How dare this idiot preach at Britain on human rights?

There has been a barrage of increasingly hysterical propaganda against this measure, which has been portrayed as a vindictive attack on the poor carried out by heartless Tories for purely ideological reasons.

Despite all the noise they generate the frenzied protesters cannot disguise the weakness of their case. This perfectly sensible measure is not a tax at all but just a reduction in subsidies to social housing tenants who live in bigger accommodation than they need.

Private tenants on housing benefit do not receive extra cash from the state for spare rooms so why should those in council or housing association properties? Moreover, far from being a vicious act of cruelty the withdrawal of spare room subsidies should actually free up a significant number of bigger state-funded homes, helping families in overcrowded accommodation.

Left-wingers like to proclaim that public resources should be allocated on the basis of need. Yet here they argue that a certain group of tenants should have their privileges protected, regardless of the wider social consequences or the costs to the taxpayer. Their stance makes a mockery of all their eager talk about equality.

(2013-09-12/express)