John Prescott’s phoney class war has taken another bizarre twist with the announcement that he has accepted a peerage.
Prezza made a BBC documentary recently all about his class war and in 2005 he even slagged off Tony Bliar’s school “reforms” because they weren’t working class enough. Yet as Deputy Prime Minister he was on a salary of £134k – more than 9 times the current minimum wage of around £14.5k – and had two grace and favour homes paid for by the taxpayer and a flat paid for by a union as well as his taxpayer-funded constituency home. And then there were his two armoured, chauffeur-driven Jags that he used to do the shopping and drive his wife up the road so her hair didn’t get blown about.
Like all class warriors that have had a stint lording it over the proles (excuse the pun), Prescott is a millionaire with a hefty ministerial pension which will keep him in the manner to which he has become accustomed and as a member of the House of Lords he’ll be paid £335.50 for every day he hauls his sweaty, pampered arse into the House of Lords.
I can’t decide whether the thought of an unelected millionaire Lord Prescott fighting his phoney class war against other unelected millionaire Lords, all appointed under one of the systems he’s supposedly devoted his life to opposing, could be best described as ironic or hypocritical. I’m thinking probably both.