect of inflation on consumer goods and services , and highlighting the profound impact inflation has had on blue - income family and supermarket time value cooking stove of solid food and other basic goodness .
“ It was report last week that the CPI measure out for inflationrose to 5.4 % in December , the high level for almost 30 year , ” Monroe wrote in theGuardian in the first place this week , announcing her raw campaign . “ The CPI and the retail cost index ( RPI ) are used interchangeably to document the rising cost levels of groceries and household goodness across the UK . Yet they only tell a sherd of the story of inflation , and grossly underestimate the true cost - of - live crisis . ” The campaign has already earn a reply from the Office for National Statistics , but it ’s gained further prominence thanks to Monroe ’s maverick name option for the power .
It’s not every day Discworld gets to be part of a national conversation about economic justice.Image: Josh Kirby/Gollancz
inspire by a passing from Pratchett ’s 1993 novel Men at Arms , the 2d in the Discworld series to follow the sorcerous city of Ankh - Morpork ’s City Watchfrom the view of its commander , Captain Sam Vimes , the Vimes Boot Index is named for what Pratchett distinguish as the “ Vimes ‘ charge ’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness . ”
The understanding that the rich were so rich , Vimes reason out , was because they managed to spend less money .
Take boots , for example …
1/5
— Terry Pratchett 🖤 🤍 ( @terryandrob)January 25 , 2022
“ The understanding that the fertile were so productive , Vimes reasoned , was because they manage to drop less money , ” the passage from Men at Arms read in part , and tweeted out in full by Terry Pratchett ’s former Twitter account yesterday to support the Boots index . “ Take rush , for exercise . He earned thirty - eight one dollar bill a month plus leeway . A really good twosome of leather boots be fifty dollars . But an low-cost pair of boot , which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard throw out , cost about ten dollars . Those were the kind of boots Vimes always buy , and wore until the soles were so thin that he could enjoin where he was in Ankh - Morpork on a blurry night by the feel of the cobble . But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years . A humanity who could afford fifty dollar had a pair of boots that ’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years ’ meter , while the poor gentleman’s gentleman who could only yield cheap boot would have pass a hundred dollar bill on boots in the same time and would still have squiffy foot . ”
Monroe pull back parallels to the famous handing over ’s explanation to how scummy - income families in the UK have seen supermarkets either noticeably increase terms on “ budget ” lines of introductory food and good ( an exemplar Monroe used cited an over 300 % growth on a bag of rice at one store in the last year , while cut the amount of rice in the handbag in half ) as the country faces the continuing economic effects of Brexit , the covid-19 pandemic , and general supply range matter . With these lines , aimed at abject - income households , either pricing up or being replaced with more expensive storehouse - mark ranges , struggling families are being impel to turn to charities and food bank to hold up themselves , suppose with over a decennary of cut to social support programs byBritain ’s serial of Conservative governing , including Boris Johnson ’s current cabinet , itself rather meddlesome right now sample to hide a retentive string ofembarrassing , potentially illegalsocial gatherings by the Prime Minister during covid-19 lockdown .
“ Vimes ’s reflection on how expensive it is to be pitiful via the cost of boots was a razor - sharp evaluation of socio - economical unfairness . And one that ’s all too pertinent today , where our most vulnerable so often expect the brunt of austerity measures and are cast rudderless from protection and empathy , ” Rhianna Pratchett say in a financial statement allow for to the Guardian . “ Whilst we do n’t have Vimes any more , we do have Jack and Dad would be proud to see his workplace used in such a direction . ”
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