Wednesday 17 April 2013

Letter 103: On £10 million, unemployment, minimum wage & funerals for the rich and poor



With everyone in the Cabinet attending Baroness Thatcher's funeral, you might have missed the news  that unemployment figures are up by 70,000 today, hitting 2.56 million. Ouch! Couple that with pay rises for those IN work raised by just 1%, plus inflation running at 2.8% and people on lower incomes are experiencing a further squeeze in living standards. Do you think that could be why one in four were opposed to taxpayers footing the bill for such a lavish funeral? Or is it as the Bishop of Grantham said "asking for trouble" to spend close to £10 million on such pomp and ceremony when Margaret Thatcher's legacy is still considered to be so divisive? No-one would begrudge a significant politician their dignified farewell, but it does seem quite outrageous to spend so much on one person, Prime Minister or no, especially when there has been such a sharp rise in pauper's funerals. Embarrassingly your Government rejects nearly half of the applications for funeral payments. Did you know that £10 million could buy 11,111 public health funerals?

Maybe it's best to think about something else until you publish the breakdown of the cost for today...

How about we imagine all the luxuries that my daughter will be splashing out on with that extra 12p an hour she'll receive if she's still on the Minimum Wage in October? I can't say it's what either of us hoped for as she diligently worked her way through GCSEs, A levels and good degree at a prestigious Russell Group uni...


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