Selfishness & The Left

John Denham, Labour mp, declares that Labour has to stop believing that the south of England is a selfish place. It has always seemed bizarre that the one region of the country whose wealth was transferred to the rest get characterised in this manner. In fact the way the left use the term 'selfish' is bizarre full stop, people who want to keep the money that they have worked hard to earn are selfish but people who receive money that was earned by other people are not. Selfish and greedy are rarely used to describe people or organisations who live off the taxes paid for by the supposedly selfish tax payers.

Incidentally this is John Denham's career to date:

After leaving education in 1977 he became an advice worker at the Energy Advice Agency in Durham, before becoming a transport campaigner with Friends of the Earth in 1978. He was Head of Youth Affairs at the British Council from 1979 until 1983, and was responsible for public education and advocacy for War on Want from 1984 to 1988. He subsequently worked for Christian Aid, Oxfam and other development agencies until his election to Westminster.

So he has not done any work that involves him being a net contributer to society, he has only ever spent other people's money and you can guarantee that he doesn't view this career path as selfish.