campaign against welfare cuts and poverty

[treelover]

Figures detailing benefit-related deaths to be published, says David Cameron

Prime minister’s disclosure, in wake of 200,000-strong petition, comes two days after Iain Duncan Smith’s claim in parliament that such data did not exist

Raising a point of order after prime minister’s questions, Abrahams asked the Speaker John Bercow why Duncan Smith had claimed that the figures didn’t exist, contradicting what the prime minister had said and the information his own department supplied to the information commissioner.

“I’d be grateful for your guidance on how to correct the record and seek an explanation for this error. Frankly this happens too much and puts this House into disrepute,” she said.

Bercow replied: “If there is an inconsistency between what you have been told in the chamber and what has been said elsewhere by the government and that is a matter of fact, then it will be apparent to ministers who are responsible for the accuracy of what they say and in the event of inaccuracy for ensuring correction.”

http://www.theguardian.com/society/...ted-deaths-david-cameron-dwp#comment-54384370

How does Smith survive?

btw, petition of 200'000, pretty impressive.

 

[ViolentPanda]

How does Smith survive?

It's pretty simple. He's a believer in neo-Victorian social policy, which marries up to what the Tories want, and he's incredibly popular with the Tory rank-and-file. Cut Dunked-in Shit loose, and Cameron knows that come conference the backwoodsmen and the membership will make life very difficult for the leadership.

btw, petition of 200'000, pretty impressive.

Over 225,000.

 

[Libertad]

How does Smith survive?

He won't, trust me on that.

 

[8115]

He survives cos even among the Tories, there's a limited appetite for the dirty work. He, on the other hand, pretty much seems to thrive on it.

They're kind of like a reverse Incredibles. Duncan Smith, superpower complete absense of moral compass. Hunt, can total a department in a matter of months. May, every single word she says sounds like a lie.

 

[zxspectrum]

He won't, trust me on that.

He'll survive very easily.

He lives in a massive mansion with the support of a huge number of people; despite not even bothering to turn up to hustings or living in the constituency he won comfortably. He's in no danger at all. Class War were no threat to him. Most of the constituency probably looked at them and thought they were ridiculous (regardless of how fair that is).

This is modern Britain. He has power; he gets vast sums in land subsidies, for land his in laws stole in the past. He's part of the ruling elite and has a life as comfortable as one can get.

Short of a dirty bomb I don't see anything unseating him. He was a joke as leader and despite being a figure of utter ridicule back then is at the forefront of a vicious assault on the society he now rules over. He cares not one jot for the sick or the unemployed and responds to any criticism with a bullying barrage of pure arrogance.

So I'm afraid he's not going anywhere. Unfortunately.

 

[ViolentPanda]

He survives cos even among the Tories, there's a limited appetite for the dirty work. He, on the other hand, pretty much seems to thrive on it.

They're kind of like a reverse Incredibles. Duncan Smith, superpower complete absense of moral compass. Hunt, can total a department in a matter of months. May, every single word she says sounds like a lie.

Dunked-in Shit is worse than you assume. The goblin-faced fuckwad actually possesses a moral compass (he's an avid churchgoer and believer in "Christian virtues"), but it's skewed 180 degrees out of true. He thrives on the shit because the deluded crap-bag thinks that he's "doing G-d's work".

 

[zxspectrum]

Those aren't skewed values; those are how Christianity is meant to function. That's why people like him have power. It's the whole rational behind the 'work ethic'. Keep your head down, slave your guts out, your reward is coming...kingdom of god.

Combined with Britain's ridiculous neofuedal system our political system is a toxic nightmare.

I'd love to see Duncan Smith get his just desserts, but it won't be happening any time soon, and certainly not because a few thousand people walk around Parliament square.

 

[Libertad]

The goblin-faced fuckwad

*makes note*

 

[treelover]

Skivers and strivers: this 200–year–old myth won’t die

George Monbiot


Vilification of the unemployed, by the government and the media, has a long and shameful heritage – expect the fallacy that welfare creates poverty to persist


Those who promoted laissez-faire economics required an explanation when the markets failed to deliver. Malthus gave them the answer they needed. And still does.’ Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Kindness is cruelty; cruelty is kindness: this is the core belief of compassionate conservatism. If the state makes excessive provision for the poor, it traps them in a culture of dependency, destroying their self-respect, locking them into unemployment. Cuts and coercion are a moral duty, to be pursued with the holy fervour of inquisitors overseeing an auto da fé.

