Firm But Fair

The bonus culture is a wonderful thing. When everything is going swimmingly, bonuses are paid to the wealthy for doing such a splendid job. When the economy is half-way down to Digby Jones' locker, bonuses are paid to the wealthy in order to encourage them to do better. Naturally, New New Labour paid its biggest bonuses this year to civil servants in the Ministry for War and the Colonies and the Department of Wage-cuts and Pensions Crisis; both of which have shown such exemplary dedication to placing the needs of poor people in an appropriate perspective. Daveybloke's Cuddly Conservatives, who this week seem to be waving their social-responsibility credentials to compensate for having waived their green ones, waxed indignant about the "something for nothing culture" which has always been so abhorrent to the party of hereditary wealth and tax cuts for the rich.