In a perfect world

Its on days like to today, a couple of days after the coalition government voted its Welfare Reform Bill through the Commons that you realise just how little you can trust politicians. In his speech to Carers last night, David Cameron did what he does so well; he thanked Carers for what they do, he shared a little of his own personal experiences, espoused the virtues of personalisation and pointed out for good measure that it wasn't all about what government could do. Which is probably a good thing because in comparison to what carers do the Government really doesn't do that much. David Cameron knows this:

 "if you stopped doing what you're doing, the consequences for the country would be disastrous"

and its on days like today, when you realise that George and David aren't in it with you, that you get tempted. You start to wonder how it would be if the government couldn't take the commitment and the unpaid work of Carers for granted. What would happen if one day we did stop what we were doing and let that government grasp the extent of what it is that they are not doing.

Of course we would never do it, which is why this most conservative of Prime Ministers felt able to say what he did, because he knew that this country's army of  unpaid carers would never actually call his bluff. We would never withdraw our labour from the people we love and nor should we.

But it would be such fun to see their faces, if they woke up one day and realised that they couldn't really afford to build a new generation of nuclear submarines because they had to pay for Carers. Then of course they wouldn't be able to invade Afghanistan, bail out banks and  pay extortionate amounts to speculators to finance the illusion of growth in the economy. In a perfect world we would have politicians who understood what really matters and what doesn't- but unfortunatley we've got David and George neither of whom even live in our world never mind a perfect one.