Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Johann Hari Gets Real about David Cameron

Johann Hari: Why are we silent as Cameron preaches voodoo economics? - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent

Great article. Some snips.

Main question - how many houses does David Cameron own?

A series of disturbing facts have leeched out about David Cameron over the past fortnight – but they have been virtually unreported. The Tory leader has started advocating a form of economics so extreme it was derided even by the first George Bush as 'voodoo economics', and revealed he is so out of touch with ordinary people he doesn't even know how many houses he owns. We failed for years to expose the MPs' expenses scam. Isn't it time for journalists to pull the news agenda out of Douglas Hogg's moat and start exposing the facts about Cameron that will affect us even more bitterly than the stench from the Fees Office?

Let's start with a tiny story, that points to a bigger untold tale. A few days ago, the Leader of the Opposition was asked how many homes he owns. "I own a house in North Kensington and... in the constituency in Oxfordshire and that is, as far as I know, all I have," he said. He then started to get confused, said he might own four homes after all, and pleaded: "Do not make me sound like a prat for not knowing how many houses I've got." Imagine if Neil Kinnock said this in 1991. Do you think you might have heard?

The fact that David and Samantha Cameron are worth an almost-entirely-inherited £30m, according to financial expert Philip Beresford, isn't in itself damning. Franklin Roosevelt was very rich, but became a great crusader for the poor. But Cameron is advocating policies that will benefit his tiny class of super-rich Trustafarians at the expense of the rest of us. He is committed to spending billions on a massive tax cut for the richest inheritees, paid for by the bottom 94% of us – and now he has announced his enthusiasm for a bogus economic theory that will justify shovelling far more of our money their way.

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