At the time of writing this, more than 5 million people in England had been vaccinated against the coronavirus. The vaccination drive is a small glimmer of light in a stream of apparently relentless bad news regarding infections, deaths and the associated human and economic costs of the pandemic.
The Basic Income movement continues to push for immediate Emergency UBI payments, as well as for a longer-term Basic Income scheme that can help our society be more resilient to future shocks. Recently published research shows that, compared with other possible interventions, Basic Income would be better at reducing the impact of the pandemic on people's livelihoods.
In the past two months two London local authorities (first Islington, then Richmond) added their voice to calls for UBI trials, joining more than a dozen others around the country.
In January, the Greater London Assembly took up the issue of UBI with a discussion in the Economics committee. Somewhat disappointingly, they opted to delay voting on the issue until later this year.
Meanwhile, over in the US, Andrew Yang, the most conspicuous political voice in favour of UBI, announced his candidacy for mayor of New York, ensuring that the profile of basic income will continue to rise.
Together all of these actions are raising the profile of the UBI movement across the world. A recent poll found that the majority of Europeans are in favour of UBI as a way of easing the impact of the coronavirus epidemic.
You too can help raise the profile of UBI. Here are some things you can do this month:
A cross party group on Basic Income has been set up, with the aim of bringing together politicians from all levels of government (national, local, regional) to discuss and campaign for a UBI. You can write to your elected representatives and encourage them to join this group and campaign for UBI.
If you are going to be voting for a mayor in the upcoming local elections, ask your preferred candidate to sign up to the Mayoral candidates pledge to support trials of UBI in your community and lobby the Government to legislate for and fund the trials.
2020 Revealed That Unconditional Basic Income Cannot Wait Any Longer, by Scott Santens.
"The coronavirus crisis has made abundantly clear that a net by definition is full of holes, and that when it comes to our safety net, the holes are large enough for millions of Americans to fall through. What is needed is a fully universal and unconditional floor free of holes."
