Wage Cut

A cut in the benefits cap kicks in today, dropping up to £115 a week from the biggest claimants.

£20,000 a year sounds like a lot of money to give out to someone that isn't 'contributing to society', but the safety net of social housing has all but disappeared and now the private landlords are milking the system for all its worth. That is capitalism.

The average three bed house in Hereford is now around £800 a month to rent according to home.co.uk, and you can add another £200 for each additional bedroom, with most observers expecting rents to rise another 20% over the next five years.

£800 a month is pretty much half of the new cap. That leaves £200 a week for people to pay their bills, feed their kids, and look to get their lives back on track. Yes, there are a few serial claimants not interested in getting into work and improving their lives, but the vast majority of people don't want to scrape along the bottom for the rest of their time. And it was these people that voted for Brexit. They didn't have much choice.

Jonathan Pie, a comedian, made the strongest argument I heard either way in the vote debate - if your choice was between the shit you're in and something unknown, you'd choose the unknown.

And that's the position that some people have reached.

We had the 2008 financial crisis, and then it was cut, cut, cut. Eight years of slice and dice on the social welfare fabric has left a surprisingly large amount of the country willing to take any 'other' option on the table. Even if that option is a leap into the unknown.

The longer it takes for Brexit to actually happen, the longer the uncertainty - and the pain - for the bottom end of the electorate will continue.

And the longer you torture someone the more likely they are to make desperate decisions.