It’s NOT a human right for the poor to have pay TV

TORy minister Tracey Crouch has provoked an outcry by suggesting that families who face losing tax credits could look at ways of saving money, including cancelling their pay TV.

she said that when struggling families come to her for advice, she goes through their expenditure and income and suggests where savings could be made. ‘sometimes you have to go without,’ she explained.

sensible advice, you might think. It stems from experience. Tracey was raised by her divorced mother on a very modest income. A grammar school girl, she is that rarest of things these days — a blue-collar Tory representing a working-class constituency.

yet the left has responded with predictable fury, accusing her of insulting the poor. no doubt fearing censure from no 10, Tracey has now apologised, saying she’s ‘sorry for giving the impression of a lack of understanding of the financial pressures many families face’.

sorry? she should be congratulated for her honesty and straight-talking. Because the truth is when money is tight, as it is for millions of working people, many ordinary families have to make little cutbacks. And luxuries like sky TV should be the first to go.

no one has a human right to pay TV. nor, for that matter, do they have a right to the latest mobile phones, laptops or designer clothes.

Money running short? Perhaps cutting down on cigarettes, booze and take-aways could help it go further. It’s called budgeting — a skill our mothers and fathers learned from their parents.

yet the tragedy is we now have many hard-up families who believe such indulgences are essential — and that if they can’t afford them, the state should pay up. gone is the ethos that if you want anything in life, you may have to work damn hard for it.

Instead, the hand-wringing left have encouraged poorer families to believe they are ‘deprived’ simply if they can’t afford a foreign holiday every year.

According to the charity shelter, a family should officially be classed as homeless if two children have to share a room. What madness.

I grew up sharing a room with my younger brother. Holidays were a week in grandpa’s fixed caravan down the coast. We didn’t have a TV until I was 12. And at 14 I got a weekend job to help pay my way. But poor? Deprived? no. I was blessed with a childhood rich in love and happiness — and it helped set me up for life.

Unsurprisingly, when lBC’s nick Ferrari held a phone-in on Tracey’s comments yesterday, 89 per cent of people agreed with her. What a shame Mr Cameron, who’s never wanted for anything, hasn’t come out to support her, too.