The Chancellor of the Exchequer has just made a statement about Mick Philpott; the man convicted of the manslaughter of 6 of his children; the man who also lived off enormous benefit hand outs, banking the equivalent of £100,000 salary in benefits from various sources if reports are to be believed. George Osborne said:
‘There’s a question about the welfare state, and taxpayers who pay, subsidising lifestyles like that’
This is a careful statement. Osborne avoids the mistake of saying that the system created Philpott’s evil. In fact, he says nothing. He merely raises the question about a system that allowed Philpott to live as he did for so long at your expense.
Asking the question, of course, invites his opponents to answer. A key part of Osborne’s strategy is to goad his opponents into defending the status quo; this plan is predicated on the assumption that the status quo is indefensible.
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