Hard times

Our country is short of money, we are told. Nothing for nurses. Nothing for teachers. Nothing for firemen or the police. The cupboard is bare. It is as if the country is waiting at the Workhouse gate.

Now just a minute. Tens of millions of pounds are being paid if transfer fees for individual footballers. Untold millions are paid out in sports' sponsorship. Tax loopholes for the wealthy are not being closed. The government gives MPs two huge pay rises per year. Brenda gets a huge pay rise, and is slipped a tidy packet to do up her main home. The national broadcaster pays its staff shockingly inflated wages. And the government has just outraged many by giving a billion-pound bung to a group of shady politicians, just so it can maintain its stranglehold on power.

You see we don't need any magic money trees. The supernatural doesn't even come into it. There is a huge amount of money that could be called upon, if the government were to get its priorities right. There is more than enough to go round.