How Universal Credit won’t make work pay for many (click to enlarge)
The DWP is attempting a defence of Universal Credit as criticism of the bungled reforms to the social security system grow ever louder.
The Resolution Foundation, a think-tank run by a former Tory minister, have slammed Universal Credit today warning that it will no longer make work pay for many claimants due to savage cuts. According to a report published by the group the changes to the benefit’s system will “on balance be less generous than the tax credit system for working families”. Those hardest hit are likely to be second earners and working lone parents. These impacts will still be felt despite the rise in the minimum wage and cuts to income tax. This will leave a suspicion that Universal Credit has become “a simple exercise in cost cutting” warns the organisation.
Making work pay was the official reason for Iain Duncan Smith’s sweeping changes to the social security system. The original plans for the reform did indicate that many of those in work would receive a small rise in income – particularly those working a small number of hours per week. Then along came George Osborne who realised that widescale changes to social security were an opportunity to disguise the most savage cuts to the working poor’s benefits in decades. And so the amount of money that people will receive when Universal Credit is finally introduced has been stealthily cut away to the point where it is now less generous than the current system. As such the carrot – the term used by wankers who work in think tanks to mean any improvements in benefit levels – has disappeared. Universal Credit now is just a big fucking stick designed to beat the poor into a lifetime of low paid endless toil.
The Resolution Foundation’s report acknowledges this saying ominously that the success of Universal Credit now rests on the shoulders of ‘in-work conditionality’. This is the elaborate system of benefit sanctions and Jobcentre harassment that is about to be inflicted on part time workers to force them to constantly seek to obtain more, or better paid work. The implications are chilling. It will no longer matter that you are working already. It will not even matter if the job the Jobcentre wants you to take will make you worse off. You will have no choice. Do what your Work Coach tells you, or face benefit sanctions. This system is already being piloted in some parts of the UK with devastating results.
Until now much of the DWP’s strategy has been based on the warped concept that unemployed people are responsible for unemployment. And so they claim Iain Duncan Smith’s brutal welfare reforms worked, unemployment is currently relatively low. All those sanctions, the lives demolished, soaring homelessness, the deaths, have all been worth it. This is ‘tough love’. Sure some people die but for everyone else, well they get a job in Poudland on the minimum wage.
But even this horrifying mirage is untrue. When the Tory government weren’t elected back in May 2010 the UK was emerging from a bleak recession and unemployment was high. When growth returned, however slight, the jobs market picked up. It had nothing to do with Iain Duncan Smith’s endless crazy schemes, it’s just what hopefully happens after a recession. If it hadn’t former millionaires would be stabbing each other over tins of tuna by now.
It’s there that the good news ends however. Much of the rise in employment has been due to part time or temporary work and an increase in self-employment. The number of working households claiming Housing Benefits because of low pay has doubled to over a million in the last six years. That’s why the government are turning their attention to working benefit claimants. So now it is not just that unemployed people are responsible for unemployment, but those who are low paid are also to blame for getting shit wages.
The Resolution Foundation say that simply harassing part time workers to get a second job will not be enough to ensure the success of Universal Credit as even the recently increased minimum wage will not provide a genuine living wage for most. Instead they are calling for measures to be introduced to ‘help’ people earn more, although they suggest these should be outside of a conditionality regime. The report notes that in some sectors, such as care or retail, almost half the workforce are paid at the level of the new minimum wage. Even if these people are working full time they will still need benefits to survive and so they must be encouraged to earn more says the report.
It is here that this think-tank stops thinking. Just like the DWP they seem to believe that all of these low paying jobs would magically disappear if people stopped being so unaspirational. That we could all have fantastic full time jobs with generous salaries and free fucking vol-au-vents everyday like think-tank workers do. It is a middle class fantasy that assumes capitalism would be so nice for everyone if only the poor would just stop being so poor. Everyone can do a non-job and sit at a desk all day for thirty grand a year if they try hard enough. The bins will empty themselves after all.
It does not take much to find the truth behind this happy clappy facade. Whilst the DWP gushingly announce to claimants that Universal Credit will help them earn more money they are telling bosses that the new system will allow them to fill ‘any job’ and help manage the ‘peaks and troughs’ of their business. That it will help employers “identify opportunities for flexible working” and increase competition for vacancies. That does not sound like a reform intended to help workers raise their wages or increase job security. The Resolution Foundation are wrong, and they know it. They are simply too committed themselves to half-baked ideology that blames the poor for their plight to call for the obvious solution to the problems they raise in their report.
Universal Credit should be scrapped, tomorrow. It has barely even been implemented anyway. There is no computer system currently capable of handling the scale and variety of claims it will need to process, just a trial going on in a couple of Jobcentres. Only the simplest claims, single newly unemployed people without kids, are currently being asked to claim Univeral Credit in most parts of the country and these are being administered in almost the exact same way as current unemployment benefits. As one DWP insider put it, “it’s still exactly the same just under a different name.“
Iain Duncan Smith has gone and good fucking riddance. Now is the perfect time to end this shambles. Don’t hold your breath though, new Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb is a dick. Worse, he’s an ambitious dick without the brains to back it up. The financial security of millions of people now lies in the hands of some God-bothering chipmonk who once saw an episode of The Office and decided that David Brent would make a good role model. We’re fucked. Nothing left to lose and might as well have a revolution fucked. Start buying tins of tuna. And pitchforks.
