Man tells truth, is made to apologise
Earlier this week we pointed out that for most people in Britain, the current economic crisis is in fact no such thing. If you're in the blessed section of what in modern times is an unprecedentedly polarised society, which is defined by home ownership – something the majority of adults are – then the chances are you're doing just fine out of the banking catastrophe of 2007-8.
So the widespread vilification of Lord Young of Graffham (above, centre) in this morning's press for accidentally saying out loud what most people already know to be perfectly true is a little… well, it's not surprising, exactly, but it's another nail in the tattered, sieve-like coffin of the concept of honesty between the people and their semi-elected leaders.
To get away with the ideological butchering of the public sector that they've always yearned for an excuse to embark wholeheartedly on, the Tories know that they have to maintain the public facade that they're not just victimising the poor, the unemployed and the sick, because "We're all in this together".
We are, of course, all in it together, in much the same sort way that the passengers and crew of the Titanic were. They were all – literally! – in the same boat, but there were lifeboats for lots of them, and it was only the working classes locked down in steerage who were inescapably doomed to end up in a cold and watery grave.
The vast majority of people in Britain of working age (over 70%) are employed. A very similar percentage (though of course not all the same people) are homeowners. And if you're a homeowner and you're working (and even the worst projections of the unemployment figures over the next few years show a relatively small number of people, as a proportion of the total, losing their jobs), you HAVE never had it so good.
Astonishingly low interest rates have probably put hundreds of extra pounds in your pocket every month from your mortgage payments, public-sector wage freezes (imposed on unions cowed by the spectre of redundancies) will drive down inflation to keep everything you buy nice and cheap, and you'll probably be able to wriggle out of even the cuts that do, at least in theory, affect you personally.
The reason the Prime Minister was so quick to deliver a public smackdown to Lord Young was that he'd let the cat out of the bag. The Tory voters of Middle England are not to suffer in this scorched-earth slash-and-burn, but it must appear that they are. It must be made to look like, in Chancellor George Osborne's words, "those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden" even though the reverse is true.
So a forgetful old man speaking carelessly at a fancy dinner where he thought himself safely surrounded by friends has been offered up as a whipping boy. Lord Young of Graffham has already prostrated himself before the nation, offering the profound and heartfelt apologies of a penitent sinner for the crime of telling the truth. But let's be sure we know who it is he's actually apologising to. Here's a clue: it's not us.
It's also another example of the media concentrating on sensationalism and stirring up emotions rather than reporting news. Is an advisor's comment really that important in the grand scheme of things? No. Are there more important things happening in the world? Yes.
That would be a hard position for the UK media to hold after Wills And Kate Week.
Update: he's now resigned. Truth-telling BASTARD!
link to bbc.co.uk