Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: The clash of the victims

Corbyn’s PMQ’s strategy is now clear. Hopeful emailers send their lifestyle details to Labour HQ and a computer sifts the figures to find the voter likeliest to cause the prime minister’s cheeks to blush purple with shame. Today’s lucky winner was Kelly, (no surname given), a single mum on £7.20 per hour who works for 40 hours a week while caring for a disabled sprog.

Did the prime minister know how much the tax credit deductions will cost her?

Cameron hadn’t a clue so he talked about the rising minimum wage and falling council rents. Corbyn gave the answer: Kelly loses £1,800 a year.

The question assumes that we all live in a dysfunctional boot-camp run by Whitehall. Our income, our working hours, our educational level – and even our ability to find a mate who doesn’t walk out  – are fixed by functionaries of the state.

Cameron accepted this assumption without demur.

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