Dear whingers and "poor" people

May I just take a moment to say "will people please shut the fuck up about the VAT rise?". Anyone watching the news might be given the impression that this was something that had suddenly happened, not something announced 6 months ago.

But no, we have to witness wall-to-wall coverage of random talking heads bleating on about how this is going to hit the poorest so terribly. We have to look at graphs produced by people who have never had real jobs, which extrapolate reality and "prove"* that the poor will be hardest hit.

The Labour party, the party of taxation, is apparently u[p in arms at the increase of a tax too. Putting aside the irony they've produced a web page showing how the rise is going to result in 250,000 jobs lost over five years. Yes, that's right, a nice round figure of a quarter million.

Meanwhile, back in the world of reality, where food and children's clothes are exempt from VAT, I find myself thinking,

"ahhh right, so when you say it will hit the poorest hardest, what you actually mean is that their satellite TV bill will go up; the charge they'll face for free minutes with their shiny new iPhone will increase; the petrol they put in their car is more expensive... pity these poor poor people.... but hey they got their spending in before the rise".

So please, shut the fuck up about the poor and VAT. If you want to see what "poor" means go to the third world and witness what real hardship is.

P.S. I do not support the rise in VAT. We should get out of the EU and slash the International Development budget instead to bring the deficit under control until we can actually afford it - when you're skint you don't give money away to charity.