The case of Paul Kingsman has prompted me to write once more about fat cats. Before I look into the details of his recent criminal prosecution, let me explain where I am coming from. This country has a minimum wage law. If someone is paid significantly more than the minimum wage, then I feel entitled to ask why.
If I interpret the facts of the Kingsman case correctly, then the story began with a young woman called Sophie Kingsman living in social housing with a young child. One day she reported her neighbour, Charlene Vernall, to the RSPCA for mistreating her pet dog. Miss Vernall retaliated by subjecting Miss Kingsman to a campaign of intimidation which lasted for five months. Miss Kingsman contacted both the police and the housing association, but neither of them took action against Miss Vernall. Eventually the stress became to severe that Miss Kingsman's father drove a Cherokee Jeep into the wall of Miss Vernall's home. He has recently been handed down a suspended prison sentence. He has also been ordered to reimburse the housing associaton for the cost of rebuilding the damaged house.
The persecution of Miss Kingsman could have been resolved by the intervention of either the police or the housing association, and yet neither was prepared to take appropriate action. Some might argue that the police and the housing association both have limited resources, but I suspect that the chief constable of Cambridgeshire Police earns rather more than the minimum wage, and I suspect also that the chief executive of the housing association might also earn rather more than the minimum wage.
If I am correct in assuming that the chief constable and the chief executive earn significantly more than the minimum wage, then what exactly do their salaries achieve? It should be obvious to anyone that money spent on salaries above the minimum wage is money that cannot be spent on anything else. If the chief constable of Cambridgeshire earned less money, then maybe the police would have had sufficient resources to allow them to confront Miss Vernall about her behaviour.
I strongly suspect that Mr Kingsman is a victim of fat cat Britain. Maybe one day he will have the option of voting in a general election for a political party which has realistic policies for tackling the fat cat mentality. But would he vote for such a party? Would you?
Related previous posts include:
Bedroom tax fiasco
We get monkeys anyway
Fat cats and commies
The cats stay fat
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