It could have been an April Fool's joke really, the Guardian article on April 1st (I would've linked it on the day but my son had a flying virus that kept him off school)telling the unemployed they would be beaten with an iron rod, in a welfare game of Hit the Target.
A jobcentre whistleblower has told how they have to sanction three benefit claimants a week - whereby their benefits are stopped for six months. This could be because they fail to find work or they are a few minutes late to an appointment. Dyslexic people have found themselves sanctioned after being given written application forms to fill in.
"[Now] your office can shine through one of two targets," says the Whistleblower. "You can either shine through getting people into work, but that's really difficult. Or you can stop their money, and that's really easy."
Asked why jobcentre workers don't quit, the whistleblower says because they are afraid to lose their jobs and become the very people they are sanctioning.
Did you ever read The Reader (Der Voleser) or watch the film of the same book (directed by Stephen Daldry)about a woman who worked for the Nazi's? An incredibly powerful story of a moment in history.
There is something profoundly unsettling about what is happening now, here, in the UK. Profoundly unsettling and wrong.
On a lighter note, did you know that 0.6% of the UK population are millionaires?
Did you know that 80% of them work in the cabinet?
A Facebook pal told me that, though I knew 23 out of 29 cabinet members are sitting comfortably on their riches.
Ooh yes.. The coalition can afford not to touch the Iron Rod they instruct Members of the Population to batter other less fortunate Members of the Population with.
Hurrah for fairness and social justice! (Ok, it's not April Fool's anymore - who's laughing?)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/apr/01/jobcentres-tricking-people-benefit-sanctions
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mehdi-hasan/2011/04/benefits-work-welfare
http://www.barclayswealth.com/insights/uk-wealth-map-2011.htm
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4 comments:
Thanks for these links...OMG...what can I say. I'm horrified.
Yeah, me too. It's horrifying..totally.
What planet is Cameron on?? Planet Zog? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Perhaps, I don't know, but on his planet there are very few people and perhaps he doesn't believe anyone lives outside it or infact he does; the ones who do are dangerous!! Ooh imagine!! The ordinary person a danger!!
Hence the need for Iron Rod, but someone from the "dangerous" planet we're on to beat us with it...
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