If I were to wake up as a Labour shadow minister tomorrow, I’d pick these three priorities.
Oh boy, you know as soon as you see the byline this isn't going to be grounded in reality...
1. End child poverty
Social security cuts and rising prices and rents mean almost one in three children in the UK are now in poverty.
Well, only because the definition of poverty has been perverted to the point that even some 'Guardian' writers blush to name it as such when talking about the UK.
2. Scrap the work capability assessment
The work capability assessment (WCA) – famed for its cruel and inaccurate testing of disabled and chronically ill people unable to work – is one of the greatest social policy failures in modern times.
If we don't have a test, how can people be said to be unable to work? Should we just take their word for it?
3. Close the Department for Work and Pensions
From the deaths of benefit claimants to the tens of billions wasted on the snail-pace rollout of universal credit, over the past decade the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has normalised a culture of punishment, waste and secrecy.
If we close the department actually dealing with all those disabled people claiming for things they need want who will administer that, Frances? Will it be you?
If the Tories had any balls at all they'd airdrop copies of this article over the whole country.
ReplyDeleteIt's a textbook example of how little self-awareness the left has. They really think it's a winning line to tell a guy who heads out to work at 7 AM every day that the Tories are evil for not giving his cash to anyone who claims their arachnophobia means they can't work.
She would make an excellent Labout MP. Pie in the sky policies and no clue how to enact them
ReplyDelete2. The number of people entitled to receive a disability benefit in Great Britain has risen over time, from 3.9 million in May 2002 to 6.3 million in February 2023, and is expected to rise further.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this is all down to the evil Tories and not bone idle scroungers who have enough nous to understand there is more cash available if you are on the sick rather than just claiming the dole.
Labour shadow ministers can't do anything, they aren't in government.
ReplyDeleteIf child poverty, whatever that is, is caused by a definition, it can be eliminated the same way.
Most people can do some kind of work nowadays, physical fitness need not be required. There dignity in providing for yourself as much as you can.
The DWP gives me money. Long may it continue.
You could make all 3 policies work.
ReplyDelete1. If a child is deemed to be in poverty, then subject its parent(s) to a public whipping. That would eventually cure the problem.
2. Scrap the present assessment, and put something more sensible in its place. Hire some people with balls to do the assessments. Most of the claimants are just scroungers.
3. Close the DWP by sacking all its employees, and instead, hire some people who have an interest in not doling out money unnecessarily.
There.
I could readily get behind the "closing of the DWP" thing (and most of the other useless, parasitic drains of almost all the other government departments) but we all know that'll never happen. Why? Because it would "adversely affect" women and minorities most (since >90% of those who work for such are both. Throw in the fact that its also a fact that most claimants are women and minorities too, and ...).
ReplyDeleteI suspect that if we shut down all those government sinecures, and of course the NHS, we'd all be better off, maybe even be able to clear the national debt in six months ... but 90% of women and minorities in the country would suddenly have no job and be introduced (for the first time in their lives) to reality. So, no down side.
If the land-whale Abbott became chancellor I'd ... see it as that line in the sand had been crossed, and that it was finally time to reference that H. L. Mencken quote about spitting and flags.
ReplyDelete"If the Tories had any balls at all..."
ReplyDeleteOnly the women.
"She would make an excellent Labout MP. Pie in the sky policies and no clue how to enact them"
Why limit it to just Labour? That sound like the idea modern Tory candidate too.
"...there is more cash available if you are on the sick rather than just claiming the dole."
And more reasons for claiming 'sickness'.
"There dignity in providing for yourself as much as you can."
Such an old fashioned concept!
"You could make all 3 policies work."
But not, I suspect, to Frances' satisfaction.
"...we all know that'll never happen. Why? Because it would "adversely affect" women and minorities most..."
Spot on!
"...see it as that line in the sand had been crossed..."
Thankfully. she's still not had the whip returned, so it's unlikely. Even Starmer isn't that stupid.