For years many Democrats have wondered why poor and middle class Americans vote against their economic interests, especially in the country’s poorest states like West Virginia. Race, guns and religion play their part, but the issue of jobs is the main factor. Or more specifically, the fear of losing those jobs.

Earlier in the year there was a massive toxic chemical spill into West Virginia Elk River that illustrates another benefit to the business class of high unemployment, economic insecurity, and a safety-net shot through with holes. Not only are employees docile, eager to accept whatever crumbs they can get; the public is also unwilling to cause trouble.

The spill was the region’s third major chemical accident in five years, coming after two investigations by the federal Chemical Safety Board in the Kanawha Valley, also known as “Chemical Valley,” and repeated recommendations from federal regulators and environmental advocates that the state embrace tougher rules to better safeguard chemicals. But state and local lawmakers turned a deaf ear.

As Maya Nye, president of People Concerned About Chemical Safety, a citizen’s group formed after a 2008 explosion and fire killed workers at West Virginia’s Bayer CropScience plant in the state, told reporters: “We are so desperate for jobs in West Virginia we don’t want to do anything that pushes industry out.” Exactly.

Bottom line: A strong and growing middle class is the best bulwark against corporate irresponsibility. Currently, it is cowed and fearful. Unfortunately, Epicureanism ( a secure, pleasant life with minimal stress and fear) is a an esoteric pipedream for the declining working class of America. Come back, Theodore Roosevelt!

“I’m not sure I’d dare admit this in print if I were a young man just embarking on a media career, but I’m 58, so here goes: I believe that a “heterosexual man and a heterosexual woman, preferably married to one another, are – other things being equal – the best parents”. This belief shouldn’t be remotely controversial: it is, after all, what people across the world have considered to be no more than “common sense” for hundreds of years. Yet it has become almost unsayable today, unless you want to be branded a bigot. We hear a lot these days about how people’s personal choices must always be respected, and about how gay couples have a right to marry and “have children”. But it seems this tolerance doesn’t extend to people with traditional beliefs who dare to question this approach”. (Charles Moore, The Daily Telegraph, lightly edited).

Do you think he is right? Is there any truth in what he says? Are some people really showing the same intolerance towards heterosexual parents as they used to show to gays? Are children best reared by a man and a woman together? Shouldn’t the welfare of the child be the paramount issue? I would like to hear your views.

32% of British taxpayers believe it’s acceptable to legally avoid paying tax. 66% think authorities should name people who have been forced to pay back tax they have avoided. 66% believe the tax authorities treat rich offenders more leniently than other offenders. (YouGov/The Sunday Times)

Tax is the cost of living in a liveable country. We should be glad that previous generations paid the taxes that helped create schools, hotels, roads, law courts, and a host of other things we take for granted. It is un-Epicurean, and selfish, to avoid paying tax. No civilisation has been built upon charity donations.