An Eloquent Gesture

Although Chancellor Chunt's ante-pre-electoral rah and blah made no direct mention of striking workers (some hundreds of thousand of whom have timed their latest action for Jerry's big day), he nonetheless managed to express his sympathies with characteristic refinement. Four billion (four thousand million, in real money) is to be spent on increasing tax benefits for those who have been thrifty enough to amass pension pots worth a million or more. Ostensibly, the measure is intended to protect the public against a looming shortage of the class of doctor who, without disturing Fishy Rishi's negotiations to get his private swimming pool properly heated, lances the prime-ministerial haemorrhoids at a thousand pounds a pop; or the quality of dentist who keeps Chunt's gnashers sufficiently smooth and dull that they cause no discomfort during his frequent oral contact with certain sagging Murdoch assets. It remains to be seen whether the uncharitable public sector will take the sharp end of the policy in quite so amiable a spirit.