Going Backwards.

Cameron is at it again. His latest brainwave is to cut welfare payments to young people under twenty five who are living independently. He says it sends ‘the wrong message.’ (That’s the phrase politicians use when they can’t find a more constructive justification for an ill-conceived cost cutting plan.) David says they’re going to have to go back and live with their parents or fend for themselves.

But suppose the parents don’t want them back. Suppose the parents are already under such pressure from welfare ‘reforms’ (what a wonderful word that is) that they can’t afford to have them back. And what about those young people who don’t have any parents, or who are so estranged from them that it amounts to the same thing?

‘Fend for themselves.’ Right, what does ‘fend for themselves’ mean? Youth unemployment is at a staggeringly high level in Britain, and that’s because there aren’t the jobs available. Thatcher and Blair destroyed them. So what’s left? If you can’t get a job and nobody is supporting you, there are three options left: beg, steal or die. So when the crime statistics rise, please think twice before blaming the criminals. Unfortunately, Australia is no longer available as a fitting repository for starving sheep stealers.

And there’s another potential scenario. Statistics continue to show that the mega rich minority are continuing to get richer at a pace greater than the rate of inflation. The amount the government is expecting to save from this latest ‘reform’ could come out of Branson’s back pocket without him even noticing. We’re not ‘all in this together,’ and we all know that, including the under twenty fives. That’s a recipe for riots, so when riots happen, please think twice before blaming the rioters, however ugly they look

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In the middle of writing this I had to do my best to rescue a baby bird that had knocked itself senseless against a window pane. I wonder what Cameron would have done. Trod on it, I expect.