Tough Decisions, Painful Sacrifices

British fair play is as rampant as one would expect among the nation's top entrepreneurs. Sixty-four of the hundred biggest companies have ensured that the most deserving shoulders are spared the greatest burden, keeping executive pay and perks at the accustomed levels while fleecing the taxpayer for handouts. Most of the firms which did condescend to ration the fat cats' treats did so in a manner sufficiently feeble and tokenistic to forestall accusations of instituting a board-room Holodomor. Nevertheless, uncharitable voices were quick to point out that controversy might well result should we ever run out of humbler witches to hunt. "If we want to protect as many jobs as possible and give the lower paid workers who have got the country through this crisis the pay rise they deserve," said the director of one think-tank, "we will need to rethink the balance of pay between those at the top and everybody else." Fortunately, when faced with a choice between redistribution of wealth and administering yet one more kicking to those further down the social scale, the great British public tends to vote Conservative.