When I was researching the Sweating Sickness of 1528, I found a line that just illuminated the virulent class prejudice still rife in Britain.

The Sickness seemed to affect the very rich & very poor.

One commentator described victims as ‘Men of wealth & ease, OR IDLE FELLOWS’

Sitting on your arse spending other people’s money while peasants do your work is fine, but doing the same on your own resources makes you ‘IDLE’.

Today when the media talks about ‘scroungers’ we don’t need to go beyond the headline to know which class they mean.

So the sick and disabled lose benefits and die of starvation because we pretend they’re fit for work, & we forced migrant NHS workers to pay fees; while the likes of Branson- a man who owns an island- come cap in hand for bailouts.