Still for now at least we can trash the DWP’s facebook campaign singing the praises of Universal Credit.
This blog has no sources of funding so here’s a quick reminder that you can help ensure it continues by making a donation.
Follow me on twitter @johnnyvoid
the void 
What’s the point in having Think Tanks if they come up with this and no Answers to the problems. so it’s a talking shop for the thick with money and a very well paid Part time job!
They should try inviting the Unemployed and part time workers we can put it in real simple terms they might be able to understand …. Not enough jobs paying decent wages …We can’t all be MP’s
Universal Credit was never meant to make things better for the unemployed.
Just to put them under much stricter conditionality, and to hoover up the mass of zero-hour casual jobs caused by the recession. Plus it puts the ‘Work Coach’ in the driving seat, making people apply for jobs that they would never have dreamed of doing under the old system. Bits and pieces of unrelated, insecure, low-paid work, joined together to make up a ‘job’.
And bad as it is, Universal Credit will soon be the only game in town.
spoken like a true Smith!
Listened to the new Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb on Radio Four this morning. With little in the way of evidence, he claimed that UC is working and the warning that it will no longer make work pay for many claimants due to savage cuts is overly simplistic (please note that this will be his answer to any question that potentially shows the government up).
It seems to me that Crabb is a lying fucking turd who’s only role in life is to be a puppet for Cameron and Osborne.
He’s a puppet for the bankers you mean, and so is Cameron and Osborne – this is fascism at work folks.
(Off Topic) Just tuned into Channel 4 News and they are still chasing up the ‘Tory Election Expenses’ potential scandal and/or wrongdoing.
Apparently there is a Devon (Dawlish) area (M.P.?) Tory, Alison Hernandez who is also in the running (voting on Thursday 5th May) for the South-West Police & Crime Commissioner position. I didn’t see the whole of the story this evening, but it seems that she may have something possibly to hide with regard to the ‘Election Expenses’ as well? (Conflict of interest?)
When they tried to have a TV interview with her at a public meeting last night, she did not show up. They caught up with her at home this morning, but she would not answer any questions, got into her car and drove off!
It was reported that tomorrow, Wednesday, a representative from Devon & Cornwall Police & a rep from the Crown Prosecution Service are going to have a meeting with the Electoral Commission to see if any laws have been broken. Watch this space!
She was the Tory who signed off the Election expenses for her ward as being true. So she will be the one sent for questioning, and in the dock if & when it goes to trial. She is standing for PCC and will not answer the question as to her honesty or her standing in an election that costs money to run, when she knows she is under investigation. She should step down now, and so there is no chance of a having to re-run the PCC election if / when she is barred from public office for 3 years.
Here’s AOL’s version of this story. Look at Lord Fraud’s comments & also the DWP’s at the foot of it – most probably a packet of LIES!
(By the way, well done JV for another excellent article!)
http://www.aol.co.uk/news/2016/05/02/changes-urged-as-benefit-reform-veers-off-track/
i was told by an advisor that if i was to work part-time for 10 hours, i’d “still get my rent paid” from UC… top class advice from this deluded woman… i was also told that if i didn’t meet the criteria, i’d lose £10.50 something every day, she really didn’t explain it, but that’s no surprise
make work pay they say, that it does, but not enough to build a life with
all that UC has managed to do is make the advisors even MORE detached from reality and unable to offer legitimate advice
Don’t worry – these bastards have no need to worry about Universal Credit ‘conditionality’ or ‘sanctions’. They have their fat snouts well and truly into the pig’s non-stop gravy train!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/ex-ministers-and-civil-servant-still-taking-lucrative-private-sector-jobs-despite-whitehall-a7010936.html
1.6 million patient’s medical records shared with Google by the NHS as part of a data-sharing agreement. I wonder if any of the patients were properly informed that this would happen. I expect that many of them were probably not told. Also, where is the protection from the Data Protection Act in all of this?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-google-medical-records-data-sharing-16-million-a7011891.html
At the risk of being shouted down women s details have not been private since 1988. The cervical screening programme was set up and all women’s details were put on open Exeter the computer base so they could be “invited” to make money for their doctors. Same with breast screening and now bowel screening for men and women. It’s nothing new. They had to re write the law when to a data protection act arrived. No one worried
Universal Cobblers
“CAMERON WANTS THE OLD HAGS SIGNATURE TO CURTAIL FRRE SPEECH”
David Cameron’s new crackdown, reportedly to be announced in the Queen’s speech, will see people silenced and free speech curtailed. According to Politics Home, the legislation will “include measures to gag individuals, close down premises and ban organisations”. Also, programmes perceived to contain “unacceptable extremist material” will be shut down by the UK’s broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, under the Extremism Bill.
