Shoot yourself somewhere else Mr Brown

19 January 2010 | By John Murray

On a global level his definition of a fairer society didn’t sit too well against a backdrop of almost constant news footage of the hell that’s unfolding in Haiti and back home it didn’t sit too well with me either.

As I waited to hear news of my wife’s emergency operation which had been an emergency since she was taken into hospital the previous afternoon following an accident.

The pain she had to endure didn’t seem all that fair, though she might have been spared that long wait if she had been a politician’s wife, or I could have afforded medical insurance but those days have long since gone as a result of rising premiums and having put a great future behind me.

No matter, for as the PM says: “A fair society is one where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules has a chance to fulfil their dreams whether that’s owning a bigger house, taking a holiday abroad, buying a new car or a starting a small business”.

Well actually Mr Brown, lots of middle class young people leaving university with debts of around £10,000 would simply like a job and those with a job would probably just settle for being able to afford a modest home if only they could save up for the massive deposit they need before they can get a mortgage.

Of course a bigger home might come in handy for older home owners coping with the rising number of recession hit 18-34 year olds going back to live with their parents. This, according to an Abbey survey, has risen to 1.6 million, up from 500,000 the previous year.

And if you find that statistic startling, that same survey shows that a further 300,000 people aged 35 to 54 are also in the same boat, the hot spot for these kidadults being the south.

Another problem for home owners as they grow older is the worry of not being able to stay put in retirement which, Mr Brown, is a fairly humble middle class aspiration. The trouble is the mortgage may be paid off because they’ve been prudent, but some of the measures that the PM took as chancellor have somewhat diminished their pension pots.
 
This, however you view it, is not very helpful, especially when his green taxes are pushing energy bills through the roof and when council tax has more than doubled since Labour came to power largely to fund, somewhat ironically, the final salary pension schemes of local authority bureaucrats.

Of course, holidays abroad might become more affordable if sterling rises against other currencies and people starting up their own businesses might be able to release some of their equity in their homes if only the Financial Services Authority had been a bit more helpful to the non-conforming lending sector and its business model.

But let’s not be unkind to the FSA – it’s now regulating equity release loans so that elderly homeowners can without worries convert equity into income and so continue to subsidise the burgeoning public sector though this could have an impact on what the state collects in inheritance tax when homeowners eventually join the great welfare state in the sky.

Finally a word of warning about Brown’s new vision for the middle classes – pay attention to the small print. Note, the carefully use of the word ‘or’ in the above quote. Under a new Brown regime the middleclass may have the opportunity to work towards a bigger house, ora foreign holiday, orbuying a new car, orsetting up a new business but get real, a home and a car anda foreign holiday as a package – that’s utopia and he’d never promise us that.
  
*As a footnote to this my wife was operated on first thing on Sunday morning and is doing well. I have nothing but praise for the nurses looking after her but the system seems to be kept together with sticking plaster which is a concern for everyone –not just the so called middle classes.