This belief persists despite reams of countervailing evidence, showing that severity does nothing to cure the structural causes of unemployment. In Britain it is used to justify a £12bn reduction of a social security system already so harsh that it drives some recipients to suicide. The belief arises from a deep and dearly held fallacy that has persisted for more than 200 years.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/23/skivers-strivers-200-year-old-myth-wont-die

Major article by Monbiot on the demonisation of the unemployed, disabled, etc.

 

[treelover]

The commission was a fraud. It began with fixed conclusions and sought evidence to support them. Its interviews were conducted with like-minded members of the propertied classes, who were helped towards the right replies with leading questions. Anecdote took the place of data.

Monbiot on the 1834 Poor Law Act Amendment, he could be talking about Freud's 12 weeks work on developing welfare reforms under New Labour.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Not wishing to break the law or incite, obviously, but if a "propaganda of the deed" assassination of IDS was carried out I think it would be very popular.

 

[Pickman's model]

Not wishing to break the law or incite, obviously, but if a "propaganda of the deed" assassination of IDS was carried out I think it would be very popular.

as long as someone else does it, i see.

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Likely to remain hypothetical, and would probably be anonymous. If a person or small cell did such a thing, that would be 70 million people for who it would be someone else.

ETA: Thing is, I sense people are really confounded at what to do about the sociopathic social darwinism that appears to have secured another half decade with which to drive countless people to suicidal despair.

I increasingly say that it's not much good us dissing one anothers positions and analysis on what to do or how to do it, because if any of us were that correct we almost certainly wouldnt be where we are.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Not wishing to break the law or incite, obviously, but if a "propaganda of the deed" assassination of IDS was carried out I think it would be very popular.

However popular it might be, it'd provide May and her zombie cohorts with exactly the sort of excuse they want to push through all sorts of oppressive legislation.
As usual, discretion is the better part of valour.

 

[ViolentPanda]

as long as someone else does it, i see.

Myself and quite a few other disabled people have said that if issued a medical "death sentence" we'd attempt something on those lines, but only because as disabled people such an act couldn't be spun as anything other than what it actually was, whereas an assassination by an able-bodied random could be parlayed up into fuck knows what.

 

[Pickman's model]

Myself and quite a few other disabled people have said that if issued a medical "death sentence" we'd attempt something on those lines, but only because as disabled people such an act couldn't be spun as anything other than what it actually was, whereas an assassination by an able-bodied random could be parlayed up into fuck knows what.

i want to see taffboy put his money where his mouth is.

 

[ViolentPanda]

i want to see taffboy put his money where his mouth is.

So, basically with a wad of fivers stuff up his arse?

 

[taffboy gwyrdd]

Some peoples fave soap actors could be in this vid about the end of Independent Living Fund.

Please share widely on social media, as it may just reach folk that general ranting doesn't.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=174&v=6P-z10pKGdc

 

[zxspectrum]

Some peoples fave soap actors could be in this vid about the end of Independent Living Fund.

Please share widely on social media, as it may just reach folk that general ranting doesn't.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=174&v=6P-z10pKGdc

done

 

[ddraig]

link from start of vid

 

[Contrarian]

'No children, no dogs, no DSS': The demonisation of benefit claimants is helping fuel homelessness, and it's about to get even worse

Being evicted from a private rented home is now the main cause of homelessness. And with £12 billion of welfare cuts on the horizon – and housing benefit first in line for the chop – it’s set to get even tougher for renters on low incomes. Who will help them? Certainly not Britain's landlords.

A cursory glance in a few letting agents’ windows reveals "no DSS" signs readily displayed alongside bans on children and pets. DSS stands for the Department for Social Security – an extinct part of the government responsible for benefits, now known as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The signs are designed to keep people on housing benefit away, and the fact that they’re exhibited so casually is shocking. But it's also symptomatic of the private housing market as a whole, which thrives on the discrimination and demonisation of society's most vulnerable people.

Landlords and letting agents already pick and choose who to let to. Throw benefit cuts into the mix, along with a shortage of housing and a ballooning number of renters, and you have a nasty problem: a huge volume of people who need to rent privately, but have nowhere to go.

Research by the housing charity Shelter found that over two thirds of private landlords would prefer not to rent to tenants on housing benefit, with many concerned that benefit cuts mean they wouldn’t be able to pay the rent.

