Irritating but partly right

The indefatigably irritating Jeremey Clarkson in his latest column rails against this governments growing war against the middle classes. He points out that

"They tell you not to go to Tuscany this summer, and they throw withering
looks at the Ryanair flights to Gascony"

and that they have declared war on the Chelsea tractor, but

"when Kentucky Fried Chicken starts advertising a bucket of supper with
disposable plates and nonbiodegradable plastic cutlery so you don’t have to get
your fat arse out of your DFS sofa and wash up, do we hear a murmur?"

Now personally, I neither have nor want a 4x4, nor can I afford flights to Tuscany nor do I have a second home in France. Nevertheless, I am aware that as a tax-paying, car-insuring citizen, I'm an easy target for the lazy, revenue-raising, target-obsessed, Chief Constables of our fair land, and that this is just a subset of a wider mentality.

If I were the chavvy type who was quite happy to hide behind the "no speak English" excuse, or merrily considered car tax and MoT as farty bits of paperwork of no concern, I could drive where and how I wanted with impunity, with nary a uniform to impede me. This is starting to sound like a BNP rant, which its not. This is not about colour, race, nationality or creed. Its about contributing as much or more to the society you live in than you withdraw.

As much as financial debt has become the norm, there is a growing acceptance that its okay to take and not to put back. The nonsense of taxing vast swathes of people in order to give it back to them in tax credits, thereby keeping full track of their earnings and movements just encourages this mindset. "We owe all we have to the state. Long live the state!" seems to be the message. Well bugger that.