Dear Claire,
I have, today, been made aware of another facebook page, with which it's evident you are all too familiar, given that you have passed their email correspondence, facebook posts and any other contact to Wiltshire Police for their review.
I didn't know if you or your supporters were reading any of my letters, so I'm grateful to you for confirming that you do. Thank you.
Try, just for a minute or two, to understand the depth of hatred the coalition government has engendered within the country. Ask yourself why this is the case. The first time I voted was in 1982, and I voted Tory. This was also the last time I voted Tory. It became evident to me in my early 20's, that the Tory party was a force that was (and still is) interested in one thing only: ensuring the perpetuity of policies that would benefit those at the very top of the tree, at the expense of everyone below that level. Despite everything the Tories tell us, the situation has never changed. The evidence has only been strengthened over the course of the last 5 years.
With the ever-widening gap between the richest and poorest in society, it's not hard to see how those at the bottom become steadily more resentful of their increasing hardship, and of those at the top. While I would never suggest we're on the cusp of a French Revolution, it might be closer than we think.
This situation is made a thousand times worse by the perceived and very real lives of luxury enjoyed by those at the top of government: Cameron, Osborne and IDS to name the most high-profile.
Osborne, who it's been reported you will defend vigorously, made an obscene profit on property on which the mortgage interest was paid for by the tax-payer. Clegg made about £38,000 on such a property, and he gave the profit back to the treasury. Osborne made £450,000. Nothing was returned to the treasury. How do you think this goes down with the electorate?
IDS tells us that £53 a week is plenty to live on. When challenged to do so, he blusters his way out of it, saying it's a publicity stunt. This man has lived in a house owned by his father-in-law for many years. He has never experienced any hardship. He claimed £39 for a breakfast. I feel guilty putting a £3 claim through for breakfast, if I've had to get somewhere very early for work, and have stopped for a bite to eat.
Compound all this with IDS's absolute self-belief that he is doing the right thing, that he's being cruel to be kind, that his unpopular decisions are wholly necessary to reform the welfare and benefits system. Compare this with his refusal to debate key issues, his refusal to acknowledge that his policies have caused thousands of people to rely on foodbanks (statistics from The Trussell Trust show that 48% of their 'customers' are there as a result of IDS's policies), the arrogance, hubris and contempt with which he reacted to the Commons Select Committee's questioning.
Again, to add to all this, is the very real evidence of the failures of his reforms. Hundreds of millions of pounds written off, a system that is utterly unworkable, where training is a disaster (watch channel 4 despatches programme on this subject). The IT infrastructure is not fit for purpose, the software doesn't work, the people using it cannot get to grips with it, the live date of 2014 has been put back indefinitely. Precisely summed up by the jobcentre advisor's comment of “I am unable to emphasise enough, what a massive con and waste of taxpayer’s money the Work Programme is.”
I'm sure you've seen the youtube video of Glenda Jackson laying into IDS. Now imagine the feelings she has for him, multiplied by a factor of possibly thousands. That is how the vast majority of anyone remotely interested in politics, with an ounce of compassion in their bones feels. That she says all she does, delivered in some style with her actress training, completely unchallenged by IDS, who sits opposite with a smirk on his face. Does this man have any idea of the damage his attitude is doing to the general perception of the Tory party?
Cameron is perceived as out of touch. Someone born into the life of luxury that has enjoyed a life unfettered with the sort of financial challenges that most of us face. His attempts at being genuine, at showing compassion, at accepting with any sort of good grace that his policies may not be perfect, wheeling his children out to show how he's just an ordinary family man, it all falls rather flat.
The perception is that these three colleagues of yours do not have an ounce of compassion or humility between them. They were born to do this, it is their birth-right, they were so equipped by being educated at the very top schools in the UK. Even this IDS had to lie about: He never went to the University of Perugia, and he was not educated at Dunchurch College of Management - he took 6 short courses there, amounting to about a month's attendance, and did not achieve any qualification. Why does he have to lie?
I KNOW you've done some good work in the constituency and I know there are people who think very highly of you and are grateful for what you've done, but you are associated with a party that is universally loathed by all those it has touched. I said yesterday, that the two-party system had run its course and needed to change. Never more than the TV debate last night was it more evident. The three ladies present spoke passionately about the need for change, the end of austerity, the end to this sham the Tories have perpetuated of 'the mess we inherited' and 'we have to cut the deficit'. Cameron's contempt for this process was evidenced by the fact that he didn't even show up.
That's why I write these letters, and will continue to do so.
Kind regards
P.S. I know that you know exactly who I am, because the email copy of this letter to you contains my details at the bottom. Should you wish to hand all my correspondence to Wiltshire Police, I'd be delighted to meet you at the station to discuss the matter, and provide evidence of all the issues I have mentioned thus far.
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