Couple this with the government’s definition of ‘domestic extremist’ and the censorship could apply to literally anyone. According to the National Domestic Extremism and Disorder Intelligence Unit (NDEDIU):
Domestic Extremism relates to the activity of groups or individuals who commit or plan serious criminal activity motivated by a political or ideological viewpoint.
Sounds reputable until you discover the government has redefined ‘serious criminal activity’ to suit its agenda:
That the conduct involves the use of violence, results in substantial financial gain or is conduct by a large number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose.
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/03/david-cameron-planning-crackdown-free-speech-silence-dissent/
“DODGY DAVES CURFEW ON FREE SPEECH”
To summarise, an ‘extremist’ is pretty much anyone the government wants it to be. To prevent people from publishing their thoughts is in itself an extremist attack on civil liberties.
Conduct involving use of violence-not many would argue against that. If financial gain involves theft, robbery and the like ok, clamp down on it. But conduct by a large number of persons in pursuit of a common purpose could be anything done by more then a small number of people, like a strike or demonstration. If one or two people strike by themselves, they’ll just be sacked. If one or two demonstrate, they’ll either be ignored or arrested.
We already have laws against those who gather in large numbers to riot, loot and cause chaos. This new law is just to further restrict people’s freedoms. Non violence is the best way to go, but it only changes things if a lot of people do it. A few people by themselves never changed anything except by using the very violence the law is supposed to stop.
It also encompasses the new criminals defined by Cameron & May – the Non-Violent Extremist (NVE). These are you and me. These are facebook political groups. They are the Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn, They are the Peoples Anti Austerity groups. We are all being watched by Big Brother now.
If the idiot Camoron had sense, instead of making free speech illegal, he would tax the IPs for it, and they would then pass the tax on to the owners of political sites and shut down those who would not or could not pay. Major political parties like his own could pay the tax, but not small groups and individuals.
Is this humour Bored with Geoff? Geoff Reynolds is one o the guys I come here to read.No shoe shining. This guy has experience,tenacity,the lot…in spades.A lotta experience and knowledge. Be voting for him as Police Commisioner if he could edge in past the present toadies
Which is exactly why mother Theresa May wants a snoopers charter, the cattle are becoming restless and the farmer needs more control on who knows about the slaughter house.
UC, is just one big social and financial Fema Camp.
Soon it will be no appeal system at all, even if you have the money for it or & a lawyer. Shut up & fit in with the Merlin Standard plan.
Waiting to go on the media – papers & tv. DWP do you want to be on tv !!!
£500 an interview.
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
Reblogged this on Social Action.
Another day, another industry SPAD looks to assert credibility for a so-called “independent think-tank” by stating the bleeding obvious. The Resolution Foundation was set up by an insurance salesman, Clive Cowdrey, whose other claim to fame was seeking to invest in Bradford & Bingley just before it was nationalized during the Credit Crunch.
(http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/jun/24/bradfordbingleybusiness.banking3?gusrc=rss&feed=business).
The author of the report, David Finch is a former DWP employee whose blog today discusses if Stephen Crabb should abandon UC altogether… and unsurprisingly his answer is “no”.
Like the banking system UC is too big to fail and has too many investors. IDS may be credited with the invention of the name, but the project was born under New Labour: “…I am a cheerleader for the ideas behind Universal Credit, I mean, I was there when some of the early discussions were going on in the days of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and they inexorably, logically led to Universal Credit. So, I believe we’ve got to have it or something very much like it…” (Dr Gerald Power, owner of IT firm Trapeze Transformations, 4th February 2014). The longevity of the project should have been obvious when the roll-out schedule was “re-set” to allow open-ended, piecemeal interventions; most commentators currently reckon it will be in place across the UK in 2022, but Hammersmith JCP’s fully integrated IT system went live on 29th April and they assert they’ll be dealing with all types of UC claimants next year.
UC was always about saving money. Rather than attack the state funding of the elderly core voters, the cuts were aimed at the exponential growth of the housing benefit and tax credits budgets. How better to reduce costs in a low-wage, high-rent economy than to start sanctioning the working poor for periods of up to three years? Introduce a sub-Maoist eugenics policy on the number of children eligible for Child Tax Credits? Oh, wait… Despite being fully outlined in the 2015 Summer Budget that’s not scheduled until April 2017. Next year’s UC outrage story then.