Lettings agents are also cashing in on the growing unease that people on benefits just won’t be able to pay the rent. One agency advert (pictured below) promises landlords that they will vet tenants to “ensure that they are suitable for your property both financially and personally.” Their ad includes a photo of a man in a cardboard box; presumably mocking rough sleepers.

Another local agency flyer I've come across celebrates the fact that the cost of renting is greater than average wages – and offers to help landlords squeeze more rent out of their tenants. “Did you know that the average asking rent for property like yours in East London has gone up to £1987pcm?" it says. "That’s MORE than the average London monthly salary.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/no-children-no-dogs-no-dss-the-demonisation-of-benefit-claimants-is-helping-fuel-homelessness-and-its-about-to-get-even-worse-10342805.html

 

[Libertad]

Why not pop in and see us, or let us know you’re thinking about us on Social Media?

http://matthew-anthony.co.uk/contact-us/

I just have you bloodsucking rentier shysters.
Why not take them up on their kind offer?

https://twitter.com/MA_EstateAgency

 

[ViolentPanda]

http://matthew-anthony.co.uk/contact-us/

I just have you bloodsucking rentier shysters.
Why not take them up on their kind offer?

https://twitter.com/MA_EstateAgency

Just informed them about the evolutionary link between faecal bacteria and letting agents - both wallow in shit with no thought except for themselves.

 

[treelover]

local fora is saying housing benefit is to be cut by 10%?, anyone else heard anything, VP's notion of rookeries coming back looks very likely.

update, also end of non support group ESA, so the pittance of JSA is all disabled/sick/mentally ill will get, despite extra expenditure.

 

[belboid]

local fora is saying housing benefit is to be cut by 10%?, anyone else heard anything,

it's an Institute of Fiscal Studies prediction

 

[treelover]

Do you mean they are predicting it will be in the budget?

 

[belboid]

"Cuts of this scale [£12billion] amount to almost 10% of unprotected benefits. Finding such a reduction without cutting child benefit, which has been pledged this week, would mean that even more significant cuts would likely be required to spending on one or more of tax credits, housing benefit and disability & incapacity benefits."

And that's required over the next two years, so probably in this budget

 

[ViolentPanda]

"Cuts of this scale [£12billion] amount to almost 10% of unprotected benefits. Finding such a reduction without cutting child benefit, which has been pledged this week, would mean that even more significant cuts would likely be required to spending on one or more of tax credits, housing benefit and disability & incapacity benefits."

And that's required over the next two years, so probably in this budget

And will have a likely (and quite possibly an anticipated) effect on those in social housing, akin to the "bedroom tax", so more evictions.

 

[BigTom]

And will have a likely (and quite possibly an anticipated) effect on those in social housing, akin to the "bedroom tax", so more evictions.

Be easier for them to reduce the Local Housing Allowance payments level, which'll only affect private rentals, than to increase the bedroom tax I think - social housing HB rates are capped at the same level as the LHA aren't they? But because social housing is so much cheaper, nobody was affected by it so they brought in the bedroom tax to fuck over people in social housing as well.

 

[treelover]

The biggest raid on benefits you’ve never heard of Juliette Jowit
Thought the £12bn welfare cuts were a big deal? Try the £40bn the government saved itself with a sleight of hand over inflation

The anticipated £12bn in welfare cuts in next week’s budget will be dwarfed by the results of an apparently technical change to financial policy.’ Photograph: Bimal Sharma/Demotix/Corbis


Friday 3 July 2015 17.20 BST Last modified on Friday 3 July 2015 17.21 BST

In next week’s budget, attention will be sharply focused on the details of how the new government will cut its welfare budget by £12bn.

But while jobseekers and carers wait to hear specifics of how ministers will take nearly 10% off the annual benefits bill, few realise that the government has already made changes that will reduce payments to those depending on state support by many times more over this parliament. emergency budget a few weeks after the 2010 general election. Buried in its 100 pages was a small section stating that future benefits, tax credits and public sector pensions for retired emergency workers, civil servants, council employees and NHS staff would rise in line with a different measure of inflation: the consumer price index (CPI). Previously, the default increase was the retail price index, RPI – which has historically averaged about 1% higher.
By reducing the increase in payments each year, Treasury documents admitted the change would save them £15bn over the life of the last parliament. But in the frenzy of the time, facing down the worst recession since the Great Depression, attention was largely diverted. And nobody warned the public how the cost of this policy would keep multiplying beyond 2015.

fucking hell, its much worse that even we thought on here,