Dope Peddlers

By Sonia Poulton 23rd April 2012

Quick, somebody pinch me. I’ve just had a moment when I’m not sure if I’m awake or in a lucid dream. I have just found myself agreeing, wholeheartedly, with Tory MP Nadine Dorries who has branded the leader of her party – David Cameron – and his Chancellor of the Exchequer – George Osborne – ‘arrogant posh boys’…..

Or, to give her quote the fullness it deserves, she said, on a TV show today:

‘Unfortunately, I think that not only are Cameron and Osborne two posh boys who don’t know the price of milk, but they are two arrogant posh boys who show no remorse, no contrition, and no passion to want to understand the lives of others – and that is their real crime.’ 

Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. It is. She’s right and it shocks me to say it considering she has not been above using the ‘one rule for them and one for us’ divide when it suits her.

Like, for example, the time she seemed to think it entirely appropriate to claim her childcare costs on expenses – which she did – although she more than paid for that faux pas with the public anger that followed.

That said, I’m not one to hold a grudge, and certainly not if she’s prepared to speak out for the greater good. So it was that I found myself cheering loudly at her candid – some may say foolhardy – announcement.

So, leaving aside the fact that she has her own axe to grind with Mr Cameron – and not least because she has previously clashed with him when he has treated her like a bit of fluff during PMQ’s by doing his boy chortle and calling her ‘frustrated’ – what she has said should resonate loud, long and clear with us embattled Brits because there is a great deal of truth in it.

I am in my forties and I can state, without reservation, that I have never known a Prime Minister of our country to be so out of touch with the needs of the electorate.

Trust me, I thought Tony Blair was a weapon of mass distraction – he and his dodgy dossiers – but at least he did a passable double of caring. And, no matter what, the impoverished of our country were still not as in-the-dirt poor under him as they are now.

Our current Prime Minister and Chancellor are as transparently uncaring with the people they represent as it is possible to be without actually lining us up against a wall, loosening a clip and finishing us off.

Fair to say, in less than two years in power, Cameron has pushed for changes that neither Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair could see through. Financial cuts that have left people who were already on the poverty line in a wilderness of abject fear.

Many Tory grassroots think Cameron is ‘too left’, but that’s only because they have not been exposed to the obscene fullness of what he has really put into effect.

The truth is that when the public are finally aware of the heinous measures taken by this Coalition, it may be too late to rectify them – and we will be left with a ravaged country that may take two or three decades to get back on its feet. 

Disabled People's Lives - Lost on the playing fields of Eton

The proof is in the pudding. Since Cameron’s NHS and welfare reforms – particularly those pertaining to disabled people, including the terminally ill – there has been a substantial increase in suicides of people who, literally, cannot afford to breathe for a moment more.

We have also witnessed a rise in food banks. Three years ago we had 75 food banks in England, today we have 200-plus and they are springing up on average of three per week.

Shocking, no? Aren’t we supposed to be one of those wealthy countries we hear so much about?

Well, yes, but we all know that our country’s wealth is secured by less than five per cent of our nation.

When it comes to Cameron pushing for such unconscionable acts against the already vulnerable, I have to assume that this is down to being out of touch with the needs of many – just as Ms Dorries says he is. He just doesn’t seem to get it. I mean, it’s not as if David Cameron wasn’t made aware of the dangers of his gung-ho approach to the lives of millions, was it?

When it came to reforms, David Cameron has been single-mindedly unstoppable. He has refused to allow the vast tide of sensible, compassionate opposition to sway him.

Like a child in a sweet shop overdosing on too many E numbers, he has ignored advice from professionals and focus groups and even invoked archaic laws to push for cuts to disabled people that the Lords – despite their cushioned luxury – found reprehensible.

The problem with some people who are born into the type of privilege of Cameron and Osborne is that they don’t know what it’s like to have a pound in your purse until payday.

They don’t know what it’s like to cancel a direct debit this month because you can’t afford to pay the gas bill. They don’t know what it’s like to go without food so that your children can eat. 

And, yet, these are true realities for hundreds of thousands of people in our country. Although, not, of course, for the multi-millionaires in the Cabinet. Including Osborne and Cameron.

Both men were born into a world of great wealth and privilege. They have no understanding of poverty neither in theory or practice. They were bestowed with the type of education that expects, nay demands, to raise leaders of nations. Even if they are sorely ill-equipped to do so. And that’s where the arrogance comes in.

I have a very good friend who went to Eton. His father is a Lord and they have a beautiful country estate as well as properties in Mayfair. He is, to all intents and purposes, extremely affluent.  He could also be reasonably described as ‘posh’.

He pronounces his words with immaculate precision and has a sumptuous natural confidence that comes as second nature to his financially-privileged background. 

Homeless shelters and food banks are busier than ever across the UK as cuts begin to bite

That said, he is one of the kindest people I know. Several times a year he takes food and clothes to homeless shelters, he has worked in soup kitchens and he still manages to be a successful designer by day. He’s one of the good guys. Posh, but still in touch with the things that really matter. Like the needs of people less well-off than himself.

The fact is, being posh is not the biggest crime committed by Cameron and Osborne – their sense of entitlement is. One is a birthright, while the other is just not right.

Let’s be straight here. What qualifications did either of these men have for the important roles they have over our lives? Osborne’s greatest in-road was the fact that he was Dave’s Bullingdon mate, no wonder they are seen as a Cabinet of chums.

They both lack real-world experience, which is increasingly apparent with each ludicrous Budget and each absurd announcement – such as putting aside ten billion for the IMF while taking ten quid here and ten quid there from our already destitute.

It is these actions that really hold them up to the light and reveal them as being people who are out-of-touch with the lives of the British public.  

Let us hope that sooner, rather than later, they will also be out of office. 

SONIA POULTON