Do they think people don’t know the feeling of real pain?
Pain, you won’t have missed it, it’s been one of the buzz words of the long road to this week’s Budget, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves using it the most.
The word spoken by the Chancellor like she’s a doctor, having to inflict short term agony for our long-term greater comfort.
It’s been delivered in that unfortunate style that suggests that up till now we’ve lived profligate, decadent lives and need a harsh dose of reality.
Michael Booker tells Rachel Reeves that people know all about real pain
PA
But you know what? It won’t come as a shock to you, but most people already know the pain of everyday life.
If you watched GB News last Friday, you’ll have seen it for yourself.
All it took was to stop one man walking his dog in the street and talk to him.
Presenter Patrick Christys was asking locals in Stanley, County Durham., about their worries ahead of the Budget.
He stopped to talk to Barry Bridge, a retired miner who spends most days walking the dog or visiting his wife in a local care home.
A pensioner, he was frustrated at the government’s decision to cut the Winter Fuel Allowance.
He was also concerned about the effect the Budget may have on younger families in area, a Labour stronghold proud of its socialist past with street names like Marx Crescent, Lenin Terrace, and Keir Hardie Avenue.
Quiet, humble, unassuming, Mr Bridge described his former life down the pit in a matter-of-fact style typical of working people in the North east.
It was soon crystal-clear Mr Bridge, who was injured three times working underground, knew all about pain.
Describing his “several close calls” in the darkness below ground he said: “The first one was when I was 18-and-a-half, I was hit in the face with a coal shot, I was blinded for a month.
Barry Bridge spoke to Patrick Christys on GB News
GB News
“And then I was crushed by a big stone later on. And the last one, we had about four and a half tonnes of steel fall on us, and I damaged my spine.
“My pelvis was split right up; my right leg broke below the knee and my right ankle was crushed.”
Real people, real pain. A so-called ordinary man who has lived an extraordinary life and quietly got on with it. He didn’t need any lectures about pain.
There are millions of others – either still ‘working people’ or now retired – who have quietly endured similar.
But it’s not just “pain” that we’ve been told to expect in the Budget.
The Chancellor also says the Budget will be one of “tough choices” and tackling, in Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s most recent words, the “harsh fiscal reality.”
Again, do they think people are new to “tough choices” and “harsh fiscal reality”? Where have they been living all their lives? Hell, where have they been living in the last 20 years?
Walking up and down the terraced streets of Stanley, GB News didn’t have to look too far to see people making tough choices every day.
Patrick knocked on the door of a bungalow in Keir Hardie Avenue where another former miner, Billy Pounder, lives with his dog.
Another pensioner, Mr Pounder is no longer eligible for the Winter Fuel allowance after a small recent increase in his miner’s pension pushed him across the threshold.
Michael Booker urged Sir Keir Starmer to ‘spare us the platitudes’
GB News
Now he makesa really tough choice everyday – which room he can afford to keep warm with his portable log burning heater.
He told Patrick: “I bought a little fire with the extra £50 we got last year, and I move it from room to room, so I don’t have to heat the whole bungalow.
“I’ve worked all my life, and I’ve not got a lot in my savings, but I got a little rise at the beginning of the month on the pit pension, which I’ve had since I was 60. Within a week of getting that, I got a letter off Durham County Council saying my council tax had gone up because of it.”
On Thursday Mr Pounder will continue to choose which room to heat as winter draws in.
Mr Bridge, dignified as ever, underplaying the pain he endured in harsh life in the mine, will be back to his routine.
Visiting his wife, walking the dog, reassessing his finances after the Budget.
Outside of Stanley, millions of people like them will be getting on with their lives as usual too.
So please Mrs Chancellor, Mr Prime Minister, spare us all the platitudes.
Budget days, Chancellors, Prime Ministers come and go. Life, though that little bit harder, will go on.
The people of this country will continue to endure the pain. They will continue to make tough choices. They will continue to tackle the harsh fiscal reality. You know what? They always do.
