The Tories just don’t understand the poor

SO, here we are. A small group of people will shortly choose whether our country will be run by a woman who is as clueless as a particularly befuddled potato and madder than a bag of badgers, or a guy on The Times Rich List who likes to raise taxes on the poor in order to allegedly save the country from ruin. Is this really the cream of the Tory crop? Gawd strewth, we’re doomed!

For the average person in the street, it doesn’t really matter who wins anyway because behind the glossy PR photos and soundbites, there is a problem at the core of

Tory ideology – they just don’t understand nor ‘get’ poor people.

I’d wager that nobody in whatever Cabinet is formed, has ever had to go through the indignity of joining a dole queue. None of them has ever had their lives probed and dissected by a DWP pen-pusher because they’ve had the sheer temerity to make a benefits claim.

The chances of any Tory MP finishing work for the day and having no option but to visit a foodbank on their way home in order to feed their families are pretty damned slim. As a group, they are clueless about the real world where the majority of us live.

As we’ve seen by recent comments from Tory MPs about how people struggling in the current crisis can survive, they just don’t know what it’s like to be working class or otherwise struggling to make ends meet. What did they say? Oh yes: “Work longer hours, get betterpaying jobs, learn how to cook, and eat cheaper food brands.”

Breathtaking, isn’t it? It may come as a surprise to the bags of ignorant bones spouting such gems of advice but there are only 24 hours in a day and a lot of people are already working for most of them and still struggling. As for somehow landing better paid jobs, unfortunately nobody from wealthy companies and financial institutions seems to go head-hunting in the working classes.

I could be wrong but I’ve yet to hear of such an organisation turning up at a hospital or care home and handing nurses and carers fiveand six-figure bundles of cash to promote their own agenda.

You can’t suddenly go from a lowpaid job (or jobs in many cases) and remove your need for State help by becoming a hedge fund manager or similar and then stashing your new found wealth overseas. I’ve never been invited to sit on the Board of some money-making behemoth for a stupid amount of money and maybe only do a few hours ‘work’ a month for it.

Few of us already earn a hefty sum from our existing employment but still have enough free time to take on handsomely paid ‘consultancy’ roles. Neither can I employ friends and family as ‘researchers’ or ‘personal assistants’ and get the public to pay for the additional streams of household income. You see, Tory MPs just can’t understand why everyone isn’t rolling around in cash the same as they are.

Somehow, because the poor can’t vault their way up the wealth ladder, Tory MPs join their one or two brain cells together and come to the conclusion that the poor must simply be lazy and incompetent. It’s their own fault that they are poor and there’s little to nothing the State can do to help them live with dignity.

Even if they could help the needy, Tories have a sneaking suspicion that the recipients of State benefits would become work-shy or they would try to fiddle the system. After all, benefit fraud is a big problem already and costs the country a fortune, right?

However, isn’t it time the

Tories looked at themselves and questioned whether that kind of crime is any different to what they get up to? How is it any different to someone sending money offshore to avoid paying tax, or claiming nondom status? How is it any different to them employing highly-paid clever accountants to find loopholes for them to exploit? If they want to identify the biggest fraudsters in our society, they need only look in a mirror.

As for the remarks about lacking culinary expertise and buying cheaper foods, I wonder if the raving simpleton who came up with that ignorant quip was sitting in one of the many taxpayer-subsidised Westminster eateries or bars at the time. With this government, it certainly wouldn’t come as a surprise.

Terry Cutting Exeter, Devon