Cabinet crisis: Ministers turn on ‘Grinch’ Osborne and his Christmas-ruining tax credit cuts
The culprit: But while George Osborne is directly responsible for the tax credit cut, so is the rest of the Parliamentary Conservative Party, who have voted it through – even those who spoke against it like Heidi Allen.
Three thoughts occur. Firstly, where was the outcry when Iain Duncan Smith was merrily hacking the incomes of sickness and disability benefit claimants down by much more than the tax credits cut mentioned here?
Also, when did the Conservatives make any real effort to stop people seeing them as the Nasty Party? They’ve been nasty all along; perhaps some people only bother to notice when the nastiness is affecting them personally.
Finally, with letters informing tax credit recipients of the cuts timed to arrive just before Christmas, is Osborne – whose original first name was Gideon – trying to rename himself a second time – to ‘Grinch’?
George Osborne is facing a Cabinet backlash over his plan to cut state benefits for millions of families, who will be notified before Christmas.
Three Cabinet ministers, another senior minister and a number of Conservative advisers have privately expressed grave concerns over the Chancellor’s handling of the reforms.
They warned that Mr Osborne’s policy was being seen as “penalising” the working poor and may turn into a Poll Tax-style error, undermining years of effort to dispel the image of the Tories as “the nasty party”.
The Chancellor’s reform to tax credits, which will see 3.3 million families lose an average of £1,300 next year, is a key component of his plan to eliminate the Budget deficit.
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And so it goes on and on……….and on.
Osborne and the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future are coming together just like scrooge, although I doubt there will be a happy “lightbulb moment” ending for Osborne.
Osborne has painted himself into a dark corner, he cannot undo the big gift of a living wage (even though he did wrap it in an insult), and back track on tax credits.
Its one or the other, which one will it be.
This game of Russian roulette with peoples life’s has clearly got to stop.
What on earth were these so-called, “years of effort to dispel the image of the Tories as “the nasty party”’? As I see it the term was first coined by a nasty party member, now a minister, and they have always been the “nasty party”, they have never been anything different. They appear to revel in nastiness, division and hatred.
That’s right – the term was coined by Theresa May.
The one good ( sic ) thing about Tories such as Osborne is that he is adhering to the political theory that earned the conservatives the soubriquet of ‘Tory’.
The definition below is taken from encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com
The word “Tory” derives from the Middle Irish word tóraidhe; modern Irish tóraí: outlaw, robber or brigand, from the Irish word tóir, meaning “pursuit”, since outlaws were “pursued men”.
Which just goes to show that at least they are being consistent! It is also a crying shame that so many people are damaged by such policies..
Like you say, where was the hullabaloo when savage cuts were made to sickness and disability benefits? I’m quite willing to stick up for those about to lose their Tax Credits, but most of them were quite oblivious or disinterested in the cuts made to benefits that have killed 1000’s of the sick and disabled. Still no outcry there! There’s more of them than the sick and disabled so they can make more noise I suppose. I certainly don’t want to enter a them and us war, but I am seriously disappointed and disillusioned in their and this country’s lack of concern over the sick and disabled being slaughtered by this and the previous government. It doesn’t help that most of the country have fallen for the media’s ‘75% on sickness and disability benefits are swinging the lead’, but still have they no mind of their own!? And to top it off, should the Tax Credit cuts be shelved, the government will attack the sick and disabled yet again, on top of the cuts already announced a few months back to their benefits and support. I’m truly sick of all this crap! And I’m not alone, but there just isn’t enough people making enough noise about how the disabled are being treated. The UN might very well be investigating this country’s treatment of the sick and disabled, however they won’t be able to change anything, anymore than they can change the slaughter of the Palestinians by the Zionist Israelis. The sick and disabled don’t stand much of a chance!
Hasn’t this bustard taken enough away from us, something has to break?
They think that the sick, disabled and vulnerable either don’t vote Conservative or don’t vote at all.
Do working people who voted Conservative now feel cheated?
The voice of the sick etc…has been muted for a long time, not helped by the “I know someone who” meme, Benefit Bashing articles/programmes and general apathy.
This is where I personally doubt the human rights act, where is it for the well documented cases on you website Mike. Truth in “The dead can’t sue?”
Or something else?
I can’t understand how anyone who has to claim benefits voted for this odious bunch of b*****ds in the first place idiots!