At least Dick Turpin wore a mask...

IT is difficult to have any sympathy for Chancellor George Osborne in the wake of his threat to raid we mere ordinary folk of what little hard-earned cash we might have left.

We suddenly find ourselves in Dick Turpin’s thieving hands, likely to lose the pittance that helps us and our families to live - if not exactly as well as multi-millionaire Osborne, then at least in a way that helps to keep heads above water.

The irony of this bizarre tale is the sudden appearance of the House of Lords to suddenly presume that they have as much, if not more, power than the elected House of Commons. That assumption could, in days gone by, mean the Lords were setting themselves above the elected members of Parliament.

We know the ermine-clad fancy-dress merchants are not interested in government because they feel they are above all that.

Most of us are surely think the Chancellor has gone too far in trying to overrule elected members, as it’s likely to cast many families into today’s equivalent of the poor house, or worse.

Some time ago there were repeated challenges to the self-elected House of Lords who were considered as old and out of place as the costly garb they wear.

Osborne is guilty of taking hard-earned money out of the purses and pockets of those who can least afford it. The Lords are guilty of greed, arrogance and, in the main, total anonymity.

The dark side of this is the need to question whether we will ever get a government we mere mortals can trust and actually respect.

Where are the political giants of the past who actually cared about Britain, its public and its dire and urgent needs?

We are in a mess and, it seems, digging the hole ever deeper.