David Cameron: It is your fault if you are fat and poor.

[FairyMum]

Has anyone commented on the David Cameron-speech on moral neutrality? He is a price-dick, isn't he?

Riven, Arabella Weir is an ambassador's daughter and very very posh. Does that make you revise your opinion of liking her?

Haven't read it all, but why does going to Eton mean you can't have an opinion on any part of society other than the bit you grew up in or if you do its irrelevant.
It all sounds a bit envious and hypocritical to me.

Taz runs for cover

I never thought I'd be defending a Tory...

I don't think it's prejudiced, or chippy even, to ask with what authority he speaks about issues such as poverty and social exclusion given his very privileged upbringing. If he can convince us that he does, then that is just fine, but the onus is on him I think.

i would love to see the reaction if dc ever suggests that anybody that went to a run of the mill comp should never be allowed as part of government, this is after all what some of you are saying, dc knows nothing because of the school his parents sent him to, its ridiculous

Bottom line is this. Either the majority of the population will say "thank feck someone is finally saying that we should take responsiblity for our own actions" or they won't.

Either way, it will be the will of the majority. Like it or not.

Presumably he speaks with the same authority about the poor, from his Eton background, that we speak about him, from our different backgrounds - that is, not from a position of knowledge, but nonetheless entitled to an opinion.

I think he is talking a lot of sense. Being fat is a choice (I am no size zero, why, because I eat too much).
In any case, like children on sink estates who have no choice over the decisions their parents make for them, David Cameron didn't choose to go to Eton. I really doubt he could afford the fees at 13.

tbh i'm not so bothered about fat people and how he feels they got fat as his attitudes towards the poor, particularly the working poor.

what did he say, can't read all this thread!

Does he actually criticise the working poor - or have I missed that bit?

Nowhere did I say he couldn't speak on those issues. What I said he had to do was convince me that he speaks with authority - that he actually knows what he's talkig about. Which I would certainly be looking for in the situation you describe as well. I don't think my post suggests otherwise...

i mean his attitude as to why people are or might be poor, paolosgirl.

I agree we are a society at present who fail to take responsibilty for the things we do in terms of our own actions in terms of eating to much, drinking to much etc.

On the other hand, i just cannot grasp what he said about poverty. My mother is a classic example of how you can end up poor through no fault of your own but through the fault of others. She went from being steadily married with two children to being dumped because our father had affairs and left leaving her a single mum with two children stuck in a one bedroom flat and no money. It's not always your own fault that you end up in the shit. I think he talks ignorantly on this subject.

But that's different from criticising the working poor

Disagree with the 'crap costs less' arguement. We've just come back from (fab) holiday in Yorkshire. First night was a pizza and chips tea from the takeaway- so disgusting that even the kids refused to eat it - £12 for all 5 of us.

Next night - homemade meatballs, tomato sauce and pasta - less than a fiver.

And that takeway was busy every night

well, that's why i said his 'attitude towards the poor' and not his criticsim of the poor and working poor, paolo.

We talk about people being at risk of poverty, or social exclusion: it's as if these things - obesity, alcohol abuse, drug addiction - are purely external events like a plague or bad weather.

"Of course, circumstances - where you are born, your neighbourhood, your school, and the choices your parents make - have a huge impact. But social problems are often the consequence of the choices that people make."

i think he quite clearly understands that not everyone chooses to be poor, i read this as an attempt to give those that could do a bit more for themselves the motivation to get on and do it. in the real world what is the use of sitting at home with a woe is me attitude?

And the choices people make are the consequences of...? Well, sometimes the things he has just mentioned surely? God knows I spent a lot of time trying to instil a sense of personal responsibility into the children I taught, but the choices they see are heavily, heavily influenced by factors outside their control.

Agree Nancy