Iain Duncan Smith revealed himself as a sad and desperate man with his pitiful outburst aimed at the Bishops last weekend. So intent is he on pushing through his inept and brutal Welfare Reform Bill, the lies have been dripping from his tongue with such frequency it’s unlikely if he even really knows what the truth is anymore.
During his crazed outburst last weekend IDS suggested that children who share a room are classed as homeless, fibbing that:
‘The definition (of homelessness) inside government and places like Shelter is that children have to share rooms.”
Shelter’s Chief executive Campbell Robb has hit back saying that this is simply not true, and that Shelter used the same definition of homelessness that everyone else does, which is laid out in the Housing Act. Children of the same sex are expected to share a room until they are sixteen whilst those of the opposite sex are expected to share until they are 11. This applies not just to Housing Benefit eligibility but also Council House allocations. Even teenagers of different sexes sharing a room would not be deemed as homeless, although they would be eligible for council housing assistance, which can take a long time. These are all things you would presume the Secretary of State would know.
Now his grand claims made of the Work Programme Scheme are falling apart. The DWP has claimed that 40% of people on the new mandatory forced labour scheme will find work. However the National Audit Office claims that the figure is likely to be only 26% based on previous schemes carried out in more positive economic times. IDS’ clone and underling Chris Grayling says this figure is based on ‘guesswork’ by which he presumably meant to say ‘evidence’ unlike the DWP’s own figures which appear to be pie in the sky.
And pie in the sky is exactly what a recent government insider called claims that Universal Credit, the new and vastly expensive replacement for Working Tax Credit and other benefits, will be ready to roll out in Autumn 2013.
Perhaps this is over-exaggeration, unlike the other outright lie frequently told by Duncan Smith this month, which is that low income working families couldn’t afford to live in the same properties as Housing Benefit Claimants. In fact they could, and many do, by claiming Housing Benefit themselves, which is an in work benefit. This distortion of the truth has been told so many times it has become repeated as fact by ministers, the media and the DWP alike.
Now it seems that the recent shock horror statistics that 371,000 migrants are claiming benefits weren’t actually government statistics at all but in fact were part of a research report. Sir Michael Scholar, the head of the UK Statistics Authority, explains:
“These statistics are both highly relevant to public policy and highly vulnerable to misinterpretation,”
“There are important caveats and weaknesses that need to be explained carefully and objectively to parliament, and to the news media at the time of publication,”
This didn’t stop employment minister, Chris Grayling, and the immigration minister, Damian Green running to the right wing press in howling outrage over the figures over the weekend. According to the Guardian Iain Duncan Smith has said this kind of fuck up won’t be repeated. It will be a different kind of fuck up next time.
It’s hardly surprisingly IDS is getting desperate. With six defeats now inflicted on the Welfare Reform Bill in the Lords the truth about his shabby attempts at Welfare Reform are unravelling. The bill is rotten and incompetent from top to bottom. Few Ministers and even fewer Lords have any understanding of Welfare and many have been sucked into the claimant witch-hunt by the drip of misinformation from the DWP and the press, but even they can recognise a shambles when they see one.
The response from Labour has been predictably inept, even from those former Ministers who grappled with welfare themselves and should know better. It is entirely possible that this is because they see the car crash coming for Iain Duncan Smith and have no desire to put on the breaks. There are already whispers that the Welfare Reform Bill could become this government’s poll tax when it’s full effects are unleashed on the populace. They may have what they think is public opinion on their side now, but the public are fickle bastards. When it’s their granny losing her DLA or their neighbours kids being made homeless attitudes will change very quickly.
Homelessness is already rising and could soar beyond even the most pessimistic predictions. The Atos disability assessment system is in shambles, and they’ve barely even begun re-assessing the 2 million people on sickness benefits. As of November last year they had only completed 56,000 Work Capability Assessments, just around 20% of the target of 11,000 a week since the process began back in April. Add to this 3 and a half million to be re-assessed as part of DLA’s replacement, the Personal Independence Payment, and the upcoming disaster is plain to see. Already the appeal courts are in chaos whilst private companies involved in Welfare Reform are at each other’s throats.
