Row after minister's 'cheap holidays' remark

[oldironside]

"Ministers were accused of double standards today after policy chief Oliver Letwin apparently said the Government did not want more ordinary people taking cheap holidays abroad.

The millionaire Cabinet Office minister apparently made the remark in a private conversation with London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Mr Letwin, who has a key role co-ordinating coalition policy across the Government, reportedly told the Mayor he did not want "more families in Sheffield able to afford cheap holidays". "

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/row-after-ministers-cheap-holidays-remark-2262067.html

Ah, you couldn't make it up, as Mr Littlejohn would say.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Unbelievable.

Was there any context for it (e.g. opposition to air travel in general) or was it JUST wanting to trample on working-class Northerners?

While I am not a fan of Boris Johnson, or even of Denis MacShane, I will give them some credit here for speaking out.

Nick Clegg - you represent a Sheffield constituency; what are you going to do about this? Show us whether you're a man or a jellyfish! But come to think of it, we already know which one you are.

[non sociopath skin]

2. But that really is how they think!

If voters - even quite affluent voters - read the small print of the Tory agenda, they'd realise that there was nothing in it for them.

And the Lib Dems are, IMHO, beneath contempt for trying to pretend that the Tory agenda has any connection with what the bulk of their voters believe.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

3. Clegg represents the rich bit of Sheffield

I suspect he's just looking out for the rich suburbs of Sheffield such as Wirlow & Dore and ignoring the other 4 fifths of Sheffield, which is what the Tories used to do before him (and why the Tories have been wiped out in Sheffield).

To be honest with you there are some places in Britain which the Tories have an automatic, idealogical dislike of and South Yorkshire is right up at the top of that list.