By Rab Bruce’s Spider

Some of the comments being made by speakers at the Conservative Party Conference are truly alarming.

For example, Theresa May’s racist rant against immigrants was so bad that even the Daily Telegraph considered it extreme. Of course, politicians deal in memorable phrases rather than facts but May’s comments were not only distasteful, they were appallingly short-sighted. Her claim that wicked foreigners are stealing jobs implies that there aren’t enough jobs to go round. This may indeed be the case but surely it is one of the major roles of Government to provide employment by encouraging economic growth? That minor detail seems to have eluded the Home Secretary who, instead of providing suggestions as to how an increased workforce could be best employed in a range of new jobs, chose to direct her ire at foreigners as the root cause of unemployment.

Then there was Jeremy Hunt with his appallingly condescending comments about people who will be affected by cuts to Tax Credits. Amongst other things, he suggested the loss of income would encourage them to work harder. It seems he wants British workers to emulate their Chinese counterparts. The fact that this would entail ridiculously long hours for even less pay than British workers receive now was conveniently ignored.

But let’s take a closer look at Hunt’s claim. Imagine, if you will, that you are a single parent with two or three kids and you are working forty hours per week in a minimum wage job. You rely on Tax Credits because the UK has promoted a low wage economy as the way to operate. The funds you receive via Tax Credits are going to reduce and you are supposed to work harder in order to make up the difference.

How?

Are you to take on a second job? WHO will look after your children? Will you need to pay someone to take care of them? How much will that cost?

Or are you supposed to work overtime for your current employer? What if they say that is not necessary and that they won’t pay you for it?

Or are you simply supposed to work harder so that your employer decides to promote you? Fine, but what about your fellow employees? Aren’t they all doing the same? Will they all be promoted? That seems unlikely.

In short, Jeremy Hunt’s comments are just about the most fatuous and ill-considered that any politician has ever uttered.

There are plenty more examples of this sort of rhetoric and no doubt other Tories will present their vision of the future over the next couple of days but what we’ve heard so far can surely only lead us to one of two conclusions.

The most palatable explanation is that the UK is governed by the most Right-Wing, authoritarian, divisive, elitist Government it has seen for many decades. The policies of attacking the Disabled and the least well off have been well documented and show no signs of abating. The contradiction in the basic philosophy, that poor people will work harder if you take money away from them but rich people will work harder if you give them money has been pointed out by several commentators but the Tories are not put out by this at al since it is central to their ideology.

Amidst all this anti-social legislation, they spin the line that they are the party of working people and are claiming the Centre ground in politics. We must therefore conclude that they are greedy, selfish manipulators who do not really care about what happens to ordinary people. The alternative, that they actually believe their own rhetoric, is too horrible to contemplate.