As New Labour found out after spending billions on the failed New Deal, workfare doesn’t work. The new Work Programme, which IDS claims will help all those stripped of sickness and housing benefits find work, will be a disaster at a time of high unemployment. Even in more favourable economic conditions all that ever happened is that all those who would have found jobs anyway did so. Private workfare sharks like A4e and Reed simply picked up a fat cheque for pretending to help young people who got jobs themselves. Unemployment rates were barely affected, if at all. At least the New Deal had a training element to help those with lower skills and greater needs, IDS’ Work Programme contains no such provision.
The reforms to Council Tax benefits could see Local Authorities chasing the poorest families in their boroughs for just a few pounds a week, a situation directly comparable with one of the most unpopular aspects of Thatcher’s Poll Tax. And the Universal Credit, dependent as it is on creating the largest and most complex IT database ever attempted on the planet, is doomed to be yet another failed government IT project with hundreds of millions currently being pumped into a black hole.
Resistance continues to spread against all aspects of the Bill, with UKuncut joining disabled protesters planning a daring and disruptive act of civil disobedience aimed at the Welfare Reform Bill this weekend. Pickets of workfare exploiters are planned with Brighton Benefits Campaign taking action against Poundland on Saturday. Court cases are also on the away challenging the forced labour scheme and groups such as Boycott Workfare are going from strength to strength. Protesters have vowed to continue the campaign against Atos, who carry out the Work Capability Assessment so vital to the welfare reforms, and a demonstration is planned in Nottingham on February 3rd with the promise of more action to come around the UK. The Spartacus Report forced so many concessions out of Lord Freud on disability benefit reform that chaos seems inevitable. Finally the PCS, whose members will be expected to carry out these reforms, are embroiled in industrial action over pensions that doesn’t look like ending any time soon.
So there is little surprise that Iain Duncan Smith is pushed into ever more desperate behaviour as his long cherished dreams of an all out assault on the poor crumble before his eyes. That’s no excuse for telling porky pies though. There was a time when deliberately misleading the public was a resigning offence (if you got caught). It now seems that senior Government Ministers can lie outright, time and time again, and still remain in post. Why on earth should anyone ever believe a word Iain Duncan Smith says again? And more importantly why should someone so utterly incompetent be trusted with the lives of millions of the country’s poorest families?
the void 
“If you quietly accept and go along no matter what your feelings are, ultimately you internalize what you’re saying, because it’s too hard to believe one thing and say another. I can see it very strikingly in my own background. Go to any elite university and you are usually speaking to very disciplined people, people who have been selected for obedience. And that makes sense. If you’ve resisted the temptation to tell the teacher, “You’re an asshole,” which maybe he or she is, and if you don’t say, “That’s idiotic,” when you get a stupid assignment, you will gradually pass through the required filters. You will end up at a good college and eventually with a good job.” Chomsky (http://oneducation.wordpress.com/2007/08/21/chomsky-quotes-on-education/)
Accounts for a lot of these people I think…
The impression that I get from IDS is that he is a deeply compromised man. I know that’s probably giving him too much credit with regard to having some humanity…but its just something I get off him.
Also, yes. This lying thing. I keep finding myself thinking ‘how are they getting away with just telling outright lies?’ But I suppose it just shows how confident they are that there is no-one with the power or inclination to challenge them. All part of the decline of democracy (if there ever were such a thing in this country).
He’s a Tory; Tory does indeed mean liar. Says it all really
I wish I could share your optimism, Johnny. But I think this is a much longer thing than is commonly supposed – definitely worth it though. For instance:
When it’s their granny losing her DLA or their neighbours kids being made homeless attitudes will change very quickly.
I’m willing to bet hard cash that they won’t. They will blame immigrants and “scroungers” instead. In fact they may call for even more stringent tests. Never underestimate the ignorance and stupidity of the British people.
I see this mainly as a problem of propaganda, or education if you like. It’s not enough to be right and to confidently say “we all know that…” because we don’t all know the same things. Some people really believe that you get 26,000 a year in cash if you sign on, because that’s what the government told them. The people heave to be educated before they can fight, they have to have it explained why this is unjust- you do a good job but I fear your words don’t get read by the right people, which is, to put it bluntly, the ignorant. Educate the ignorant and they are no longer ignorant – God knows how that’s possible when so many can’t even read and right, but there you go. We did it in the 19th and 20th centuries with far less information technology, so we can definitely do it again.
