Sticking Cameron’s cabinet on £53 a week would in itself be a stunt. But in the age of rich public school boys being parachuted into safe seats without having any experience of life outside Westminster - the struggle for jobs and daily budgets far more demanding than anything Osborne has had to get his head around – it might just be a necessary wakeup call.
After Iain Duncan Smith claimed he could live on £53 a week in benefits instead of his £1,581 a week post-tax salary, he was challenged by an online petition to put his money where his mouth is.
Within a day the petition attracted more than 200,000 signatures. It has now secured over 300,000 signatures.
Petitions are hardly the strongest form of political protest, and this is something of a stunt, but my name is on that list because I think there is a worrying disconnect between rich politicians and the real world.
If Iain Duncan Smith were to take the £53 a week challenge, I wouldn’t expect to see a road to Damascus, or for this die hard dyed in the wool Tory to abandon his long-held ideological commitment to neo-liberalism. But at least it would show the man whose bedroom tax is to make 660,000 people living in social housing £728 per year worse off the everyday effect of his policies.
It is little surprise that a cabinet dominated by millionaires has consistently acted in the interests of its class with expensive tax giveaways to society’s richest individuals and the world’s biggest corporations, while clawing back money from Britain’s poorest. It’s basic self-interest, which displays a tragic lack of empathy for those less fortunate.
Sticking Cameron’s cabinet on £53 a week would in itself be a stunt. But in the age of rich public school boys being parachuted into safe seats without having any experience of life outside Westminster – the struggle for jobs and daily budgets far more demanding than anything Osborne has had to get his head around – it might just be a necessary wakeup call.
You can sign the petition calling for Iain Duncan Smith to live on £53 a week here.
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25 Responses to “How about we stick Cameron’s entire cabinet on £53 a week”
Salman Shaheen
I’m don’t think Bennett’s individual circumstances are really at the heart of the issue. What’s important is what IDS’ policies are doing to the poor in general.
Eve Hodges Hayes
I imagine that he has direct debits that go well over this amount which would all have to be cancelled and some may be contractually binding. I think we need to address the them and us mentality and I’m not sure that some people are capable of that level of empathy and understanding of how people become who they are psychologically.
salamisausage
Mr. Shaheen,
You write “rich public school boys being parachuted into safe seats without having any experience of life outside Westminster”. Surely you are describing Miliband and his cohorts..
salamisausage
Eric,
Would you care to share the evidence you have
for this ridiculous statement?
salamisausage
Mr. Shaheen,
Now that poverty is “relative” do you personally know anyone who is genuinely poor? Anyone with a Sky subscription, a flat-screen TV, a car, a mobile ‘phone and the latest trainers is not poor.