It's good to hear that Chancellor George Osborne, despite the perilous state of the economy, is absolutely determined there is one section of society that must be protected from his spending cuts at all costs.

Yes, Georgie boy recognises that there are some for whom any loss of income would be catastrophic.

And who exactly are these unfortunates whose paltry earnings have to be protected? Those on minimum wages or doing essential but usually badly paid jobs? Don't be silly.

Obviously the ones who have to be protected, whatever the cost, are all those poor, put-upon souls who are currently paying the 50p rate on incomes above £150,000. As George says - and rightly so - this shocking injustice must be ended as soon as possible.

I mean, if it continues like this, some of them might be reduced to buying Sainsbury's own brand champagne rather than Cristal. The very idea.

The Chancellor defends his plans to scrap the tax because, he says, the sums raised are only trivial.

Well, maybe £2.4 illion is small beer to a millionaire such as Osborne.

But then the take could be infinitely more if the Chancellor cracked down on the tax-avoidance industry that is currently denying the treasury around £120billion every year.

If Osborne did something about that, not to mention seriously - I'm thinking handcuffs, George - taking on those who caused the financial mess in the first place.

Those arrogant casino bankers who refuse to show contrition and continue to squeal at any attempt to regulate their activities, far less limit their bonuses.

They were at it again this week. But it's not just the bankers.

We have a class in this country that has been dubbed by researchers from the Compass group as The Feral Elite.

These are the men and women who head up some of our top companies.

In the past year alone, while most people's wages - if they've got a job that is - have stagnated, boardroom pay has, according to financial analysts, risen by 55 per cent.

The average executive now earns 88 times more than the average employee in this country.

Recession? What recession? Meanwhile, the top earners in other countries - in the States and in Europe, including American billionaire Warren Buffet and a group of 50 top German industrialists - have volunteered to pay more tax.

The latter suggest a five per cent wealth tax.

It's the same in France and Spain. It's not totally altruistic.

Their tycoons have the nous to recognise that having such huge gaps between the haves and the have-nots is dangerous.

They know it creates not only an unjust society but stokes resentment and fuels civil unrest.

But what do we get from our own Rich List? Zilch. Nada. Hardly a cheep.

They have no shame.

See, they KNOW they're worth their average £3.5million annual salary, even when their companies' profits and share prices decline.

Only one, Sir Stuart Rose, the former M&S boss appears to get it.

As he says: "How could I explain to my secretary I am paying less tax on my income which is palpably bigger than hers?" Quite.

But Rose is an exception. The others go on filling their boots, awarding themselves obscene bonus after obscene bonus, while telling everyone else to work more for less.

Another chancellor from another time, Lord Denis Healey, once said that he'd happily squeeze the rich until the pips squeaked.

Now it's the poor who get squeezed, while the pipsqueaks in the City carry on fiddling as England burns.