In 2014 Thomas Piketty, a little known French academic economist, published his global bestseller Capital in the Twenty First Century. This book, all of 900 pages long, captured the spirit of the age. Piketty’s book reflected a growing concern about the enormous inequality that has blighted western societies at the beginning of the 21^st century.

Piketty famously stated that returns on capital grew faster than the incomes of the poor, leading to even greater inequality. Piketty’s arguments were welcomed by a world ever conscious of growing inequality.

The success of the so called ‘1%’ – bankers, financial speculators and entrepreneurs who control so much of modern wealth – is clearly visible. But what should the response of politicians be to growing inequality? How can we reconcile the obvious need to grow the economy while ensuring the weakest and most vulnerable in society do not get left behind?