Anyone who has listened to the utterances of Lord Freud, Minister for Welfare Reform over the last three years as he blunders through the minefield of welfare will no doubt have a personal anti-favourite to quote.
There was "The poor should take more risks as they have the least to lose"
Later, sick and disabled people were shocked to find ourselves referred to as "Stock" like so many cattle.
There was the time he referred to sickness benefits as "An incubator for lifelong idleness"
And more recently of course, he really outdid himself with the suggestion that food banks were only on the rise because people would always grasp at the chance of free food
I could go on, but you get the idea.
Here is a man who really does not like poor people. He doubts their motives, believes they are motivated only by greed and laziness, and bases every policy announcement on the belief that all will cheat if given the chance. In the belief that we are all "feckless" and "idle", he provides a constant barrage of measures that hurt, judge and restrict. Every pronouncement suggests that people are inherently bad, inherently dishonest.
Lately, I've been musing on what this says about Lord Freud himself. This is a man remember, who when faced with losing three significant votes in the House of Lords over welfare reform, tried to hold the votes again when most of the Labour peers had gone home to reverse the decisions. Shabby and dishonest to say the least.
I'm no psychologist, but I've heard it said that we judge the world on our own place in it. We dislike in others, what we see in ourselves. Only a cruel, greedy, callous man could surely see so much cruelty and greed in others?
And here is the problem. A problem shared by Iain Duncan-Smith, and even David Cameron himself. You cannot design a compassionate system if you have no compassion for those dependent upon it. You cannot achieve justice and equity if you believe in a fundamentally unfair and unequal society. You cannot empathise with the lives of others if you believe that people are inherently greedy and selfish.
Every time that Lord Fraud opens his mouth, it seems we learn a little more about him, but not so much about society in general.
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His words paint a mirror of who he is. And it's not a very nice picture, is it? I'd try and feel sorry for him, except that he makes himself unable to be empathised with. Pity that he's got so much power, otherwise he'd just be another mean-spirited poor man with too much money to know what to do with.
ReplyDeleteSo true. I think all people know that thieves don't trust people, liars don't believe anyone and mean people always distrust people's motives. His view of life speaks volumes about the man himself.
ReplyDeleteLord Fraud the past 3 years ?, what tripe and the writer knows it, Freud is Labours monster
ReplyDeletevoxpopuli2 Freud WAS Labour's monster. Amazingly, they just weren't quite callous enough for him so he switched sides. It's not a political competition. He was shite under Labour and now he's shite under the Tories. It's just since 2010 he's been Minister for Welfare reform, tasked with pushing the welfare reform bill through the Lords.
ReplyDeleteWe are all cruel - we are all evil...
ReplyDeleteWe are also all of us good, kind, compassionate.
The measure of a human being is not what we see in ourselves but what we choose to act on. The difference between a thing like Freud and you Sue is simply this 'He acts upon his misanthropy and hates everybody who cannot help his wallet, you act upon your compassion and wish to help others regardless of what benefit it can bring yourself'.
In this way, through our choices, are we Angels or Demons.
They want to be 'demons' because they know they can resort to evil to oppress 'angels', who by definition cannot be evil. But in this instance, merely calling people 'angel or demons' has no significant bearing. It seems it is easier than ever to breed ignorance among society's people, it's as though we are living in some time-warp when people still thought the world was flat and we could fall off the edge. Hey people! Wake up! The world is round. Oh yes and by the way, disabled people are not sad, bad or mad! But Freud the fraudster doesn't care for their welfare and that is wrong, very very wrong. Sue is tireless in her searches for changes and fairness, we must all be as willing as Sue to find urgent answers to a failing benefit system that has been morally corrupted by sinister minds inside government.
DeleteA few bad men..and one woman maybe? Can we add Esther McVey to this please, a woman who looks as though she was weaned on lemon juice. She appears not to have a shred of understanding of the lives of people she is meant to represent. Her performance in the Commons on the 10th of July was appalling.
ReplyDeleteAh - a newcomer! You forget Maria Miller, McVey's predecesor :-)
DeleteNo, not a newcomer, just haven't posted for a while I'm afraid, but always keeping up..no, do not forget the Miller. Just that there is something about McVey which somehow grates even more..but I think they're definitely out of the same packet.