In a typical “Alice through the Looking Glass” absurdity, some new claimants might actually be better off than the working poor as they’ll still be eligible for contribution-based JSA and ESA. One of the current big debates around in-work conditionality revolves around those with fluctuating incomes and the size of their last pay packet(s) when they apply for UC. Reversing the whole propagandist “Make Work Pay” ideology the Treasury have realized that some people who are self-employed or on zero-hours contracts might actually financially benefit from UC; this means that the application lottery whereby the date of your application means you can wait up to three months for your first UC payment just got extended to six months if you earnt a decent wedge the at any time in the previous three months as your mean average monthly income is means tested. In short, the housing costs element is suspended pending investigation. Which is a bit awkward when your landlord can unilaterally apply to the DWP after you’ve got two months of rent arrears to have the Housing Cost Element paid directly into their bank; as part of this service the DWP will assess your personal allowance and deduct between 10-20% to cover arrears repayments unless there is a pre-existing agreement with the landlord… but how would the DWP access that agreement? It’s worth noting three points here:
1. Lord Freud is on record as stating that “up to 40%” of your UC personal allowance can be unilaterally deducted to pay off debt. (He specified rent arrears, outstanding energy bills and court costs because obviously “fiscal responsibility” comes at the end of the same big stick as justice);
2. One of Esther McVey’s last parliamentary announcements made it plain that an unemployed claimant refusing a “non-exclusive zero-hours contract” would be automatically sanctioned;
3. UC assessments re-set every six months, despite the highly publicized “real-time” adjustments available via the UC IT system links between the employer, DWP, HMRC, NHS, Police, TV Licensing, etc … so the suspension of the housing costs element for “assessment investigation” is equivalent to a sanction by means of its punitive effect. Introducing a “change of circumstances” reclaim will normally only allow a backdated payment for the past month. It’s worth making a timeline here if you’re faced with UC to see when the best day to hand in your application will be.
Point three indicates the real purpose behind UC: it’s yet another neo-liberal social engineering project. The eugenicists, and I use that term with nod of the head to all its Empire heritage functionality, are back in control. When your SKY TV or Dog License can be used to assess how your level of poverty should be made-to-measure your social welfare “segmentation” – aka “tailored conditionality” – there’s new level of dystopia to consider. The eugenicists’ Overton Window was opened by racial and social profiling (the contemporaneous press coverage of Winston Silcott or Hillsborough for example) and is now determined by tax controls. UC is only available to those with a bank account. All the high street banks are now legally obliged to offer basic bank accounts and elements of the current government have been pushing the extension of Credit Unions since 1st January 2012. These are purported to be educational, a requirement of the individual’s ability to balance their personal budget. Fuck off. It’s digital passporting (http://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-drawing-blueprint-for-massive-scale-identity-infrastructures/ or http://www.insidehousing.co.uk/business/regulation/benefit-claimants-personal-data-to-be-shared-from-february/7007964.article) . If you’re not rich enough to engage butler services and off-shore accounts people in power want to know where you are and what you are doing and why you’re not paying them for it. Whatever it is. Total Recall via Houellebecq.
Oh look, there’s a rewarding Special Brew in the fridge. Maybe I can order a quick chillax holiday break on my new widescreen digital TV… ffs.
SPAD – Signal Passed At Danger 😀 😀
14 May 2009
<i.Stephen Crabb, a Conservative MP, claimed his “main home” was a room in another MP’s flat, after buying a new house for his family at taxpayers’ expense.
Mr Crabb said: “I haven’t claimed for things like plasma TVs, even though the rules allow it. My claims were always within the letter and the spirit of the rules.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5318954/Stephen-Crabb-nominates-fellow-MPs-flat-as-main-home-MPs-expenses.html
Reblogged this on sdbast.
Cameron and Osborne are a Disaster
Get Them Out of Office
They have No Mandate from Decent People
“HUNT, THE CUNT, WILLING TO JEOPARDISE FREE HEALTH CARE FOR GENERATIONS TO COME”
……………..THINK HARD BEFORE YOU VOTE CONSERVATIVE
Free health care is the envy of the rest of the world. The only people who see it as a threat are the privatised health related multinationals that observe the glorious NHS as a block to further profits………….
It doesn’t take a genius to work out where the pressure is coming from to give up our jewel in the crown when over 2 hundred members of just the Lords have links to private medical associations.
This is just the Lords, God knows how many sit in the Commons and other back bench political slots………
One man is willing to throw away years of hard work to seduce those stuffing cash into his pocket.
He gives not, two fucks about any deaths that could succumb your loved ones, for being poor is his recipe for being punished. Somewhat in the mainstream policy of all Conservative welfare thinking at the moment.
It is now a crime to be without and Hunt has decided that you should suffer for being at the base of the totem pole of life…………..
I have witnessed a road traffic accident in Florida where two cars collided head on. Witnessed a woman laying bleeding on the hood of the other car.
I have seen the same woman carried by passers by onto the verge to be ignored by the emergency services that attended due to the fact she had no medical insurance……….
We are all born equal, but some more equal than others it must seem………..
This morning an olive branch was handed to Hunt. He declined it saying the imposition of the new doctors contracts are going ahead, whatever………..
This is not a democratic decision it is the imposition of a dictatorship tyrant.
