http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...ur-revolution?commentpage=7#start-of-comments
Liam Bryne again in the Guardian, more and more the political class in this country is reminding me of that of the 1930's, read 'The Dark Valley' by Piers Brendon to get a flavour of the political culture of the times.
notice no mention of full employment anymore...
they may find they are making a big mistake going too far down this road. without wanting to appear overly optimistic, the mood does seem to be softening towards claimants
the whole benefit bashing is largely based on lies, lies that are easily seen through if you, or a family member end up on benefits - as unemployment grows more and more people are going to have direct or indirect experience of the benefits system - you can only go so far with blaming the unemployed for unemployment and the arguments are starting to look more hollow everyday
on top of this - the atos process is failing - they are supposed to be assessing 11,000 people a week - theyve barely managed 50,000 all year and with every assessment and every appeal anger will grow - the appeals system is close to collapse, atos are having trouble recruiting, and they havent even really got started with retesting everyone - the idea that this can then be extended to 3 million people on DLA is looking increasingly untenable
elsewhere the unions look like they might just be waking up to the realities of workfare and the possible impact on their members - the mirror had a page full of letters slagging it off in the run up to xmas - which doesnt mean much except that their editorial line may be shifting - but moral issues aside - it wont work, it hasnt anywhere its been tried (and labour tried it with the new deal back in 97) and its hugely expensive. the contracts with the workfare providers were negotiated when unemployment was expected to fall, there will almost certainly be re-negotiations going on now and I wouldnt be surprised to see contracts handed back
there may also be a backlash in workplaces - there is already some informal evidence of this - an unpaid labour force being brought in with no employment rights and being used to undercut conditions and informal working arrangements for existing workers - although perhaps the biggest problem workfare faces is that they wont be able to find placements for people, the people who would have got jobs anyway will be snapped up, but anyone with low skills, health problems etc is unlikely to be offered anywhere, this is one of the things that killed the new deal
homelessness is set to soar and this is likely to be a big story next year, again the current policy is unsustainable, and the anger is likely to be directed at soaring rents rather than housing benefit claimants
finally universal credit is an open goal for labour - as its been presented it can't work, IDS has gone increasingly quiet on the detail as he realises this
I don't expect attitudes to shift overnight, but I suspect that there will be a very different debate happening about welfare as the year progresses