ReplyDeleteLord Freud'IDS'david Cameron are just mentally ill with Asperger's you'll find they are in the group that have the inability to understand the feelings of others and can be quite dangerous if left unchecked as they can and often do develop tendency's towards hate
ReplyDeletethey only see the likes of themselves in life with no feelings for others hence there coldness to the sick and disabled
i have Asperger's but mine is the complete opposite of those thugs above mine is about getting the balances right and small detail and making people feel good about themselves putting others first second and third
DeleteThe problem is thou it makes you a complete outsider especially if you live in the uk as when your talking to people the majority cant relate in any way to your kindness so with regret you get the cold shoulder
of course abroad I'm very popular especially in the middle eastern countries as they in general have great experiences from worldwide overseas visitors who display kindness and understanding
fortunately for the middle eastern countries the likes of Lord Freud'IDS'david Cameron have never ever visited thank god so there are still left some decent countries in the world left to visit where if you do have my type of Asperger's you'll be in good company
Nick, I don't think their lack of empathy and compassion is due to Aspergers. I think, if anything, they are sociopathic!
Deletetoni you may be right sociopathic they maybe as that trait does magnify in some people like IDS /FREUD. they certainly show no understanding and would never be allowed to work in the NHS so yes i could go with them being sociopathic!
DeleteNick, I'm sorry you linked the uncaring tories with Aspergers. Freud et al lack compassion not capacity. Their contempt and coldness toward those less fortunate than themselves is an abuse of power and lack of empathy, not a mental illness.
ReplyDeleteThanks for saying all this; every time it comes up people try to silence it by saying that it's libel or getting too personal or taling about things we're not qualified to talk about (newsflash: some of us got qualifications before we got ill). But we'll never get to the heart of this debate until we identify their reasons for hating us so much.
ReplyDeleteThey think we'd pretend to be ill to get something for nothing because they would if the rewards were great enough. They do a hell of a lot worse because of the rewards...
I to am sorry clutter that i linked Aspergers with the likes of Freud'IDS'david Cameron as most with Aspergers are like myself on the other spectrum
ReplyDeleteBut with regret Freud'IDS'david Camerons style of being completely distant of sick and disabled people with no understanding of their lives is also a classic sign of high-functioning Asperger syndrome (AS) which if left untreated as we have seen leads to the death of many sick and disabled people
In the house of lords and commons there are no mp's or lords that are willing to take a stand on behalf of the sick and disabled so year on year the ignorance just continues
if a mp or lord just stood up and said to the likes of Freud'IDS'david Cameron your talking bullxxxx then the problems that the sick and disabled faced today would be over as ultimately Freud'IDS'david Camerons are just bullies nothing more nothing less who cant bring any value to the table of the sick and disabled and never could do not this year not never as these types of people with this illness aren't even getting treated
the sick and disabled in going forward are in a no win situation and as there are no mp's or lords standing up in the correct and proper way of there true needs and understanding they will continually be abused till they die
personally i don't think of myself with Aspergers but that is what i have and as a caring kind and thoughtful person i have to live with that tag for the rest of my life
ah that bill they got to pay the butchers for the mess and distress they caused killing us through it all and their kindness they tell others so it seems we are doomed by htem but they find we wont go quietly enough for them perhaps they will pay this some time in my life so that I might see justice done to them all for whot they meet out jeff3
ReplyDeleteI wonder, i just wonder, when voting day comes and Mr Cameron and the conservatives needs one vote to regain government, would they, could they, accept a vote from a sick and disabled person? You bet they could! See, the problem is really only theirs.
ReplyDeleteThe question is: Why do this bunch of over-privileged, nannied, spoiled creatures want to create a poverty divide? They appear to want to recreate the days of the workhouse/poorhouse. There is no need for abject grinding poverty in this country. Yet disability living allowance is cut to the bone; other benefits which we were told some years ago were "the least the government has decided you can live on" (or words to that effect) have apparently made us profligate: all of those luxury holidays we take, you see? Those extra houses we have in the country, perhaps? Because those benefits, too, have been cut to in some cases £40 a week. And off goes Cameron to Wimbledon, Lords, oh and flying around in a private jet at vast expense to the tax payer too. Hypocrisy rules again. It is time to stand up, to make ourselves very very vocal. This bunch of unelected, selfish, shallow creatures need to be booted out of the Commons. And now!
ReplyDelete