…………..remember this when you cast your vote or you might not be here to vote next time……………
“LOVE HIM OR LOATHE HIM, ARTUR SCARGILL IS RIGHT”…………………
Orgreave was a concerted cauldron of hatred mounted against the unions of the mineworking community.
Thatcher used the police as her private bully boys to bring down a regime that recognised the evil of her ways. Scargill, from the word go, predicted that the Conservative aim was to decimate the mining industry, closing each and ever pit in it’s wake.
I used to drive seventy miles to deliver food parcels to the miners.
Seventy miles to see my brothers in conflict with the tory scumbag government……………….
Often i would get stopped by police road blocks who tried, unsuccessfully to divert me under the pretence that the road ahead was blocked.
I always got through, my brothers and sisters afforded the sustenance that they deserved. A square meal of rapidly collected groceries in a northern unionised factory where i worked.
No zero hours, no part time, a real job that paid a living wage………………
“ASK YOURSELVES, IF A BUNCH OF CRIMINALS HAD BEEN EXPOSED, WOULD ALL THEIR ACTIVITIES BE EXAMINED?”
…… the answer is obvious, rightly so…………..
The same police that were foung guilty of misdemeanours at HILLSBOROUGH, were in charge of the cover up of government involvement and police false accounting at ORGREAVE…………
The police have yet to release unredacted files to the public as the great cover up continues……..
CORRUPTION LIES AT THE HEART OF OUR ONCE GREAT COUNTRY
.
Plus i’ll never forgive the Labour Party and Neil Kinnock for not coming down on the side of the striking miners and backing them to the hilt. That was the start of Labour’s long descent into the shithole of a party they are today. Tony Blair just finished the job.
OT: Possible Police Investigation of Deaths [Scotland only at this time – why am I not surprised…]
“Police Scotland assessing possible investigation into IDS and Grayling”
By John Pring Disability News Service
Thursday 5th May 2016
Scottish police are assessing whether to launch a criminal investigation into the failure of two government ministers to address a coroner’s concerns about the safety of the “fitness for work” test, a failure which may have caused “countless deaths”. ”
hhhmmmm, I wonder ow this will play out – UN investigation, possible Police investigation?
Crabb going full steam ahead with UC rubbish.
How long before the list gets longer?
DWP are you there? Are you watching… on edge?
Oooops,
hat tip to Refuted
I (only think) there’s has been a very recent drop in the number of sanctions. perhaps the brown stuff is starting to hit the whirly bits, at last.
Did Not Vote Tory Labour of Liberal Democrat
The Nation Need’s to Vote For Independent Candidates who are Not
Party Line Hacks
UC is a failure and has been since it was first conceived by the idiot tories, the system in place for it isn’t functioning properly and should’ve been up and running ages ago, staff who are supposed to be trained to use it don’t have a clue on how to use it, their computers are also not functioning correctly either, the whole thing has been a disaster from start to finish and the tories will either do one of two things, still arrogantly push through with it no matter the cost or they’ll realise they’re flogging a dead horse and will scrap it altogether but still costing a lot of money, our money, for this hugely expensive white elephant but of course, they won’t give a shit!
Why can’t the biggest benefit recipient of them all, that heap of shite that squats in fuckingham palace be made to sign onto universal bollox? Oh no, old hag features couldn’t possibly be put through all the conditionality and harassment, the threat of sanctions, homelessness, starvation and death. Yes lizzie dripping ( in all that obscene wealth ) you just keep on sponging what is not rightfully yours and the peasants will just soldier on as usual!
No laws can be brought against the royal parasite, but get caught shoplifting for food when you’ve been sanctioned and face a hefty fine or a prison sentence.
http://www.sxolsout.organisation.uk/zcase.html.html
That should read
http://www.sxolsout.org.uk/zcase.html
The shameless bitch has trillions, why can’t it fucking live off that, no it prefers the pittances robbed off the peasants, must give it a warm fuzzy feeling inside knowing some poor sod has had to go without or even snuffed it just so that thing doesn’t have to part with one fucking penny!
mrmarcpc – As you stated about UC: ‘ they (Tory Scum) don’t give a shit!’ because their kind will never need it to survive. Due to Tory policies the UK in 2016 is an ugly harsh place if you’re underemployed, unemployed or disabled. Many people I know are dreading UC as it seems the system is deliberately designed to make it more likely to fail rather than support claimants.
Santa Hates You – As you also stated, the tories are scum, privileged scum who want for nothing and have earned nothing.
The tories have made this country a very vile, ugly, callous, cruel, mean, heartless place to live in, all started under Thatcher and has only gotten worse and will continue to be the case unless the British finally grow a spine and stand up for themselves!
UC is a expensive flop that’s cost us christ only knows but they’ll arrogantly push through with it unless tory members start murmuring against it, then it’ll be scrapped, but still a huge waste of money!
……….Had to laugh when i read that grocery prices had actually fallen and we now received a great deal……………
“What a load of bollocks”
With wagon wheels the size of a wheel bearing, packets of bicuits the size of the cardboard tube in a bog roll and magic bacon that fills the frying pan on entry and needs a search party to find when cooked………
Are these experts living in a parallel universe?
