IDS is a curiously vain man.
As an ex-Sandurst ex-Guards officer, he has all the understanding and sympathy for those less fortunate that himself that you would expect.
That explains a lot. But it's not just IDS; Cameron, Clegg, Gove, Milliband, Balls; they're becoming increasingly interchangeable, and the political parties are becoming increasingly indistinguishable. They seem to be coalescing into a single, amorphous, right-wing blob, and it's very worrying.
Collectively, they remind me of that old Harry Enfield character, Tim Nice-but-Dim; affable, earnest, and well-meaning, but from a privileged background so rarefied and remote from ordinary people that it totally precludes any real empathy for anybody less privileged than themselves. The only differences are that they're more intelligent, they're not as funny... and they're in charge
