Cameron aide: You've never had it so good!

[David Guyatt]

A clear example of elitist thinking.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20101118/tuk-...a1618.html

Cameron aide: 'You've never had it so good'
Thursday, November 18 11:01 pm

A senior adviser to David Cameron has apologised after claiming that most Britons have "never had it so good". Skip related content

In a newspaper interview, Lord Young of Graffham said the Bank of England's decision to cut base rates to a record low of 0.5 per cent since March 2009 had left many home-owners up to £600 a month better off.

He told the Daily Telegraph the swingeing Government cuts announced last month would only take state spending back to the levels of 2007, when people were not "short of money".

Those complaining about the cutbacks, totalling more than £80 billion over four years, were "people who think they have a right for the state to support them", suggested the peer, who was appointed Mr Cameron's enterprise adviser earlier this month after completing a review of health and safety laws.

He dismissed forecast public sector job losses of 100,000 a year as "within the margin of error" in the context of the 30 million-strong job market. People will look back and "wonder what all the fuss was about", predicted Lord Young, who was Trade and Industry Secretary in Margaret Thatcher's administration.

The peer has now written to the Prime Minister to "apologise profoundly" for his "inaccurate and insensitive" comments. He added: "I deeply regret the comments I made and I entirely understand the offence they will cause."

His comments were in stark contrast to the public comments of senior Government ministers, who have acknowledged the measures being taken to reduce the UK's record budget deficit will hit individual voters.

In his speech to the Conservative conference last month, Mr Cameron said "reducing spending will be difficult", while Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has said cuts will be "difficult and painful".

But Lord Young suggested the Government had overstated the impact of spending cuts to shore up the value of the pound, saying: "Part of the rhetoric was to protect the pound. The fact that we seemed to be going through such big cuts really meant that the pound was saved, so far."