……………and beer sales are increasing apparently, and just before the local elections…………
Pubs and clubs in my area are closing faster than a Tory’s arsehole when told his overseas accounts are being investigated.
Strange how the media propaganda machine steps up the bullshit just before local elections.
The BBC deserve a medal from the Lord Mayor of Jupiter as they depict a world far away from the reality of our own. A fictional kingdom where tents are not given out, people are overfed and poverty and disability a thing of the past.
The only imaginary thing that comes to mind, is the BBC imagining that we, the public are going to pay a license fee to be spoon fed this crap as our lives are torn from beneath us………
“THE REAL REASON IAIN DUNCAN SMITH RESIGNED”
……………..the welfare mortality deaths.
In December 2011, a long-term incapacity benefit claimant – Ms D E – killed herself after being told she was not eligible for ESA; her case was linked by the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to the failure to obtain further medical evidence.
Another alleged victim of the failure to act on Osborne’s warning was David Barr, who died in August 2012 after being found fit for work and having his ESA withdrawn.
An Atos assessor had concluded that although Barr had attempted to take his own life six weeks before his WCA, he was still “not at substantial risk”.
The third case concerns the death of Paul Donnachie, who took his own life late last year after his ESA was mistakenly stopped when he failed to attend a WCA.
The call for a criminal investigation into the actions of Duncan Smith and Grayling has been backed by many of the country’s leading disabled activists and disabled people’s organisations, including Inclusion London, Disabled People Against Cuts, Equal Lives, WOWcampaign, Professor Peter Beresford, the Mental Health Resistance Network, Pat’s Petition, and the Cross Border Alliance.
Meanwhile, a disabled constituent of Labour’s shadow minister for disabled people, Debbie Abrahams, has heavily criticised her for failing to speak out about Duncan Smith’s failure to act on the coroner’s letter.
…………………JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
Geoff – The BBC couldn’t be much more shit that it is at present – it is already a virtual state controlled monopoly (funded by taxpayer’s & licence fee payer’s money!) and a Tory propaganda foghorn extraordinairre!
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/05/wolf-hall-director-says-governments-plans-for-BBC-are-terrifying
Sorry that should read: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/may/05/wolf-hall-director-says-governments-plans-for-bbc-are-terrifying
You may not hear this ‘News’ on the BBC! Barnet polling station (voting for new London Mayor) dubbed “an absolute shambles”!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/elections-2016-absolute-shambles-in-barnet-as-voters-turned-away-from-polling-stations-with-wrong-a7014411.html
Hving just found out that CAPITA was to blame for the Barnet voting fiasco comes as no shock Paul……………
I wonder if CAPITA fill in the voting forms prior to the voters attending, similar to what the Dispatches tv programme showed them doing on work capability reports and PIP ?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/elections-2016-ukip-win-first-seats-in-welsh-assembly-a7016071.html
Looks Like The UnConservatives have lost Control of Worcester whilst
Slave Labour has lost Eastwood in Scotland
No Vote For Pro Austerity Policies or Pro Austerity Candidates
No to Universal Credit Defend the Welfare State
mrmarcpc | May 5, 2016 at 3:15 pm | Reply
UC is a failure and has been since it was first conceived by the idiot tories, the system in place for it isn’t functioning properly and should’ve been up and running ages ago, staff who are supposed to be trained to use it don’t have a clue on how to use it, their computers are also not functioning correctly either, the whole thing has been a disaster from start to finish and the tories will either do one of two things, still arrogantly push through with it no matter the cost or they’ll realise they’re flogging a dead horse and will scrap it altogether but still costing a lot of money, our money, for this hugely expensive white elephant but of course, they won’t give a shit!
Perhaps Independent Candidates Elected to Local Councils and to
Parliament Not having to toe the Party Line would Help No Austerity
“SEVENTY LABOUR VOTES HIDDEN UNDER TORY PILE”
……………….and right on Cameron’s doorstep in Witney
A Labour councillor who thought he had lost his seat was re-elected after a bundle of votes was found “under a Tory pile”.
Duncan Enright, who stood against David Cameron in the 2015 general election in Witney, Oxfordshire, thought he had lost his seat by around 70 votes.
But the “delighted” councillor later tweeted to say he had been re-elected in Witney East ward after the surprise discovery.
“BBC BIAS AGAINST CORBYN SHAMEFUL”
As a citizen-funded media outlet, the BBC is rightfully expected to present information in an impartial manner. But it has been consistently criticised for failing to do so. And the 5 May local elections were no exception, garnering strong critiques from people on social media.
