I see that Boris Johnson is preparing to levy yet another tax on us all in the guise of the ridiculously titled “living wage” (I’m assuming everyone who earns less is not alive), whereby £8.30 an hour is handed out to all and sundry every hour, regardless of whether their labour is worth it. The pretense is that no one can live on less, so employers should be forced to subsidise the failures of politicians in redistributing our wealth.

Let’s get a couple of things straight. The higher the wages, the higher the prices. To prove this, simply try ordering a beer in Monaco. Raising wages does not equate to lifting the poor out of poverty, it just allows suppliers to raise their prices to match the new disposable income suddenly sloshing around. Hence a beer in Monaco costs £7 and the rich get richer. Secondly, the State is well aware that the more money paid out by employers means more revenue for the Inland Revenue and less cost for the Welfare State. Raising the amount employers are forced to pay their staff will bring an estimated £800M per year for Politicians to spend on their vanity projects, whilst employers will simply hand the added costs over to you and I as price increases. Indirect taxation, if you prefer.

Starting on the premise that Government has no money apart from what it takes by force and then redistributes according to its vested interests, we’re being had. The State will reduce the amount of our money it hands backs to us in child benefit or tax credits and force us to pay more for the everyday services and products we use. A tax on employment designed to finance the cost of unemployment – you couldn’t make it up.

Just as housing benefit inflates the housing market, allowing landlords to charge what they want, safe in the knowledge that the taxpayer will bail out whatever promises the Politicians make, the minimum wage and the “living wage” are set to corrupt the labour market by inflating the costs to business and forcing prices and inflation up – just what the economy doesn’t need.

You will know when there is real poverty in this country – when the unemployed can no longer afford to drive cars or buy iPhones, when people plant vegetables instead of BBQ decking and hot tubs to impress the neighbours, when designer baseball caps and £100 trainers are no longer de rigour in the dole queue and the feckless can no longer afford to pay to watch multi millionaires kick a football around on a Saturday afternoon. Our tattooed and football shirted underclass, fat on the excesses of the welfare state should be paid what they are worth, not what enriches our Politicians at our expense.