by Martin Odoni

Am I in the Twilight Zone? Have I arrived on an alternative-dimension planet Earth? Monday at the Conservative Party Conference was just plain weird. Surreal even.

Yesterday, we had the tasteful experience of the Health Secretary and public-sector-plunderer-extraordinaire, Jeremy Hunt, telling everybody what a great idea it is to cut tax credits because it will make people work like a slave-labour force in Communist China.

Seriously? So after nearly seventy years of China and the West being diametrically-opposed ideologically, one of the most senior figures in the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom is now saying the Communist Party of Chairman Mao Tse Tung was right after all? Whether or not we like the idea of most of the population working longer hours in more extreme conditions than those seen in about a century, it sounds completely bewildering to hear a Conservative Cabinet Minister…