Advice to Iris Robinson…

Iris Robinson is beyond contempt. And her latest homophobic outburst is no different even with her so-called u-turn (she said what she said and meant it and now tries to recant).

Sorry, but I am going to dispense with the usual political analysis and critique of why she is a hideous homophobe and instead be blunt and say….

Shut the f*ck up Iris!

Hat tip: Splintered Sunrise

Sicknote Britain: the continuing lies about the poor

“Our proposals are based on a simple deal: more support in return for greater responsibility”  (James Purnell, No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility).

Incapacity Benefit and Income Support will be abolished by 2013. Welcome to Employment Support Allowance (ESA) which will be brought in for new claimants October this year.

New and existing claimants will be medically assessed on what they can do as opposed what they can’t. If you qualify for ESA people will be told that it will be a temporary stop gap whilst being bullied and cajoled into finding work.

Lone parents with children under seven will be moved onto Job Seekers’ Allowance but won’t be expected to look for work but the green paper proposes measures that will include financial incentives in the form of “skills for work” premium (around £40 extra a week). No mention of universal free childcare….

The green paper includes more conditionality, stricter rules, compulsion and sanctions. And of course, community work if you have been unemployed for 2 years. And this process actually criminalises the unemployed, the languages blends in with phrases like “community service”. Being on the dole automatically makes you “dishonest”.

Programmes like the BBC one, last Thursday, on benefit fraud where the undercurrent was that unemployed people were essentially portrayed as cheats and liars. Further fanning the flames of stigma and vilification and the media, dishonestly, regurgitating and perpetuating the lies and myths peddled by NL. I would like to see James Purnell exist (cos that is all what he will do, exist) on IB or IS. I would like to see Purnell go through the various forms, go to the medicals, get knocked back, appeal the decision and so on.

The unrelenting misery and the obstacles that are put in your way just to get a meagre benefit, basic subsistence where you kinda just exist. Not the stereotypes perpetuated by NL and the media about the unemployed living the “good life” “scrounging off state benefits” while ordinary workers work hard. This is a typical divide and rule tactic, rather like deserving/underserving poor. It is meant to pit one group of people against another.

Essentially, the underlying message is about blaming the poor for their own predicament, the ideology of the culture of dependency, rights and responsibilities, worshipping the private sector and profit. We shouldn’t underestimate the sheer nastiness of NL in their attacks. NL have around 18 mths until the next election and once the Tories are, probably, elected then they will do pretty much the same.