The government has suggested that lowering tax on beer and bingo will “help hardworking people”.
The Guardian response, written by Owen Jones is:
“It is difficult to know where to begin with this poster: it is an #epicfail, to use the appropriate Twitter lingo. The suggestion that cutting bingo tax and beer duty will “help hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy” is so patronising it looks like a crude attempt at satire: indeed, the only comfort on offer for the Tories is that some social media users genuinely believed it was a parody.
But wait a minute.
When the government wanted to raise taxes on pasties and caravans, The Guardian‘s response was:
The two taxes were also seen as symptomatic of a government out of touch with ordinary working people.
So which is it to be? The government is “out of touch” with “ordinary working people” if it raises tax on meat pies and caravans, but it is “patronising” the very same “ordinary working people” if it reduces tax on beer and bingo?
This is obviously – on both occasions – manufactured drivel and completely uncaring and “out of touch” with the sort of “ordinary working person” who might enjoy a beer and a pasty in his or her caravan after playing bingo. This person will merely break even and hence derive no long-term financial benefit at all. Who will champion them?
