In these tough times, some people would like to see increases in taxation in order to pay for things we need. Tendring Council in Essex has come up with a real brainwave. They intend to introduce an annual £25.92 ‘lifting charge’ to help elderly people up when they fall. Do not check your calendars. This is not an April Fool’s joke. This is for real.
First, let’s look at Tendring. I have no idea where it is, other than it is in Essex. Within it lies the most deprived ward in the entire country, which is represented by – and I am not making this up – two Ukip councillors. Of the 60 strong council, 23 seats are held by the Conservatives, 22 by Ukip and the rest, including Labour and the Lib Dems, are nowhere. You can see why the far right Ukip is so strong, what with the ethnicity issues that divide the area. A mere 97.5% of the population are white, whilst an overwhelming 0.9% are Asian, 0.3% are black and 1.0% are mixed race. If you are a white man in Tendring, you must feel all but alone.
Just to show they have no heart at all, the right wing extremists have decided there is an important way in which they can boost council income. Someone must have thought, “Hmm. One of the biggest problems with old people, especially stroke victims, those with Parkinsons and those who are just very old, is that they keep bloody falling over. And you know what? They can’t get again. It’s very thoughtless. So what’s we’ll do is charge to help them up again. Some people must think this country owes them a living. I’ll show them.”
There is surely a point of principle here. I would imagine that these wretched pensioners who keep falling over have paid a fair amount in National Insurance and tax during their working lives. They might have been expecting, not unreasonably in my opinion, that the country might just look after them when they got older. Call me old fashioned, but I think it is an outrage that we are even discussing this subject. Do the Conservatives have no heart at all?
What next, then? I have thought of plenty of other areas the council could bring in charges to further devalue the lives of those pesky pensioners who have committed the cardinal sin of living too long. I won’t go into them here because I am worried that someone at Tendring might have a light bulb moment and think, “Why didn’t I think of that one first?”
We call this the thin end of the wedge, don’t we, and that’s what it is. These chancer councillors are trying it on here, seeing what they can get away with and once the door is open, they will try to push the door wider still.
It is not the fault of the old and the vulnerable that they have grown old and more vulnerable. They should not be the victims of austerity. Thatcher might be dead, but as I pointed out the other day her mean-spiritness remains and it’s alive and kicking in Tendring.
Charging old people to pick them up if they have fallen. I didn’t think society could get any lower than that.
