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Was I foolish or was I wise, you decide? Approaching retirement, I fell on hard times. It seemed that fickle fate was dealing me a bad and undeserved hand.

Throughout my life, well for 45 years, I had worked and never taken a sickie. I paid my taxes. Directly or indirectly, 50 per cent of everything I earned had gone to the Westminster regime. I was not free. I was a serf working on a plantation for that Westminster glutton.

Yet, I never claimed a penny off the state. Believe it or not (I am still shaking my head in disbelief) I boasted about my work principles and my integrity.

Did I get a round of applause from the Westminster parasites? And not from Eddie my fellow citizen either. My next but one-door neighbour was in his mid-thirties. Eddie boasted that like the political class he had never done a day’s work.

In fact, Eddie lied: I was told that on just one occasion he had been told to turn up for work or forfeit his benefits. My neighbour duly turned up and was set to work pruning the local park’s trees.

Guess what? Eddie allegedly fell off his ladder and allegedly hurt his back. So, Eddie had done maybe a few hours of work in his twenty years of ‘working’ life.

Eddie, as fit as a butcher’s dog, preferred to go fishing with his unemployed mates. These fishing excursions were preceded by a few beers in an attractive canal-side inn. By day, Eddie pottered here and there whilst looking after his wife and kids. In truth, Eddie was a first-class family man.

Their lovely home was owned by the local authority and the benefits agency covered all his costs; the rent, utilities, clothing and suchlike for his kids. On benefits, he and his family lived the good life.

An​d the point? Eddie thought I was dumb for paying into the system he and millions of others – including politicians – were milking.

As I say, you decide who was right. Was I right or was Eddie on the right track? HINT: I was the one who went bankrupt and was afterwards treated by Social Security clerks and the government as if I were a leper. YOU CAN SCROLL DOWN TO LEAVE A COMMENT:

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