Yet still they call him the quiet man, the gentleman.
Here's your gentleman : (from Hansard last November) May all the universe conspire to show the whole country this IDS we know so well.
"Rachel Reeves (Leeds West) (Lab): This weekend it was reported that Atos had pulled out of a DWP contract providing specialist disability advice. What was the Department’s response? An internal memo instructing staff deciding whether people are disabled enough to receive disability living allowance to “google it”. Is this not the biggest indication yet of the sheer contempt in which the Department for Work and Pensions holds disabled people?
Mr Duncan Smith: The hon. Lady is completely wrong. First of all, it was not an internal memo; it was guidance that goes out to the Department in the normal way. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) needs to keep quiet for a while and listen a bit more. This man has travelled so far in his political career that we never know what he is talking about. He has gone from being a Tory to being a Blairite and then a Brownite, and now he is a socialist on his website, so I wonder whether he needs to keep quiet and listen a little more.
The answer to the hon. Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) is that Atos Healthcare has not withdrawn from the contract. Normal procedures to update guidance in the process of DLA reform are going through. Under DLA, only 6% had face-to-face assessments; the majority have face-to-face assessments now, under the personal independence payment. Therefore, decision makers have much more objective information than they ever had before, so there is no change to the quality of the service. This is a simple contract adjustment to reflect and meet the corresponding business needs. The hon. Lady should really not listen to jobbing journalists who come to her to tell her they have an issue.
Rachel Reeves: I am not sure whether the Secretary of State has even bothered to read the memo from his own Department. As the right hon. Gentleman knows, because of the failure of his Department to deliver the reform, the personal independence payment is going out only to a third of country. After the chaos of the universal credit, the work capability assessment, the PIP, the Work programme and the Youth Contract, DLA is now in chaos as well. Is there any part of the Department for Work and Pensions that is actually working?
Mr Duncan Smith: The thing that is wonderful about the hon. Lady is that she never listens; she just reads what is on her script that she prepared before, and it does not matter what question was answered. I have already told her—[Interruption.]The hon. Member for Rhondda should keep quiet; otherwise he will jump out of his underpants if he carries on like that—
Mr Speaker: Order. These occasions are becoming deeply disorderly. A question has been put, and the Secretary of State is answering it. The House must hear the answer with all due courtesy and orderliness."
He's on with Iain Hislop, editor of Private Eye which has fiercely criticized IDS and Atos from the start when no-one else would. Chris Bryant represents the Lab shadow team and he's nobody's yes man, totally up for bit of argey bargey.
If you have nerves stronger than me, it might be quite a dust up.
IDS will not take any questions on any deaths as the programme is well screened and any such questions either by the panel or the audience are prohibited the bbc tells me
ReplyDeletehe may even cancel his appearance at the last minute
I think I 'm going to have to watch that. I won't, however, be doing my ironing (I usually do while watching telly) in case i get so annoyed with IDS that I chuck the iron at the TV
ReplyDeleteI will NOT be watching. If I do, I will definitely destroy my TV, & may end up being sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
ReplyDeleteIDS is the most dangerous politician of the past 60 years far more so then mrs thatcher as even i cant interoperate where he's heading or what he means
ReplyDeletehe appears to have every answer in the book covered and is relentless in his persecution of the sick and disabled
thankfully ATOS have realised very late in the day that it's best to pull out of the welfare contract as I'm sure the chief executive wont be wonting to carry the can in court for so many deaths during the welfare reform process
as to how and why so many sick and disabled people have died remain unclear to me who is ultimately responsible and it may be many years for the public to understand the horrors of all these deaths that have taken place
the chief executive of ATOS is not daft all he was after was easy money for the company this contract looked easy money but the sting in the tail was the loss of lives of many people and with penny now dropped he believes that he could be in the firing line in the courts at some point in the future
so better to get out now and forget this contract and to that i say good riddance
only the state should be responsible for all things like health /welfare/ nhs/ schools/inland revenue as they are far to important in the lives of the people and should never be contracted out under any circumstances
I agree with all here. It'll no doubt be a painful watch. I just love it though when, on the odd occasion he looks cornered. I'm Scottish and never thought I would vote for independence but don't think I can take much more of these people. I just despair that not enough people seem to care. What's happening today would never have been tolerated 15+ years ago.
ReplyDeletethat's the main problem Kenny it's the likes of IDS that are destroying the uk hence the Scots what independence and who can blame them
DeleteIDS and those like him will destroy anything if they so wish to do so and in reality he cant be stopped outer then to be voted out after 5 years
An officer, but most definitely not a gentleman!
ReplyDeleteI hope Hislop rips him to shreds, although I don't have much faith in Ian's stomach for the fight any more (Private Eye is a pale shadow of its former self, despite there being so much they could get their teeth into).
ReplyDeleteShan't watch QT though, for the same reasons given above.
There will be a higher price to pay for all of them, than a mild grilling on Question Time. Especially those who hide behind a nice respectable façade, or even a religious façade, whilst persecuting other people who are already suffering.
ReplyDelete'9 As Jesus was walking on from there he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office, and he said to him, 'Follow me.' And he got up and followed him.
10 Now while he was at table in the house it happened that a number of tax collectors and sinners came to sit at the table with Jesus and his disciples.
11 When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, 'Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?'
12 When he heard this he replied, 'It is not the healthy who need the doctor, but the sick.
13 Go and learn the meaning of the words: Mercy is what pleases me, not sacrifice. And indeed I came to call not the upright, but sinners.''
(Matthew - Chapter 9:9-13 NJB)
The Tory owned BBC sanitised the questions, and sabotaged the opportunity for any debate. IDS had a very comfortable and unaccountable visit to the panel. Salma Yaqoob did step up to the plate and challenged him with some excellent comments and figures that no government should be allowed to ignore.. But the whole charade had the feeling that it was highly orchestrated and overly policed by Dimbledy. IDS, who normally threatens the BBC began by pouring adulation on them.
ReplyDeleteGood blog Sue, and I'm sure if you did decide to watch it, you would have felt more angered by the pantomime directed by the BBC.
The media has a lot to answer for, especially at this time in our history throughout Europe.
Was IDS on Question Time? I just saw Dimbleby, four panelists. Oh yes and there was an incoherent slimy reptile spewing filthy lies whenever it attempted to open its mouth sitting near the end.
ReplyDelete