…well it has about as much to do with the story as Mick Philpott being a benefit cheat and on welfare.
The Daily Mail went to town on Philpott today – and justifyingly (apparently that isn’t a word but I think I’ll stick with it) so. However did they concentrate on the fact he masterminded the deaths of six of his own flesh and blood whilst trying to fit someone else up for the crime? No. Did they go after his past and the fact he had been found guilty and served time for attempted murder in his past? No they did not. Then was the story that he wanted all the rest of the money leftover from a fund for the funerals to be given to him in the form of Argos vouchers the A1 lead? No. The fact that he was on welfare was the lead story.
What horse expletive.
The fact he was on welfare was a footnote to the story. This story was about a man who was genuinely vile. There are plenty of murderers about, there are plenty of rapists, there are even plenty of pedophiles but a man to hatch a plot to burn down a house, knowing fully six of his own offspring were inside in the attempts to a) frame his mistress who had left him, b) become a hero (after having rescued them) and c) get a bigger house off the state is starting to outstrip those previous sets of people in terms of being on a different level altogether.
The wife and friend who both went along with and didn’t actively put a halt to his plan aren’t exactly a long way behind him. However the primary motivation seemingly had nothing to do with being on welfare. Yes the prosecution did allege that getting a bigger home was part of his thought process but it certainly was not the primary motivation. This was all about cold blooded revenge in an attempt to get back at a person who dared stand up to him and leave him. Using his own offspring as nothing more than pawns in a scheme so devious that if it was in a film you’d struggle to believe a character could be so cruel.
Still that didn’t stop the Daily Mail from using this tragedy as a pawn itself – in its long standing attack on the benefits system and benefit culture itself. Look there are benefit cheats out there in this country. That is a fact. However the number of benefit cheats pales into insignificance compared to those who use the system correctly and help ensure some level of life for those who need it most. I don’t see the Daily Mail leading on marriage cheats every time a juicy story comes up (actually they probably do) but it hasn’t quite whipped up the storm that benefit cheats do.
If companies paid the correct tax and didn’t use fancy legal loopholes then the money recouped from that would make people laugh at the money illegitimately claimed under the benefits system. We’d say things like, ‘we really cared about that?’ but of course corporation tax and variants there of do not hit home as strongly with middle England compared to people diddling the benefits system. The Daily Mail is talking to a certain section of society – and it isn’t the type of person who likes to be challenge their minds on a subject. They want to be told who they are outraged at and why. Not given the full story.
Philpott, his wife and Mosely will spend either the rest of their lives – or at the very least the majority of it behind bars for what they have done. They are clearly dangerous people and society needs to be protected from them. They are the story and not the Daily Mail but when the newspaper uses such a case as just a lowly pawn to further its own editorial bias then you really do have to despair at them nearly as much.
Mick Philpott is not a product of the welfare system. He is just a vile man. If he was a product of the welfare system then everyone in the welfare system would be like him and I’m pretty darn confident that isn’t the case…
