12 October 2010

Does Cameron have a cunning plan?

Last week he put the boot into high rate taxpayers, depriving the yummy mummies of child benefit. Admittedly, he also took a swipe at the poor, by setting a £26,000 cap on benefits, in a (failed) effort to assuage The Daily Mail, but that was of minimal overall financial significance (although not for those affected).

This week, he proposes to subject the children of the middle classes to a debt-ridden future. All those parents earning between say £30K and £100K a year are looking at the prospect of their darling kiddies being loaded up to the eyeballs with debt by the time they leave university. The very rich won't be affected (are they ever?) and the poor will have access to a wider range of bursaries and scholarships. No, it will be the bourgeois middle class who suffer.

So why is Dave upsetting those upon whom he depends to return him to power at the next election? Maybe it's incompetence - not impossible given his headless chicken act last week in responding to the complaints about child benefit withdrawal. But like any conspiracy theorist, I suspect that there is something deeper going on. Perhaps we'll learn what he's up to, perhaps not.

1 comment:

Richard T said...

I have a nagging suspicion that when the Government really zaps it to the poor and disabled, they will use the cut back in child benefit for the middling class to say we're being consistent and hitting everyone.