Patrick pointed me to a terrific article in today's Daily Mail, written by the original Thatcherite skinhead himself. It's titled "A Nation of Haves and Have-Nots", and illustrated with a picture of protesting under-paid teachers. It would be magnificent enough if the joke was Tebbit pretending for the first time to care about the poor he and his colleagues marginalised so successfully.
But no, that would be too easy. Instead he's taken it to the next level, and the magnitude and complexity of his sense of humour is jaw-dropping.
The poor struggling have-nots, in this hilarious piece, are in the private sector, "victims of market forces and the deepening recession", while the feather-bedded haves are in the public sector, "wallowing in the privilege of having their pay and pensions guaranteed by the Government".
It's pretty funny to imagine that Tebbit could believe anyone could be a victim of market forces: it'd be like Arthur Scargill believing there could be too much state control. But the topsy-turvy comparison is the most exquisite part: this is, after all, the public sector which keeps on giving billions of our money to support Normo's favourite bit of the private sector, the bankers.
In case anyone doesn't think he's joking, Polly Toynbee had a great piece last week about public sector vs private sector pay.
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