Another day, another whine-fest from The Daily Telegraph, this time about the “middle-class poor.” Apparently, inflation has made it difficult for some people to afford cleaners and nannies and after-school tutors. The horror. This is meant to tug at our heartstrings, but my only response is a cynical grin and a slight warming of my heart. These are the people who cheered for the policies that made their current suffering inevitable. They lapped up every Green hysteria campaign, every tax increase, every government intervention, and now they’re upset that they can’t pay someone else to do their washing up? Forgive me if I don’t reach for a tissue.

Let’s be clear: there is no such thing as a “cost of living crisis.” That’s Newspeak, a euphemism designed to disguise what’s really happening. The problem isn’t that things have mysteriously become unaffordable—it’s that the currency has been debased. Governments have been printing and spending money like lunatics for years. The financial crisis of 2008 should have forced a painful but necessary readjustment of Western economies. But instead of letting that happen, central banks papered over the cracks with inflationary policies the economic hacks renamed quantitative easing. Then came 2020, when governments across the world, including Britain’s, used the Coronavirus scam as an excuse to print and borrow even more. Lockdowns were a wrecking ball to the economy, but instead of taking the hit honestly, they covered the damage with cheap debt. Now, surprise! The bill has arrived. Consumer prices have soared because the value of money has collapsed.

Then there’s the environmental agenda—the biggest racket of all. The Green transition has never been about saving the planet. It’s about transferring wealth from the many to the well-connected few. Every pound squeezed out of households through soaring energy costs and semi-mandatory heat pumps ends up in the pockets of those who manufacture wind turbines or run opaque carbon trading schemes. And the wealth that isn’t transferred? It’s simply destroyed, suffocated under layers of regulation, or never created in the first place because investment is funnelled into politically favoured projects that serve no real economic purpose.

Add to this the highest tax burden since the 1940s. Nearly half of what the average worker earns is confiscated before they even see it, and then they’re hit again with VAT, fuel duty, and council tax. But does it go towards anything useful? No. It funds a bloated public sector, migrant hotels, and an ever-growing army of diversity consultants and climate activists. The money that should have gone into productive enterprise is instead wasted on an ever-expanding state.

Now the middle classes—who thought they were immune—are feeling the pinch. They can’t afford domestic help. They’re turning the heating down. They’re cutting back on expensive organic food. This article wants us to feel sorry for them. I don’t.

For years, they’ve been cheerleaders for the very policies that led us here. They lapped up every Green scare story and sneered at anyone who dared to question the wisdom of net zero. They absorbed every mantra about mass immigration being an economic benefit while ignoring the impact it had on the wages of working-class Britons. They tutted at anyone who complained about political correctness and the growing surveillance state.

Now they complain that life has become expensive. Well, yes. The Green agenda you supported has made energy unaffordable. The mass immigration you celebrated has driven down wages and balkanised the country. The inflation you ignored has eroded your savings. The high taxes you said were necessary for “investment in public services” are now eating away at your disposable income. This is what you wanted. Enjoy it.

To conclude, inflation hits the poor hardest. The rising cost of food, heating, and transport makes life unbearable for those on low incomes, who have no assets to shield them from the squeeze. But does The Daily Telegraph talk about them? No, it’s too busy worrying about middle-class professionals who now have to do their own washing up. The reality is, they deserve this. Let them feel the consequences of the policies they endorsed.

Yes—let them do their own dishes in cold water. Maybe they’ll finally start to understand.