What Tories are really like

It's been a good day for Tories speaking their minds, inspired by Lord Young's aristocratic observation that 'people have never had it so good'.

Negotiator of the Week is Brian Coleman, unelected head of the London Fire Authority, currently in dispute with fire officers:

Coleman described the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which represents over 90% of London's frontline firefighters, as "thugs and bullies" and said its officials were "thick" and "can't string a sentence together". "The union are a thoroughly unpleasant and nasty lot – they always have been ... you just have to stand up to thugs and bullies." "We have to break the FBU frankly because they are not a union operating in the interests of their members and certainly not taxpayers.. they've been a block to modernisation right along the line. They will fail in the end because neither I nor the fire authority, nor the mayor of London, nor this government is going to give away to this kind of intimidation."

And then there's Howard Flight, another unelected Tory who doesn't think much of the poor or the welfare system. He seems to think that cutting benefits and throwing the poor out of their houses will somehow encourage them to 'breed':

 "We're going to have a system where the middle classes are discouraged from breeding because it's jolly expensive. But for those on benefits, there is every incentive. Well, that's not very sensible."

What a great mind. And some of you wonder why I call them Tory Scum.