DWP Winter Fuel Payment duplicity... a tangled web indeed...

Originally published in January 2014.

First post of 2014 and I am taking the liberty of "borrowing" an editorial comment by Connexion France (www.connexionfrance.com) in respect to the duplicity of the Department of Work and Pensions in its decision to remove Winter Fuel Payment from British pensioner expats living in France. The article to which the editorial comment refers is also attached as a scanned document. I do not think I need to add anything else!

A tangled web

If it weren't is so important to so many people, the saga of the UK government's search to justify withdrawing winter fuel allowance from British citizens residents in France would be hilarious. The ever more complex knots in which ministers and civil servants tie themselves in the hope of persuading someone - anyone? - that their figures make any kind of sense demonstrate Sir Walter Scott's dictum on tangled webs created when " we practice to deceive".

The government is not interested in justifications, except for trying to bat away the demands of tiresome people like The Connexion team. All they care about is imposing their mean-spirited little scheme and to hell with the victims. It illustrates a growing and alarming dictatorial tendency of ministers. Small wonder so many Tory MP's would like to cast off EU rules; better yet to return to the golden days of the divine right of Kings, and send objectors to the Tower.

Dissent can annoy governments but most democratic regimes accept it as a legitimate expression of differing views. High-handed government must watch out: acceptance of dissent can be cut as easily as Winter Fuel Allowance.