Lovely Jubbly
Who'da thought - a market trader caught up in a noisy row about politics and welfare benefits - sounds like a great idea for a BBC comedy programme.
Apparently, the market trader involved - David Bennett (51) appeared on BBC Radio 4 the other day to challenge the Work and Pensions Secretary - Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) - over his plans for welfare reform.
David Bennet told the BBC that he was struggling after his housing benefit was cut and threw down the gauntlet for IDS to live on the same amount as himself - which David Bennet (DB) claimed was only £53 per week.
But various newspapers now report that DB was being rather 'economical' about his personal circumstances and was receiving much more than he was letting on - due to the welfare benefits he was entitled to claim.
Apparently David Bennett receives £232 a month in housing benefit and another £200 a month in working tax credit - in addition to the takings at his market stall which are rather vague and difficult to pin down - shall we say.
The story has blown up since the original BBC interview with more than 360,000 people signing an online petition - calling on IDS to prove that he too can live on £53 a week which he said he could - 'if I had to, I would' - in response to questioning that same day.
An eminent economist even entered the fray - David Blanchflower - a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, tweeted:
'Wonder how IDS would buy clothes shoes heat on 53 quid a week? Barely enough to buy food I assume. Rent?'
But the media spotlight also turned on David Bennett as well - who described himself on his Twitter profile as a 'poker player, self employed ducker and diver'.
Yet on Monday (after the BBC interview) this was changed suddenly to 'market trader' - as his story began to unravel somewhat - with tales of DB's fondness for gambling.
An enterprising journalist from The Mail reported that David was a regular gambler who boasted that his hobbies were ‘football, poker and beer’ and in February, he sent the following tweet to two gambling tipsters:
‘Rough day today lads, gonna have to find your magic potion again soon.’
Apparently the month before David tweeted he had won an accumulator bet at odds of 28/1 - and also had accounts on poker websites.
Yet the deliberate impression given by David in his by now famous interview on Radio 4 is that he didn't have single penny to spare - every pound was a prisoner - and he even had to borrow money to survive.
Now, all of a sudden, it was nobody else’s business what David did with his spare money which - of course - didn't even exist a day or two previously.
The BBC have now, unsurprisingly, received a formal complaint from a Conservative MP - Dominic Raab who said:
“The Beeb wouldn't be doing its job if it didn't scrutinise policy and politicians unflinchingly. But, simply picking a guy off twitter with a record of slating the government, and not checking blatant inaccuracies in the benefits he was claiming or his income, is something else.
It looks like a partisan tabloid ambush, not the high standard of impartiality and rigour expected of a public service broadcaster. It's reasonable to ask BBC bosses for an explanation.”
Well, 'Gordon Bennett and lovely jubbly' - is all I can say.
Apart from a word of advice which is - always be careful what you post on social networking sites because your words could come back and haunt you one day.
