Who Are the Freeloaders?

During the present downturn of the economy the National Press is even more eager than usual to cut government expenditure and to them that means welfare benefit cuts. 'At last somebody from the Labour Party has admitted the truth. Our welfare system really does support a lot of people who choose consciously not to work. That somebody is Lord Hutton, a former Work and Pensions Secretary, so he should know what he is talking about. ....... Politicians of all parties should have the guts to put the contributory principle back at the heart of the welfare state and ignore the squeals of outrage from all the freeloaders. This newspaper has been making these points for years.' (Daily Express, 28 August) Those they  refer to as "people who choose consciously not to work" are of course unemployed members of the working class. They would never refer to the owning class as "freeloaders", although that of course is what they are. RD