Happy now, Mr Harris?

Jun 29 2008 by Alan Ross, Magic 1170

TOM HARRIS has received an almost unanimous hail of abuse for claiming that we should all cheer up and stop being so miserable.

Who he? Tom Harris is a junior Transport Minister, and the abuse is posted on his website.

Now, politicians are always being derided for being out of touch with the voters but, to be fair, Mr Harris has probably been too busy filling in his expenses or some other vital activity on behalf of his constituents to notice what’s gone on recently.

So, in a spirit of helpfulness, Mr Harris, here’s just a few of the things we are peeved about . . .

:: The biggest recession in the housing market for 30 years. Whatever happened to “no more boom and bust”, Gordon?

:: People being stabbed outside their homes for daring to ask gangs of hoodies to stop wrecking the family car which they’ve slaved all week to afford. Talking of which . . .

:: Having the most expensive petrol in Europe, if not the entire Western World. Guess why? 57p per litre goes straight to Alistair Darling’s coffers. He’ll be able to pour it into the vast lake of more of our money when his sneaky car tax changes come through.

:: MPs telling us to moderate our pay claims while they consider whether or not to have a huge pay rise to replace their “second homes allowance”, or the John Lewis List as it is known.

:: Judges letting terrorist sympathisers out on bail because of the Human Rights Act.

:: If a rogue magistrate who slipped through the net of the PC brigade actually dares to try and jail someone, they very soon find out that there aren’t any prison places. If you want an example of just what a mess we’ve got ourselves into, look no further than Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Jack Straw setting up a review to try and make it harder for people charged with murder to get bail. How did we get in this state?

:: Government statistics that claim the cost of living is rising at 3.3 per cent when every other index of people’s real living costs is going through the stratosphere.

:: “Five a day” advisers.

:: Schemes to pay smokers to quit.

:: Pledges to conquer child “poverty” by subsidising the feckless to have too many children. Then losing all the data gathered by the vast bureaucracy needed to do this by leaving it on a train or posting it to the DVLC, or both.

How long have you got, Mr Harris?