Who feels 'entitled', posh boy? Cameron's welfare witch hunt

David Cameron spoke yesterday of wishing to end a ‘culture of entitlement’ on welfare benefits. He did so with a straight face just as he managed to claim that Jimmy Carr’s tax affairs were ‘morally wrong’ without a cheeky wink or raised eyebrow.

The utter hypocrisy of this Tory government (with a Liberal Democrat poodle yapping at its side) plumbs new depths every day. The Prime Minister’s family made its fortune from the use of tax havens. Over half of the Conservative Party’s donors operate offshore from the UK to avoid paying tax. They are the richest of the rich in this society yet do not wish to contribute to helping the society to function for the poor as well. As Gideon Osborne admitted ‘some of the very wealthiest people in the country have organised their tax affairs... so that they were regularly paying virtually no income tax.’ Cameron himself is worth over £30 million yet he claimed expenses from Parliament on his mortgage.

If there is a ‘culture of entitlement’ in Britain, it is evident among the richest. After all, how many large banks have trumpeted tax avoidance schemes yet ask for public bail outs when their gambling on the financial markets went wrong?

How many large corporations have moved offshore to avoid tax payments or just outright failed to pay tax historically yet believe they are entitled to get profit from the UK economy (step forward Vodaphone which had a £6 billion tax debt written off by ‘posh boy’ Gideon Osborne)? How many Chancellors and MPs have claimed bizarre expenses at the same time as being multimillionaires? How many governments have insisted that the right of the ‘free market’ to make a profit overrides the needs of public services? This is the real culture of entitlement that scars this society.

When under 25s are told that they could lose housing benefit, what is really going on? The ConDems have a mission to stop the British state from acting as a safety net for the poorest through the use of welfare payments and to become a safety net only for the banks and the richest. In Bradford, a third of the working age population is unemployed with youth unemployment 50%. Over 60% of housing has been declared ‘not decent’ by an independent report. Here is the scandal of Britain in the 21st century. While the banks are given £120 billion to speculate on food prices and government bonds abroad, the poorest are being left to fend for themselves and prop up those in the their families who cannot find work or work for poverty wages.

In order to complete the scapegoating of the poor, Cameron wants to make those requiring benefits to survive use food vouchers. Meanwhile, his government keep printing money for the bankers.