There is increasingly more talk about inequality and high pay packages. This has been highlighted most recently by the failure of BHS and the re-focusing on how much Sir Philip Green took out of the business whilst he owned it. But we have also seen the controversy of the BP chief executive and his £14 million pay packet and, in that annual fest of gawping at the rich, the Times Rich List was published last week.

The difference between rich and poor is getting greater and has been for nearly a quarter of a century. Looking at London, even Londoners cannot hope to be able to afford a place to live. There are increasingly massive distortions.

Whilst I am in favour of people being rewarded for enterprise and hard work, it has to be in proportion. Is the chief executive of BP worth £14 million a year? Of course he isn’t. No employee of a company can be worth that, even if they are the chief executive. BP is a company with a long history of building the business and with a huge number of employees. The chief executive is not that special. Senior pay packet inflation is largely as a result of transparency. Before, no one knew what they were being paid so boards guessed at good salaries. Now everyone knows and boards expect to pay above average packets to get top staff. That drives up the averages so pay soars.

IN the case of entrepreneurs, I am more relaxed about high wages. If a person creates a product and a company, re-mortgages their home and works endless hours to create jobs and prosperity from nothing, then I am behind them earning a reward. If they use that wealth to asset strip another company, or do some clever but shifty financial engineering at the cost of employees, then that is another matter and needs to be held to account.

The Times Rich List highlighted an interesting trend. Some of the super rich were less wealthy than before, whilst others were catching up. But the most successful group were those running online gambling businesses. They are making billions out of the misery of many people, guaranteed to lose money so a small group can get rich. There is no social value to an online casino, only ruined lives. This is a perfect example of a group of rich people getting richer whilst making others poor, and we need to look at this.