George Osborne: Turn on, tune in, drop out

From the BBC:

Chancellor George Osborne has said he is "in tune" with "the great majority of the country" on changes to welfare, on a really deep subliminal level.

Mr Osborne denied being "divisive" on the issue, telling the BBC's Pienaar's Politics programme that critics of the reforms should chill out, man, instead of falling into the "lazy habit of opposition". He also said he felt personally "angry" at the amount spent on benefits but what miffed him most was the fact that somebody else had finished off all the Pringles.

Those miserably killjoys Labour said the government needed a new economic strategy and a "proper work programme" to tackle the welfare bill. A number of changes to the welfare system came into force at the beginning of the new tax year in April, including cuts to housing benefit for some social housing tenants with a spare room and a £26,000 cap on the amount of benefits a household can receive. Some churches, charities and campaign groups, as well as the Labour Party, have criticised the changes as unjust.

"But housing, rooms, churches, they're just like, buildings," commented the Chancellor, "You've got to learn to... free your mind from these walls. The 5th of April, that's just one point in the space-time continuum."

'Sensible contribution'

Mr Osborne came under fire after questioning whether the state should "subsidise" the lifestyles of people such as Mick Philpott, who was jailed last week for the manslaughter of six of his children. But the chancellor said his critics did not make a "sensible contribution" and accused them of sowing division.

He said: "I don't set out to be divisive. Actually far out, far from it, whatever. I think a lot of the things that I've been saying, that Iain Duncan Smith and others in the government have been saying, are in tune with what the great collective consciousness of the majority of the country, like the whole world, think and experience in their everyday lives. They've got to learn to rise above it."

'Adjective noun'

He said the division lay in pressure groups and "sensationalist media reports," as he attacked a "professional pressure groups who exist for the purpose of defending every line item, either of the entire benefits system or of a particular benefit". They defended the status quo but made "no attempt" to provide an alternative and be "constructive", he said.

"We're all in this together, they've got to learn to like... relax"

But he said these groups had failed to portray the welfare changes as unfair because the public agreed with the government. He spoke of his anger at a "hugely expensive" welfare system costing tens of billions of pounds that has "all the wrong incentives" and said he had to make difficult decisions on public spending.

"And what I find both angry and frustrating is that too much money is spent in the wrong way in our welfare system. Which is why I like to spend my Sunday mornings chilling, help me see the bigger picture." he said.