Between 1997 and 2010 the nation known as the United Kingdom
suffered the greatest irresponsible government in modern times.
One man more than any other was responsible, his name was Gordon Brown.
Whilst his boss Tony Blair may have danced with bravado with his partner George Bush on the international ballroom floor, it was he, Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, who held the purse strings, and consequently believed that he was Father Christmas.
Money was no object to this strange caledonian. Indeed, he was the antithesis for a Scotsman, and far from being miserly he spread his money with charitable abandon. He even gave it to thousands of tourists.
History will judge him, but unfortunately his replacement is even more dangerous.
A change of government does not mean a change of intelligence, and consequently the new incumbents are equally pathetic - the difference being where one chancellor was a philanthropist, the other is Scrooge.
Indeed, not just a miser, but downright dangerous. George Osborne is the epitome of a public school toff. He is not Gordon Brown but Tom Brown, the fag of David Cameron, hereby known as Flashman. Yes, Thomas Hughes clearly knew what he was talking about.
Lets get to the nitty gritty. Through no fault of their own, people working but on low incomes - strivers not scroungers, but doing their best, renting because they can't afford to buy a home of their own, are being systematically attacked, to pay for the excesses and debt which has been accumulated by years of incompetent government.
Such is the reduction on funding from central government to local authorities, services have to be cut, and incredibly, people in social housing will have to pay a premium for having a spare room.
Of course, children grow up and leave the nest, however, many people regard their council house as their home, have lived there for 40 years and more, but now they have a space surplus to requirements. Presumably they will be expected to pay for the privilege or move to smaller homes. Similarly, the working poor must work even harder to pay for their survival. The "council house" was a lifeline for many in years past, they raised their family in them, and many regard them as their homes and security (what? Are there no workhouses?).
"The working poor" are a breed of people who are not benefit scroungers, in the past they would have been know as the "working class" and the nation was built on them. They believe in the ethos of work, and set examples to their children. They drove the industrial revolution and made their country great - they were the miners, the steelworkers, the shipbuilders and the factory workers - indeed, they were the people embodied by the Olympic opening ceremony which broadcast to the world the industrious hard working people which forged an empire.
Yes, there is a minority of people who can't be bothered to work and rely on the state, but we now have a government which is incapable of distinguishing between the two.
The working poor are the ultimate victims because their jobs are insecure, they work long hours, yet, through no fault of their own they see the cost of living rising, they try to raise families, they find their money buying less, their rents, food and utility bills increasing and yet they also see any benefits they are entitled to being taken away.
They are being removed by a government which has lost the plot, which panders to the wealthy, and propped up by a bunch of opportunist, weak-kneed Liberal Democrats.
If those Lib-Dems had one ounce of spunk, they would walk away - right now! In the meantime, the Tories cut and slice, remove funding from public services, close hospitals, decimate the police, make thousands redundant from the armed forces, yet has a leader in Flashman which has the audacity to visit North Africa thinking that he his lord over a country with the power to offer military support.
The hypocrisy is astonishing. He leads a country that for the first time in modern naval history doesn't even have an aircraft carrier!
I voted for change - but I didn't vote for the unfunniest joke. I certainly didn't vote for Morcambe and Wise!
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