I cannot abide BBC’s Question Time. It just makes me angry. The entire premise of politics in this country is that we, the great unwashed, are too stupid to understand how it all really works. And just looking at ‘our’ politicians, it reminds me that they are supposed to be in office to represent us, not to look down and rule over us. More than anything, though, it is the spin, the slippery, slimy, cynical spin.
How about this one from last night’s show: ‘The top 1% pay 28% of tax’ says Tory minister Anna Soubry. Wow! What heroes they are! Paying that large a percentage of their incomes in tax suggests they are on their uppers, out in the streets selling pencils from a cup. They might even be forced to turn off their heating even when it’s freezing cold because they can’t afford the bills or worse still, they are the very people on our streets, huddled up in blankets, sleeping in doorways. These people, suggests Ms Soubry, are national treasures to whom we should be doffing our caps.
It could be, of course, that the top 1% of the population are so filthy rich, paying their fair share of taxes or somewhere near it. I doubt that they are saving up for a September Sun holiday in Brean or checking the prices in Aldi. This is cynical politics.
I have the feeling that the top 1% are so called because they, as individuals, have more money than a small country and even a few large ones. As I have said many times, I do not begrudge anyone who works hard and plays fair their just rewards. Although I am not personally motivated by the pursuit of cash – which is just as well – I like to celebrate the success of good people who work hard. I do not celebrate political spin.
Soubry’s suggestion is that the government is ensuring that the very rich pay high taxes. I am no accountant, but I’ll bet the very rich pay a smaller percentage of their income in tax than I do. This does not keep me awake at night, I’m just making the point. Perhaps if a very rich person pays more in tax than, say, the Sports Direct employee on the minimum wage, the implication is that ‘we are all in this together’. But the reality is this: if the living standards of the better off are tweaked, it might mean one less skiing holiday or a smaller brand new car. For the millions on poverty and near poverty wages, a cut in their income might mean the difference between eating and not eating, or being warm and not being warm. I can tell you that as a matter of fact these people exist. I meet them regularly and have done throughout my life. As a child, I was one of them and this is what makes me angry.
The idea that ‘those with the broadest backs carry the heaviest load’ is another George Osborne favourite, but it is all relative. Politicians do not have a clue how ordinary people live their lives. The choices working people have to make are very different from the rich and elite.
If the top 1% really do pay 28% of the taxes the state collects, then it’s no big deal. They are not heroes, as Ms Soubry implies. They are not struggling to pay utility bills, they are not struggling to put food on the table, they are not at the bottom of the food chain.
Soubry is yet another Tory idiot, a million times removed from the real world inhabited by everyone else. Don’t patronise me by saying how generous and heroic the filthy rich have become in our country and they’re certainly not better than me.