Bon chance!
I think the quote ‘I see this mainly as a problem of propaganda’ is totally valid. The Con/Dems are basically finding their bogey people-the people not in work and hoping they can unite all the people in work against those who take benefits. They do say it will not affect disabled people but at the same time they say ‘those on benefits’.
Do not be despondent, everytime someone says we are in this hole because of benefit scroungers ask them where they got their information from most likely it will be the right-wing press who are supporting the 20 multi-millionaires of the Con/dem cabinet.
Sadly they have reverted to their default position of attacking the vunerable class warfare. The funny thing about benefits is we all are entitled and even the tories will find a benefit popper in their midst-remember the fuss kicked up by those who are are top tax-payers losing Child Benefit!
A big big up to all the disabled Charities who organized the hardest hit marches, I do not expect this coalition to complete its allotted time when you have got senior Lib/dems like Lord Ashdown who voted against his own government in the Lords.
I think it is only a matter of timing before they get so unpopular that the LibDems stop acting as the human shield for the Tories!
Shame Labour are inept but the Greens have one MP.
I’m afraid my bi-polar may prompt me to be very violent as my anger management is beginning to break down.
“lying bastard”… I think he will be happy at that, you should hear what others are calling him.
You might be interested to know that IDS is indeed the workfare PIMP.
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Please don’t call Iian Duncan Smith a lying bastard as it is far too complimentary. Here are the facts. Membership of Europe means we must commit to European immigration law etc, and allow millions of others the right to enter this country and claim benefits. This country is a small island and has limited space and resources. We cant provide services for everyone from this country and for millions from abroad. therefore the services are stretched to breaking point. This means that our own citizens cannot all get a doctor, work, dentist, accomodation, etc, etc. It also means that although you are paying tax for these services you are not being given the services that you pay for. It is going abroad in aid and to European members. Atos has been employed to get people off benefits regardless of how ill they are. As we know people have been decalred fit for work and died the next day. In my case they lied about me being able to climb steps att he centre. there were no steps at the centre. I photogoraphed this fact. If Atos or Iian Duncan Smith wish to call mea liar I am happy to provide the lying Atos report and the photographic evidence that there is no steps to climb. I could have climbed up the few steps if i had been asked to and if they existed but they dont exist and to say that they did is a f*cking lie. How can an examiner who uses a centre daily not know there are no steps yet still write that you climbed these steps without much effort. they are employing quacks who ignore your medical problems because they think there is f*ck all you can do about it. That is why you cannot record the proceedings as it will expose these lying bas*ards. A lot of landlords are rich immigrants buying up whole streets and renting them out at extortionate rents. Social landlords etc are putting up rents left right and centre and bleeding us all dry. We now cannot afford the rents, and those on benefit are being picked on, when in fact it is the greedy landlords who are getting this money, not the person on benefits. The poor. sick , infirm, dying, unemployed etc are being socially cleaned ane evicted by stealth. Iian Duncam Smith might as well set up nazi style death camps for the poor, sick, infirm, unemployed. His policies will be responsible for thousands of people being homeless, and becoming sick and dying, and for the increase in suicides, crime and so forth. Att he same time these theiving bas*rds are riding the gravy train and filling their pockets with your cash. they have two or more houses paid for by the tax payer and are in some cases renting out to each other to maximise their greed for money, and to get round the rules of parliament etc. They are still milking you all but this time they are stealing from us by stealth. They get far to much wages and their wages should be cut. the houses they bought with our money should be returned to the state and rented out to homless people. They should not be allowed expenses as low paid workers dont get expenses and they dont get paid extra for turning up at work either. In Europe they sign in and get around £300 for turning up then they f*ck off home after getting their money. I can foresee thousands of familys not seeing their children. There will be thousands living in the streets or parks. Crime will rise dramatically. many will die of cold or hunger. Familys will be split up. MP’s should be forced to live in the housing schemes that they claim to represent, and if there are not enough sh*t holes to go round then they should be forced to live in bedsits and one room properties. The hospital in peterborough can be converted into single rooms for MP’s and similar one bedroom accomodation should