When you have been to a food bank, as a visitor, like I have, your heart does not bleed when you read on the tabloid front page that “Love rat Ryan Giggs may lose half of his £40 million fortune.” I have nothing against Giggs, other than the fact he decided to play for Wales instead of England, but I am beginning to wonder if this country is losing the plot.
Let’s face it, Giggs will not have to scrimp and save for the rest of his life with some £20 million in the bank already. He will not have to live with the prospect that one day his minimum wage income will be used up to pay an unexpected bill and that there will be no bread on the table.
It is not Ryan Giggs’ fault that such a story appears in the paper, or that he is rich beyond our wildest imaginings. I do not begrudge him, personally, his extreme wealth because someone – well, Sky Sports Subscribers like me, actually – else made him rich for being very good at something. When Manchester United offered to pay him – I don’t know – £5 million a year to play football, he was hardly going to tell them to get lost, was he?
In terms of relative obscenity, I would rather Giggs was worth £40 million (before divorce) than ‘Sir’ Philip Green being worth £5 billion. Green, you will recall, left BHS with a pension deficit of around £500 million whilst taking around £500 million out of the business during his time in charge, paying much of his money straight to his wife who lives in Monaco thus avoiding British taxes. At least Giggs could play some of the best football on the planet during his time at Manchester United and he will be remembered for being a great player. Green will be remembered, if he is remembered at all, for the predatory parasite that he is.
Having been in close proximity to those at the other end of the food chain throughout my working life, I find it hard to understand how we tolerate such excess and inequality. Having seen both the very rich and the very poor at close hand, mainly the latter it has to be said, we might as well live in different countries. When Green is entertaining his fellow billionaires on one of his two, soon to be three, luxury yachts, I’ll bet he doesn’t pay too much thought for the workers at BHS who face an uncertain future and the likely prospect of their modest pensions being rendered more modest still.
That both Giggs and Green are noted for their philanthropy and charity work does impress me, but not that much. For people who are so rich, I would be surprised if they didn’t give something back to a society which is at near breaking point in some areas, mainly down to the political party – the Conservatives – which Green helps fund.
Giggs’ small fortune and Green’s even larger fortune doesn’t directly affect me and I am certainly not jealous. The only thing I would have like that is possessed by either of them would be Giggs’ football ability (I had none). The so called jet set lifestyle enjoyed by Green – well, he can keep it. My family and friends are worth far more to me than any number of flash cars and fancy dan yachts.
What I do care is the enormous disparity between the apparently deserving rich and the deserving poor. Of course, we should not demand absolute equality in terms of income and lifestyle and anyway most of us don’t judge our success in life by counting money or by the types of cars and houses we have (which is just as well in my case) but it would be nice if everyone had the chance to fulfil their potential and be the best they can on the basis of a genuine meritocracy, which we don’t have in this country.
Call me a dreamer (and you wouldn’t be far wrong) but there is an enormous gap between the haves and the have nots. No one really needs £40 million or £5 billion to live on and, indeed, have a sensational standard of living. I cannot really imagine what £1000 looks like, never mind £5 billion, but then, if you’re looking for a food bank to help you and your kids, you probably haven’t even got a tenner. And a million people who can’t even afford a tenner – what does that tell you about Britain today?