The major criticisms were of BBC Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg, and BBC Question Time. Both were perceived to have placed a significant and inappropriate emphasis on attacking Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/06/laura-kuenssberg-bbc-get-slammed-woeful-election-coverage-tweets-video/
This despicable snub shows everything that’s wrong with Cameron’s government (VIDEO)
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/05/despicable-snub-shows-everything-thats-wrong-camerons-government/
…………..EVERYBODY SHOULD WATCH THIS
“CONSERVATIVE VALUES”
On 4 May, Ben Baddeley, an 11-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, painfully walked to the door of 10 Downing Street. He was there to personally hand-in a letter asking for help to the Prime Minister. But despite the PM’s office approving the visit, and Cameron believed to be present at the property, he failed to answer the door.
This wilful ignorance epitomises the Conservative party’s style of governance and the shocking disrespect it has for its citizens.
That Ben can walk at all is due to spinal surgery he had in 2014. The operation was due to be carried out by the NHS. But a few days before the operation his family were told that the cost could not be covered because the procedure was not cost effective.
Luckily for Ben a private donor responded to an appeal for help and paid for the operation. But the family then received further bad news:
http://www.thecanary.co/2016/05/05/despicable-snub-shows-everything-thats-wrong-camerons-government/
SCANDAL THAT COULD BRING DOWN TORY GOVERNMENT…BBC SILENT?
4th May 2016 Sainscot
This could turn out to be one of the biggest political scandals in recent times as the Electoral commission has called in the police to investigate Tory election fraud by not declaring local expenses spent during the general election, and if correct, then this is a clear breach of the law and could see Tory MP’s go to jail. This scandal could bring down the government as the people and parliament itself could not retain any confidence in a Tory party elected based on fraud.
The investigation will centre around David Cameron’s fleet of “battle buses” that were used to ferry activists to key marginal seats, often putting them up in hotels, but the cost of which were allegedly not declared by the local candidates, many who are now Tory MP’s. So why is this not all over the BBC, especially the political programmes? Here is a snapshot of@BBCPOLITICS recent tweet counts…
This clearly shows that the BBC is working hand in glove with the Tory government to suppress news of a major electoral fraud scandal. If the Tories are allegedly willing to break the law to fiddle the results of a national General Election and have the help of the BBC to suppress news of the scandal, then there can be no doubt they would also have committed electoral fraud in the Scottish Independence referendum as many suspected, and as we all know, the BBC was vigorously supportive and biased in favour of the Better Together campaign.
Here is the clip from Channel4 News who researched and broke the story that could lead to criminal prosecutions.
“THINK TWICE ABOUT JOINING THE FORCES”
……………..HOW THE SOLDIERS ARE SHIT ON WHEN THEY RETURN
AN EX-SOLDIER who has found it impossible to hold down a job was left shocked after his benefits claim was rejected.
Stuart Kennell, who suffers with severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), discovered last week that the government had deemed him not eligible for Personal Independence Payment (PIP), which is designed to help with the extra costs caused by long-term illness or a disability.
http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/prestwich/14472477.Ex_soldier_suffering_with_severe_PTSD_denied_benefits_payment_by_government/?ref=fbshr
Geoff – Channel 4 News has been on this story for weeks now – trying to get to the truth. (As you can see from my post below) they announced this evening that the Electoral Commission (after their investigation) has now passed it onto the Police to investigate. Police Forces across Britain are now involved and are working together. They are all applying for a 12 month extension for criminal charges to be brought. Gtr Manchester Police has already been granted this. At least 27 sitting MP’s are potentially involved, also Lord Feldman, Lynton Crosby & Tory H.Q.
(The BBC 6PM News very briefly (reluctantly?!) mentioned it this evening.
If this goes ahead there are many Tories who are going to be shitting themselves!
“SATIRE”
Laura Kuenssberg: Why BBC must fight Labour and ignore Tory racism and scandals
May 3, 2016 Jeff 9 Comments
Tweet
The BBC’s chief political editor Laura Kuenssberg has waded into the ongoing row over pro-government bias by claiming it is only right to overplay relatively minor problems in the Labour Party, and to downplay the numerous major scandals currently engulfing the Conservatives.
Speaking exclusively to Newscrasher, the former Conservative Journalist of the Year said: “The problem is that Jeremy Corbyn wants to protect the NHS and improve the lives of the poor and vulnerable, but as a staunch conservative I would prefer to see the NHS in ruins, and people who are feckless enough to be sick or disabled forced into slavery at Poundland.”
“When David Cameron decreed that asset stripping the poor and letting them starve to death is now the true centre-ground of British politics, with the tacit agreement of the Blairite faction of Labour, he effectively gave the BBC a green light to abandon the last vestiges of impartiality and train all guns on Jeremy Corbyn, who clearly sympathises with anti-semites and terrorists.”
“Not content with suggesting that the wealthy should pay their fair share of tax, Corbyn is also unable to bow at the correct angle, likes to steal sandwiches from war veterans, and shares some of the same ideals as Hitler, such as being vegetarian.”
“That is why I have cynically abused my position as the BBC’s chief political editor to push a highly partisan political agenda through our erstwhile impartial public broadcaster, the global reputation of which I have now all but ruined.”
