“I voted Conservative, to be honest.”
“What??”
She got all defensive then. Like they do.
“Listen, “ I said. “You’re a single mum. In a council house. Living on benefits. With a disabled boyfriend!”
“Don’t say that!” she cried. Visibly cringing. She was a cut-above, you see. She was ‘better’ than that. This wasn’t how she saw herself at all. Most definitely not.
“They hate people like you, for fuck’s sake! They loathe and despise you! The bedroom tax, sanctions of the disabled, ATOS, the list goes on!. Could you even be more a turkey voting for Xmas?”
“They’re only after the scroungers!” she protested. “The chavs and the scum. People who deliberately fiddle the system and refuse to work.”
Two Weeks later.
She’s sobbing now.
“What’s up?”
“I don’t know what we’re going to do!” She cried some more.
Got caught by the Bedroom Tax, see? And then there was the overpayment of Tax Credits that they’ve suddenly demanded back.
“They can’t do this! We’re decent people! We’re not scroungers and fiddlers!”
And, to be fair, they weren’t.
But then they never are, are they?
It’s always someone else…
Harry Paterson 