Benefits cap is evidence of Tories' vile political smearing of sick, disabled and jobless poor

Benefits cap is evidence of Tories' vile political smearing of sick, disabled and jobless poor



The Lib “let them drive Lamborghinis” Dems are as out of touch as their Con bedfellows when less than £30,000 is in the average pension fund and the party stupidly talks of retirees buying sports cars costing £300,000.

No wonder swindlers and racketeers will be leafing through brochures for country estates at the prospect of skinning alive sitting ducks in a re-run of the multi-billion Thatcher pensions mis-selling scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Yet Labour this week backing the welfare cap and a pensions free-for-all experiment is also evidence Osborne is winning the public ­argument.

Ed Miliband in a speech to Scottish Labour in Perth, and Shadow Cabinet rising star Rachel Reeves on TV, championed values superior to the spite spewed by Osborne.

Labour’s strategy is to reduce the benefits bill by improving pay and building new houses.

Economic experts commissioned by the TUC estimated taxpayers would save £3.2billion if a higher Living Wage replaced the current Minimum Wage.

Under Osborne’s failed economics, living standards will be lower in 2015 than 2010. The Tories have never ­deconstructed Labour’s claim that families are £1,600 worse off.

The TUC calculates a typical wage packet has shrunk by £40 a week after inflation.

Home ownership is tumbling and upwards of 600,000 Britons rely on food handouts.

Yet Labour will still back key planks of Osborne’s Budget.

My instinct would be to oppose, to tell Osborne to take a running jump.

I understand why Miliband and Reeves don’t, particularly in voting for a benefits cap Labour could discard when it takes office.

But depressingly it also a sign the welfare smear is sticking


The Lib “let them drive Lamborghinis” Dems are as out of touch as their Con bedfellows when less than £30,000 is in the average pension fund and the party stupidly talks of retirees buying sports cars costing £300,000.

No wonder swindlers and racketeers will be leafing through brochures for country estates at the prospect of skinning alive sitting ducks in a re-run of the multi-billion Thatcher pensions mis-selling scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Yet Labour this week backing the welfare cap and a pensions free-for-all experiment is also evidence Osborne is winning the public ­argument.

Ed Miliband in a speech to Scottish Labour in Perth, and Shadow Cabinet rising star Rachel Reeves on TV, championed values superior to the spite spewed by Osborne.

Labour’s strategy is to reduce the benefits bill by improving pay and building new houses.

Economic experts commissioned by the TUC estimated taxpayers would save £3.2billion if a higher Living Wage replaced the current Minimum Wage.

Under Osborne’s failed economics, living standards will be lower in 2015 than 2010. The Tories have never ­deconstructed Labour’s claim that families are £1,600 worse off.

The TUC calculates a typical wage packet has shrunk by £40 a week after inflation.

Home ownership is tumbling and upwards of 600,000 Britons rely on food handouts.

Yet Labour will still back key planks of Osborne’s Budget.

My instinct would be to oppose, to tell Osborne to take a running jump.

I understand why Miliband and Reeves don’t, particularly in voting for a benefits cap Labour could discard when it takes office.

But depressingly it also a sign the welfare smear is sticking.

Trust-fund Tory George Osborne’s welfare cap is a naked political plot to perpetuate one of the nastier Right-whinge smears.

The silver spoon Conservative deliberately fans prejudice by suggesting most social security is wasted on feckless layabouts milking the system.

I’ll return to the bailed-out banksters who plundered Britain another week but this week’s gripe is that we never hear from Osborne an acceptance most of the official welfare bill is spent on pensioners and working people.

One lot paid into the pot all of their working lives while the other group isn’t paid enough to live on.

Instead this disreputable Chancellor, one of David Cameron’s posh boys, scaremongers for party political ­advantage.

The agony for decent people everywhere is the devil’s tune touches a nerve with numerous strugglers hoodwinked by Osborne’s vile propaganda.

Playing off the working poor against the sick, disabled and jobless poor is an old Tory trick of divide and rule.

Splitting middle earners from lower earners creates a poisonous false sense of superiority when the two retain a vested interest in high-quality public services and a secure safety net.

For Osborne to do both while short-changing the working poor and middle earners is to treat most of the population with contempt. Only an aloof Tory Party peering down its nose at hardworking Britons could calculate an offer of a free pint if you buy 300 or a subsidy for bingo hall owners – not players – would bring the house down.

The Lib “let them drive Lamborghinis” Dems are as out of touch as their Con bedfellows when less than £30,000 is in the average pension fund and the party stupidly talks of retirees buying sports cars costing £300,000.

No wonder swindlers and racketeers will be leafing through brochures for country estates at the prospect of skinning alive sitting ducks in a re-run of the multi-billion Thatcher pensions mis-selling scandal of the 1980s and early 1990s.

Yet Labour this week backing the welfare cap and a pensions free-for-all experiment is also evidence Osborne is winning the public ­argument.

Ed Miliband in a speech to Scottish Labour in Perth, and Shadow Cabinet rising star Rachel Reeves on TV, championed values superior to the spite spewed by Osborne.

Labour’s strategy is to reduce the benefits bill by improving pay and building new houses.

Economic experts commissioned by the TUC estimated taxpayers would save £3.2billion if a higher Living Wage replaced the current Minimum Wage.

Under Osborne’s failed economics, living standards will be lower in 2015 than 2010. The Tories have never ­deconstructed Labour’s claim that families are £1,600 worse off.

The TUC calculates a typical wage packet has shrunk by £40 a week after inflation.

Home ownership is tumbling and upwards of 600,000 Britons rely on food handouts.

Yet Labour will still back key planks of Osborne’s Budget.

My instinct would be to oppose, to tell Osborne to take a running jump.

I understand why Miliband and Reeves don’t, particularly in voting for a benefits cap Labour could discard when it takes office.

But depressingly it also a sign the welfare smear is sticking.