be provided in London and elsewhere. However we should not build more places just to suit them. They can give up their jobs and joint those they are abusing on benefits if they cant afford to live where they work. Many councils are preparing to move thousands of people out of their homes because of the benefit caps. Whole communities will be on the move. In essence they are clearing the poor out of London and other areas and forcing them up north to live in sh*t holes. I sincerely hope that this country riots when this policy is introduced and does not stop until it is withdrawn. This is Camerons poll tax. Never vote for Thatcherite scum again. This is exactly why Scotland doesnt want these bast*rds and kicked them out. Dont be fooled into arguing that it is all labours fault or anyone elses. Labour, Liberal, and tory governments have destroyed this country decade by decade and all have sold thei principles down the river for power and money. Dont vote for any of these bast*ards ever again. Vote UKIP. The reason is because they want their politically correct undemocratic superstate rich mans club to go from strength to strength. You have no say in Europe. Bring it down by voting UKIP. You will then not be obligated to provide for millions of foreigners, or to put up with terrorists we cant deport and have to pay 5 million quid a year to keep. Ask yourself will Abu Hamza have his rent restricted. Will he f*ck. In that case why should you be singled out. Will they pay 5 million quid for you a year. Will they f*ck. Will you get a 400 grand house to live in. Will you f*ck. Take note that very few MP’s have stood against this social cleansing. In fact they have supported it. The church has said f*ck all either, and neither has the royal family. Incidently will the queeen and prince charles be given a council flat with one bedroom. Will they be evicted from the palaces owned by the public. Will they f*ck. Therefore we are not in it together. The french, Greeks, Spanish, and so forth are rioting in the streets. We should be doing the same instead of putting up with this war against the less well off. Hang your head in shame those in parliament, especially Iain Duncan Smith, Cameron, and Clegg. Rememeber when you go to vote the next time what sort of bas*ards are now sharing power. You now know they are all lying bas*ards regardless of party. Only UKIP tell it as it really is. Recently children were taken off UKIP supporters because they dared to be a member of a party that opposes excessive immigration and European membership without the consent of the people. This shws you what Britain has become. You can’t even vote for whoever you like without the gestapo knocking on your door and taking your children away. They might as well set up concentration camps for those out of work, sick, infirm, dying, or put a bullet in their heads because what they are doing amounts to the same as what the nazis did. the only difference is the nazis picked on the Jews rather than merely the sick, etc. Britain is now full of greedy Thatcherite bas*ards who are out for themselves and who couldnt give a f*ck about anyone else. They are damaging this country beyond your imagination. I hope people turn up in their thousands to squat on the property of MP’s. Rot in hell you miserable selfish thieving bas*ards. The people will revolt sooner or later. Lets hope it is sooner.
The ‘man’ in charge of welfare reform , IDS has all the qualifications for the job in hand ,being a liar and a thief qualify him without question to have the ability to lie and steal from the incapacitated in society .His cv states that he attended the University of Perugia when in fact he attended Univeris per Stranieri which was founded in the facist era of Italy and gave no qualifications higher than an equivalent of a NVQ ,probably in Fascist ideology .His cv also states that he attended Dunchurch College of Management which in actual fact was a weekend management course for GEC Marconi’s staff college .His thieving escape became known as Betsygate after dubiously claiming a salary for his wife from the public purse .He was one of the first politicians to back the war in Iraq and went to the USA to meet the pro-war American government diehard’s. This is the ar***le that decides the fate of benefits granted to the terminally ill with his cohorts Atos .Obviously the ‘man’ has not achieved anything of worth in his life so therefore clings to Welfare Reform as his legacy as a politician .He has Japanese blood from his matrilineal great grandmother ,so could we conclude that he is an honourable Fascist whose only aim is to make a name for himself through the suffering of thousands .There is one consolation for him ,he can always go to confession and be absolved for his immoral grotesque behaviour . http://www.brokenbritainundertories.com
Ian Duncan Smith is little more than a Cameron hired liar who is not qualified to perform duties on behalf of the tax payer when the man can blatantly deceive the men and women who pay his wages.
I don’t think i could add much to that, well anything that would get printed, just hope that bastard suffers in a worse way than he and he’s old fools have made so many ill people suffer, the bastard!
When Ian Duncan Smith dies. I hope it will be a painful death and we can sing the bastards dead.