cent of the population now has as much income as the poorer 50 per cent of households. ``The increase in inequality is probably the biggest social change that we have experienced in the past 20 years,'' he said. And, Johnson added, it is here to stay. A Labour Party which was once firmly egalitarian in its creed rules a Britain that is profoundly unequal and growing more so - and Labour neither can nor wants to do anything about it. Ministers defend the big fees paid to the top people who advise the Government on everything from the millennium to poverty. They explain just why top doctors command really big salaries. (Answer: many of their clever friends are richer still.) They get into a mess about their own salaries. But the one-time would-be redistributors of wealth have become advocates for inequality. And it is hard to imagine them being anything else, frankly, because inequality has become so popular. For many soccer fans, the fat fee paid to the latest Italian transfer recruit is a source of immense local pride. The enormous sums earned by Noel Edmonds or Esther Rantzen haven't dented their popularity. Hardly anyone mourning Diana seemed bothered by the raising up of a very rich and aristocratic woman. We know as she knew that money can't buy you love. In a particularly piquant recent example, the BBC's John Birt let it be known this week that he was worried by the Hollywood fees being demanded by some big-name