Ethical Chickenfeed

Since the great British public has no particular interest in whether those on low incomes can survive another benefits cut, some enterprising journalists have asked the National Haystack whether he could manage on £118 a week. The Haystack responded that wages had been falling throughout his party's time in office, but were now about to rise thanks to his government's National Insurance hike. Besides, the pandemic had cost a good deal, and somebody would have to pay for it; and of course, with the prospect of so many empty shelves in the supermarkets it will be all the easier for the little people to cut back on luxuries. Meanwhile, in the Labour leadership's absence no less an elder statesman than Gordon Brown has proclaimed the Universal Credit cut less morally defensible than bankrolling the Iraq crusade or selling out the NHS with the PFI boondoggle, and more socially divisive than pandering to the migrant-bashers. No doubt as a result of this flinging of the moral compass, the Treasury is considering some stuff that Johnson would never bother to understand, in order to prevent hard-working families becoming poor enough to be undeserving.