Any Other Name

"It's an outrage!" the right seemed to bellowing in unison earlier this week as they tried to whip up a hate campaign against the United Nations and Brazil, after a Brazilian UN envoy had the audacity to criticise the government's housing policies.  Specifically, she criticised the so-called 'Bedroom Tax', which penalises people living in social housing who have spare bedrooms.  It was hard to tell what enraged them most - the fact that any foreigner should dare to criticise such a mean-spirited policy, or that said critic came from what they saw as a third world country.  Oh, the fact that she had once served in a left-wing administration didn't help.  Or that, according to some especially bizarre reports, that she was a witch.  This government's aversion to criticism and unwillingness to acknowledge that there could possibly be any alternative points of view to its own, is now reaching ludicrous proportions.  If it isn't bonkers Education Secretary Michael Gove ignoring any educational experts who aren't as completely deranged as himself, then its Ian Duncan Smith blaming the civil servants for the fact that the universal benefit system that he devised and implemented after ignoring much expert advice, isn't working. 

I have to say, though, that the best bit of Tory denial I heard this week was Tory Chairman Grant Shapps criticising the UN envoy for, amongst other things, failing to call the 'Bedroom Tax' by its proper name - which, apparently, is the 'Spare Room Subsidy', which, in a typical bit of Tory double think, makes it sound somehow beneficial.  I can't help but feel that it is a bit rich for  Grant Shapps to be complaining about misrepresenting something by not using its proper name.  Let's not forget, this was the man who used to call himself Michael Green and present himself as some kind of internet guru when he was promoting various 'get-rich-quick through the web' schemes a few years ago.  Some of the software his company pushed was designed to 'scrape' other people's content and represent it on someone else's site, in order to save them the bother of writing original content to support their dodgy ads and affiliate schemes.  Not that any of that was actually illegal.  Just completely unethical and morally indefensible.  A bit like the 'Bedroom Tax'.