Tackling Inequality in the UK Panel discussion

Mary O’Hara is an award-winning journalist, author and producer. Her journalism appears in publications including the Guardian and Mosaic Science. She is the author of two books: The Shame Game: Overturning the Toxic Poverty Narrative (Policy Press 2020) and Austerity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK (Policy Press 2014) and is founder of the multi-platform anti-poverty initiative, Project Twist-It. She is a contributor to the book, The Violence of Austerity (Pluto Press 2017) and others including Council Skies by the artist, Pete McKee (2018) and Vulnerable Consumers and the Law, Routledge (2021). She has directed/produced short films, run a comedy club, been an Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley and a producer, booker and consultant on Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. In 2020 she was named Best Foreign Columnist at the Southern California Journalism Awards for her Guardian column, Lesson From America. During 2021 she’s been working on the development of a new podcast, Little America, with the production company, Little Everywhere in Los Angeles. She is on the board of the charity, Arts Emergency, is the founder and chair of the David Nobbs Memorial Trust, and is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Paul Sng is a biracial British Chinese filmmaker whose work is driven by methodical research, creative storytelling and a collaborative approach that strives for inclusivity and diversity. Underpinning all of Paul’s films is an eye for strong characters and compelling narratives, all the while working to establish and maintain trustful relationships both in front of and behind the camera. Paul’s documentaries have been broadcast on national television and screened internationally and include Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle and Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché. He is the editor of two narrative photography books, Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience and This Separated Isle.

Photo credit: alicia Bruce

Yunis Alam was born and lives in Bradford. He has worked as a sociologist at the University of Bradford for over 20 years, researching and teaching various subject interests including ethnography, ethnic relations and popular culture. He has also published a number of crime novels, short stories and worked in theatre production. His more recent academic work explores the relationships between ethnicity, racism, class, gender, taste and cars, situated particularly within the context of multi ethnic urban spaces.

Stewart Lansley has written widely on poverty, wealth and inequality. He is the author of The Richer, the Poorer, How Britain enriched the few and failed the poor, Bristol University Press, Breadline Britain, The Rise of Mass Poverty (with Joanna Mack, 2015) and The Cost of Inequality (2011).

Coco Khan is a columnist, feature writer and editor  at the Guardian. She has contributed to the books The Good Immigrant and It’s Not About the Burqa, and is currently working on her debut book.