Vocal Voices

Some junior minister, Rachel Maclean, has said that those struggling with the cost of living could take on more hours or move to a better-paid job.

Which Universe do the Cons get these people from?

What better jobs? Where are they? How many are there? Are the people she is patronising qualified for them? Are the hours of work available?

There are about 13 million pensioners who cannot get a job, never mind a better one. There are tens of millions more in relatively decent jobs on relatively decent wages who are struggling. Even some of those in the middle classes are feeling the squeeze.

I despair when I hear some of these soundbite policies.

You don't know whether to laugh or cry.
What a silly thing to say. There are people who can't work longer hours and parts of the country where good paying jobs are thin on the ground.

In order to work longer hours, your employer must offer them.

If you are a parent of a young family, longer hours may not be possible.

As for moving to a better paid job? Yes there is the possibility of moving location in the UK and taking up a better paid job even with the same skills, it is true. But for a family with young children and both parents working, this may not be possible, only one may be able to move, splitting the family may cost more than the extra wage and also it damages the family.

Then what about these better paid jobs. Can I have one please? OK I do earn a very large wage compared to those who are struggling but my wage has been hammered down below 2000 levels and they keep on trying to push it down further. Better paid jobs don't just grow on trees and often require significant effort to re-train, often with significant cost.

If it were that easy everyone would do it.

But this is not just con ministers. Nearly all politicians live in a bubble of their own making, cut off from the people on the ground.

Now if she had said "you don't need your massive sky package, 4 mobile phones, plus Netflix, Amazon and the 15 different charity subscriptions you pay every month, nor the monthly cinema card and half a dozen other monthly subscriptions all because they are CHEAP"; I could have sympathised to some degree. Not all that much, not everyone who is poor or pressured is caught in that trap but many trap themselves by not being able to see that what they surround their lives with are not necessities but "wants".