Today’s latest hilarious government outtake – a wonderful trend on twitter of comments #mycurtainsareclosedbecause.
No, I didn’t quite understand it either, until I found the guardian article. Apparently George Osborne has commented on the unfairness of those on benefits keeping their ‘blinds down‘ while others head out to work.
Bewildering. Does he really think that that is why some people have their blinds closed? Or is he, yet again, trying the divide and rule tactic? If we’re all sniping at each other, then we aren’t watching the government. As a friend tweeted me, it’s like the plate of cookies. You have a plate with 10 cookies on it. The rich guy takes 9, and says to the labourer, that unemployed bum is after your cookie.
Are we really that stupid? Are we really going to fall for this? I can think of some ways to cut the deficit without cutting benefits hugely, or rearranging the pay structure as I suggested earlier. How about if Vodafone paid their taxes?
This made me want to laugh or cry too.
Osborne defended targeting the poor while cutting the top rate of tax, from 50p to 45p. He said that it was the “poor looking for work” who had paid the price for the “phony 50p rate” because it had made the country “uncompetitive”.
How does targeting the working poor, (because let’s not forget many of the benefit cuts so far actually hit people in work. For example, most new housing benefit claims are from people in work) make the country more competitive? I’m not seeing it.
But then little that politicians do makes much sense to me. I was having a discussion on twitter about how hard it is to find someone to vote for – I can’t vote labour and end up with Ed Balls in power after the fiasco of the Badman review and the attack on home educators. I can’t vote Tory – threatening the abortion limit, then saying they’d remove benefits from people having too many children (make your mind up, do you want people to have babies and then let them starve to death, like that poor child in Westminster?), slashing benefits from the disabled, but letting corporations get away without paying their taxes.
Which leaves me with LibDems, who aren’t very likely to get into power on their own after being hand in glove with the Conservatives this time around, or a protest vote for someone like the Greens.
I haven’t done that since I was 19. I voted Green instead of Conservative *then* read the manifesto and was utterly horrified about what I’d voted for. I’m not sure what they stand for at the moment, but at that point control was big on the agenda.
I’d like a real choice. Any suggestions?
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