Chris

It's absolutely ridiculous, I agree, and one of the most annoying things about today's march is the "me too!" politics of Labour, which has been hanging on the coat tails of today's march despite knowing that what the TUC really wants is for the country to keep borrowing and spending its way out of trouble. The loony left's anti-cuts manifesto is one that even Labour at its most profligate knows it cannot possibly sign up to.

On the subject of getting people onto the State payroll, yes, this is something Gordon Brown was sadly very good at. The other thing he was very good at was getting the middle classes hooked on benefits in the form of tax credits, all safe and fluffy and administered almost (but not quite) as if it were a tax refund, just to make sure we all went for it without feeling as if we were having to deal with the dole office.

Hence we now have many thousands of public sector workers who have just found out that Labour's profligacy has serious consequences but who are prepared to shoot the messenger rather than direct their ire at the muppets who actually caused the mess, who were marching along with them this afternoon, and many thousands of middle class Grauniad readers who are seriously hacked off about having to give up their annual gîte holiday because the decimation of their tax credits means they can't afford the flights any more.