“THE LITTLE ANGEL”
A 13-year-old boy has been praised for his generosity after he started using his pocket money to buy sandwiches on his way to school in Bristol – for two homeless men.
Hamish Anderson passes rough sleepers Stuart and Philip every day on his cycle route to school and struck up a conversation with them two weeks ago.
The thoughtful teenager discovered they never ate breakfast – so started a daily routine of buying them bacon and sausage sandwiches on his morning commute.
For the Present and The Future NO Austerity and No Tyranny so No
to So Called ” Extremist Disruption Orders ”
but Yes to a Genuinely Caring Society without the Nihilistic Individualism
of Margaret Thatcher
A Country Awakening to Freedom is Better than a Country Sleepwalking
to Slavery
Yes to a caring society, but you will not get it as long as currency is in operation and people want to use money as power and control.
“TORY ELECTION EXPENSES – PROSECUTIONS MAY BE ON THE WAY”
Channel 4 News is reporting this evening that the Police are now involved in the “Tory Election Expenses” potential wrongdoing.
Following an investigation by the Electoral Commission they have now handed it all over to the Police for further investigation.
A ‘flurry’ of Police forces across Britain have ‘joined forces’ and have all applied for a further 12 month extension in the time limit allowed for criminal prosecutions. (They have just one month left to act at the moment).
Greater Manchester Police have already been ganted this 12 month extension. As well as looking at Lord Feldman and Lynton Crosby (who was given a knighthood today no less!) they will be investigating Conservative Central Office Headquarters.
Various named MPs are now going to be investigated including Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) and perhaps Ian Carmichael (Stroud) by Gloucs. Police.
West Yorks Police are looking at Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) and Derbyshire Police are looking at Nigel Mills and Maggie Throup.
Devon & Cornwall Police have got Scott Mann (North Cornwall), George Eustice (Camborne & Redruth) Kevin Foster & Oliver Colvile.
Nottinghamshire Police are after Anna Soubry & Mark Spencer.
Others include David Nuttall (Bury North), Amanda Milling (Cannock Chase), Michael Ellis (Northampton North) & Graham Evans (Weaver Vale).
The one that they think that the Tories should be most worried about though is Craig McKinley (Thanet North) who ousted Nigel Farage at the 2015 General Election. The Tories may have a lot to answer for now.
The BBC very briefly mentioned this on the 6 PM News – as far as I know this is the first time that they have mentioned any of it!
At least 27 sitting MP’s (and possibly more) may be mixed up in all of this and if found to be guilty, then it seems that according to Channel 4 News, the Tories may ‘not have a legitimate majority’. The shit may begin to hit the proverbial fan before too long, all being well!
I wonder where this now leaves Alison Hernandez (whom I mentioned on here a few days ago) – she has tried for the position of Devon & Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner (did she know what was coming I wonder?).
If she got the post, could she have influenced this investigation by any chance. Surely, if so, she would be ‘trying to pervert the course of justice’.
It reminds me of when Esther McVey tried go get onto her local Police Authority last year!
GAZA HOLOCAUST
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/434730/leftist-anti-semitism
Think you’re getting anti semitism and anti zionism mixed up, zionism is a movement to take over the world and enslave us! None of us want that do we now?
Let’s hope that her favourite Corgi has had enough of the pampering and bitten the old baggage! (Debs this story will bring music to your heart!)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/queen-seen-mystery-bruise-leg-7912460
Paul, instead of her little darling going for her ankle, it should have gone for her jugular and not fucking missed, now that would bring music to all our hearts!
Debs – yes indeed! 🙂
(Off topic) And, Steve Hilton, Cameron’s former head of strategy has told BBC Newsnight that the election of Sadiq Khan is ‘great news’ and ‘a very positive and powerful message about London’.
He was scathing about Zac Goldsmith’s campaign, saying that Goldsmith was bringing the ‘nasty party’ label back to Tory politics (I thought that they were doing that more than enough already!) and that he had an ‘appalling campaign’.
(Off topic) Katie Hopkins is in the media spotlight once again!
The thing is, is it going to be a raw or a cooked sausage!
The image conjured up is quite amazing to behold – the mind boggles – as will all the men watching it if she goes ahead with it – she may have no option now.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/katie-hopkins-promised-run-naked-7914122
“More than 8 million people in UK struggle to put food on table, survey says”
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/may/06/more-than-8-million-in-uk-struggle-to-put-food-on-table-survey-says
Cameron has the arses!
Between May 2010 AD and March 2015 AD UK Parliament the UK Chucked away £86 Billion Pounds whilst there was £35 Billion Pounds of Nutcase
Public Spending Cuts
This Years Tribute to the EU has been Estimated at £20 Billion Pounds
Council Tax System Raises in region of £27.6 Billion Pounds
Outside EU the UK could Probably Abolish Council Tax, Certainly there
will be More Money For Public Services
What happened to that cracking pic of Cameron sniffing a big massive bum? Was that taken down along with a load of other comments?
Yep!