There's patriots and then Tories

It is also only the most recent addition to a gallery of evidence revealing this government's craven subservience to the free market, whatever the cost to ordinary people.

David Cameron may currently be wrapping himself in the Union Jack during his Brussels jaunt, where he will claim to have successfully stuck up for queen and country if the EU budget is not increased.

But his attempts to project himself as a patriot are as hollow as any other posturing from his millionaire's mouth.

When it comes to the bread and butter issues facing ordinary working people the length and breadth of the land Cameron and co are anything but patriotic.

Patriotism is not to be confused with shallow jingoism or nationalism - it can also be positive, reflecting a desire to help build society in the image of solidarity between the fortunate and those who have fallen on hard times.

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It's a concept that's commonly understood in Scandinavia, where being "solidarisk" is part of the national pysche. How often do we hear its English translation - to be solidaristic. It's time we got it back in our vocabulary.

Positive patriotism is about putting the good of all sections of the people before the narrow demands of a tiny, wealthy elite whose only interest lies in feathering their own nest.

It would be to act as a government should - to seek to create jobs where the private sector has no interest in doing so, not just to build a decent society for all but to give the economy a rocket boost.

People with the least money in their wage packets are the most likely to spend it.

To bring Britain's gluttonous cabal of energy firms back under democratic control, where bills could be kept down and profits channelled towards infrastructure or other sections of the state, would be a true act of patriotism.

To allow the cost of future energy infrastructure to be passed on to ordinary bill-payers and let the power firms keep on racking up billions in profits at the same time is a national betrayal.

When it comes to preserving and creating jobs, the government is hands off. In truth it doesn't believe that it's its responsibility. Things are ticking along just swimmingly, old boy, because keeping millions on the dole means that the Tory wet dream of pushing down wages and tearing up hard-won employment rights is all the easier.

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The Tories' lack of patriotism explains precisely why another 20,000 jobs have been put at risk this week without a whisper of concern from the corridors of power.

And it explains why the despicable Baron Freud, architect of the policies which now force the unemployed to take rock-bottom wage jobs in return for benefits, feels able to openly speak about the least well-off in our society "working harder" because they've less to lose.

He may claim that "you don't have to be the corpse to go to a funeral" when asked whether he knows what it's like to exist on benefits, but his background as a corporate banker suggests he hasn't a clue.

The idea of forcing people into poverty-wage jobs just to put food on the table belongs to the barbaric past - as does the bitter baron himself.

Meeting the needs of the people should be the number one concern of any government.

Implementing a strategic industrial policy with maximum employment as a central goal should be one of its basic functions.

That our unpatriotic, unelected rulers believe otherwise shows why they must be buried deep in history's graveyard.