Yet when you look at the great social ills, how many of them were caused by the greedy rich? Who was it that created conditions whereby it was acceptable for children to work down the mines, up chimneys and in the mills?

I don’t think today’s generation of the underclass is any worse than any other. The only real change is the language the chattering classes use to denigrate them in broad pointless brush strokes.

But then, when Ministers brush off calls for support for the county’s most vulnerable workers by saying that the funds are too tight and claim that they could always use ACAS (shades of telling people to ‘get on their bikes’), we can see that ignorance abounds in the powerful Observer-reading class.

Fair enough – for a more nuanced view see my reply below to Adrian. Will I really never buy it again? I probably will but – to be honest – I found £2 a big psychological barrier. I’m sure the paper did their market research but for me this crosses the boundary between loose change you don’t notice and real expenditure which has consequences for other things. The other week in Tescos I traded my Observer against a nicer loaf (30p extra), fresher orange juice (99p extra) and tastier tomatoes (50p extra) and then ate my splendid lunch reading the on-line edition

I agree, and thanks for the links.

In 2007 we launched ‘The Tiger that Isn’t’ Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot. it systematically exposed the abuse of statistics by interest groups, politicians and the media. As I said at the time, it should be required reading for policy makers and journalists.