Feckless Parents - Oh IDS, you Tool!

Today, a headline in the Telegraph screams :

"Feckless parents would only spend extra benefits on themselves, says Iain Duncan Smith"

He goes on to argue that giving benefits to parents of children living in poverty is self defeating as it only re-enforces dependency, creating yet more of the "perverse incentives" this government are so convinced exist. 

Immediately, the entire country sees Wayne and Waynetta, blowing their cigarette smoke into a cot, spending their giros on cheap booze and a wrap or two of coke. Perhaps reclining in front of their 50" plasma screens with a nice cardboard pizza and a couple of tinnies. 

My HUUUUUGE issue with this kind of angle is the millions of "good" "hardworking" families who never had a fag in their lives. Never go on holiday. Never go to the cinema. Never have money for the school trips all the other kids go on. Many work, but their wages still do not insure them against poverty. 

All the while politicians just see an amorphous mass of scallies, all the time they allow headlines to reinforce their prejudice, we will continue to see "scrounger" headlines, continue to see rising hate crime and division.

Presumably, ministers will continue to be "perplexed" at just why the media print things in the way that they do. 

Watch Out, There's a Humphreys About!

Well, I sat with gritted teeth through the Humphreys "documentary" on BBC 2 last night.

Live tweeting it using the show's hashtag was extraordinarily successful. My whole timeline was filled with shock and disgust at the almost comically biased nature of the programme. If you want to go back over the comments they are here If you want to read the article we were posting to counter the Beeb's lazy journalism, it's here

He rolled out sick people with a sense of entitlement, single Mums with 7 kids, Housing benefit claimants in Islington, Immigrants - did I forget anyone? Who else do we hate, let me think......

There was no mention at all of these people being statistical anomalies, rarer than chicken's teeth. Nope, everyone on benefits has a mansion in Islington or 7 kids and a nicotine habit.

I won't waste much more energy on it. Just because the Daily Mail suddenly came alive for one painful hour of totally unsubstantiated, kneejerk, nonsense, there' no point being downhearted.

If you want to complain to the BBC you can find the details by clicking here


Many of you were also bitterly disappointed by the lack of coverage of the Hardest Hit protests too, so why not combine the two issues?

I know it feels like no-one listens. I know some of you will ask me "What's the point?" You'll almost certainly be fobbed off with a standard letter.

Well the point is, that last night social media was awash with our right to reply. We created it for ourselves, and when I wake up in he morning to find my in-boxes full of indignant trolls, then I know we broke through our usual audience. 100s say they will complain on twitter and my Facebook Pages, so let's make it thousands.

Every time we make ourselves heard, every time we challenge mis-information with EVIDENCE, every time we find that last bit of strength to challenge smug, complacent, middle class men who think that starvation and homelessness are a price worth paying to keep CEOs in 55% pay rises, we DO make a difference.


One of the very few pieces of evidence Humphreys DID refer to was a poll by Ipsos-Mori. He did his best to smother it with some outrageously unrepresentative, follow-up scrounger questions, but the first question on the poll found that

"92% agree that we must have a benefits system that provides a safety net for everyone who needs it."


That is an extraordinarily high positive response - almost unheard of. People don't hate us, no matter how hard governments and newspapers try to make sure that they do. There is no appetite to send amputees to the job centre or take away the safety net that we will ALL rely on at times. 

Ed Miliband and the "Cheats" and "Shirkers"

Quotes from http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jun/11/ed-miliband-labour-leadership-problem


"Ed Miliband will tomorrow attempt to stem growing doubts about his leadership with an assault on Britain's "take what you can" culture which is open to exploitation by benefit cheats and unscrupulous bankers."


Oh dear lord, really? Him too? *Heavy, heavy sigh*


"Labour strategists are worried that Miliband will be further criticised for lacking hard ideas on how to cut the welfare bill when the party votes against the coalition's changes in the Commons this week. To counter such concerns Miliband will use tomorrow's speech to claim that in government his party would pursue a more radical reform of the welfare state than the coalition."


We've got alternatives Ed. We've been trying to tell you about them for years. At least it seems Labour will vote against the Welfare Reform Bill next week. 


"Rather than seeking mere cuts, he will say that Labour would look to restore the link between people's contribution and their eligibility for assistance from the welfare state."


What about those who were born sick or disabled or became so after just a  few years of working? I'm not sure the words "We will protect the most vulnerable" will carry much weight any more.....


"It is not just financial contributions we are talking about but contributions to the society they live in"


That sounds a little more promising.....


"The hardest truth is that too many people feel we became the party of those at the top and bottom who were not showing responsibility and shirking this duty: from bankers who caused the global financial crisis to some of those on benefit who were abusing the system because they could work – but didn't."


I wonder if the people who "feel" that have any facts to back up their "feelings"? Will language like that do anything to knock down the "scrounger wall" built up around sick or disabled people by the current government, the previous government or the media? Sounds worryingly like a consensus that will build it even higher to me. 

"A 'take what you can' culture which began in the 1980s was allowed to continue, unchecked, under the last government."

Ouch!!! That kick hurt!

Careful, careful, Ed. Please be very, very careful what you say and how you say it. Millions of sick and disabled people will be listening to every word. Will you throw us in the pot with the scroungers? Or will you admit that ESA was wrong, is wrong and is killing people? Will you defend DLA? Will you use the same line as Liam Byrne, that :

"We should be forcing more unemployed people into work, not forcing more sick and disabled people into poverty" ?

Or will you abandon us? And our families? And our friends and our carers? 

But forget my special interest for a moment. At a time when the global financial system has gambled away trillions of our money, am I happy to see a Labour Party that concludes that "scroungers" must be made to pay? Am I happy with a speech that splits the "deserving poor" from the "undeserving"? Is that the only policy my party can put forward? In a country being torn apart, Labour has decided it's all because of "benefit cheats?"

I'm sure the Daily Mail will be thrilled. Labour voters? Not so much. Compassionate voters with an inch of integrity? Not so much. Intelligent voters? God I hope not. 

I'll wait to see the speech tomorrow. Perhaps the Guardian have put a spin all of their own on it but I don't like what I read so far....


A little reminder before tomorrow Ed :

http://sarahevanslabour.blogspot.com/2011/06/lobby-your-mp-to-vote-no-to-vicious.html#comment-form

Research http://www.l-r-c.org.uk/files/WRB2R_briefing_%20Mar11.pdf