When Conservative Minister Iain Duncan Smith told people in the south Wales town of Merthyr Tydfil they have become static and should seek work in Cardiff and that unemployed people "get on a bus" to find work - there were echo's from the 1980's of the then Tory minister Lord Tebbit's "get on your bike" comments. Understandably these have ruffled more than a few feathers.
Now I suspect that this was not a cheap throw away line (on a BBC 2 Newsnight interview) this is what the Tories really think, this was the moment when the mask slipped, and despite the cuddly "Call me Dave" Cameron makeover this is what the hard-line and not so hard-line Tories actually think.
A measure of proof of this could be the way that most of the Tory backbench MP's were gleefully cheering (if not baying) in the House of Commons by way of vocal support during the Spending Review statement (which also announced details of the fact that over 400,000 public sector workers services were going to be dispensed with) last Wednesday. There were some serious shades of Ra! Ra! We are going to smash the Oiks!!! So much for one nation Conservatism.
One question I would like to ask is how is the National Assembly supposed to help people get to the work on the coastal belt from the valleys - whether by car or bus, by road or rail - when the cuts will reduce capital spending, which is money to be invested in new roads, rail (not to mention hospitals and schools) is going to be cut by 41%.
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