This started as an essay about the benefits black hole and how we should be utterly ashamed of our government. But as I wrote, I found there was more to consider. So I did. But I haven't gone as far as perhaps I might, simply because I'm not writing a book, I'm writing a blog.
Now, here’s a thing.
I genuinely
believe that if you can work, you should work! This, obviously requires there
to be work available that pays a living wage and removes the need for benefits.
I just thought I’d throw that out there. But there’s more.
I have a question.
Since we are being told that our
huge budget deficit requires enormous, sweeping cuts to public spending, how
much will be enough?
There are all sorts of figures
being bandied about; £20 billion worth of cuts required from June 2015, on top
of a currently undisclosed figure since 2011; £12 billion on welfare alone;
multiple billions to be cut from public service, pensions, parts of the welfare
bill. But in all this, there has been no definite figure. Much has been said
about cutting the deficit; but cutting it to what and in relation to what? Modern
day Governments run on deficit. Depending on how you interpret national
budgets, debt is how governments fund themselves, either by owing or being owed
– taxation, loans, investment in debt.
The arbitrary nature of the statement,
“cutting the deficit”, requires no final figure, therefore leaving the abuse of
those who require public funding to survive open to extremes, hence the absolute
evil of Osborne’s austerity plans.
Would it not be better to simply
come out and say that as far as conservatives are concerned, if you are sick,
disabled, unable to work, or simply claiming any form of benefit you would be
better off dead. God forbid you should be considered a cost to the country. No
one wants to hear it, but it’s not going to make anyone like or hate the
conservative government any more. To use language that an Osborne or a Duncan
Smith can understand it’s nothing more than semantics, really. It’s pretty much
the same as using the word “immigrant” to label anyone who isn’t indigenous but
must be considered inferior to the indigenous people. Just semantics. However, consider
this. Since Ian Duncan Smith’s DWP reforms have taken hold and the various
schemes for removing public spending on disability have been enacted either via
ATOS or Maximus, over 3,000 people have died - 2,380 people died in the first 6
weeks after the initial assessments were carried out. A fact that IDS and the “Conservative
Management Team” did not want to acknowledge. It’s impossible not to consider
the possibility that, for all that the changes are being couched in terms of managing
efficiencies and debt, they are also tantamount to a cull. I know that’s a
harsh thing to say, but if you’re not alive to claim benefit that you would
otherwise be entitled to, the DWP doesn’t have to pay you, so, to them, it’s a
saving – especially since that money can be counted against the
Osborne-required cuts.
So, what of managing efficiencies?
There are those who have been on benefits for a long time, who, perhaps,
shouldn’t be; able bodied, capable people of working age and acceptable health who
would rather do nothing and receive housing, income and child benefits, meagre
though they may be. None of us like that idea. Actually, I’ll come right out
and say it again, if you can work, you should work – assuming availability of
employment and a living wage.
Certain media outlets would have
us believe that they are in the majority, these heinous excuses for people
sponging and scrounging worthlessly from the State, living in council houses
surrounded by flat screen televisions, branded trainers, games consoles and tickets
to far flung holiday destinations. The truth is very, very different. For
2012/13, benefit fraud stood at between £1.2 and £1.6 billion, depending on
whose figures you prefer to employ. That sounds horrendous, but is actually
LESS than 1% of the total overall benefits and tax credits expenditure of the
UK. According to figures from the Department of Work And Pensions (Ian Duncan
Smith’s own “personal” empire) some people didn’t actually receive what they
were entitled to. When I say some, I mean enough to total an underpayment of
benefit to the tune of £1.4 billion. That’s pretty bad, especially when you
consider that, officially, an estimated 30% of those errors (both in
overpayments and underpayments) were as a result of “official errors”. So, either benefit fraud was less than the
underpayments or very marginally more. Scary thoughts. The government actually
lost nothing. Really. In fact, it may even have made money on those underpayments.
I’ll leave that for now.
We have a government that
champions its businesses not its people. That’s why we have a disparity between
the minimum wage and the living wage. How that is even possible, I cannot begin
to accept. However, we are forced to listen to the “poor” business owners who
claim their wage bills will increase exponentially if they have to pay more
than the minimum wage – about which many are griping anyway – thus making their
products more expensive and causing them to be less competitive. So, what would
they consider the correct price for their product? A price that makes them
competitive in external markets but will eventually bankrupt them because they
would not be able to continue providing those goods at that price, or a price
that reflects the costs of the country in which that product is made?
I find it difficult to justify
not paying someone a living wage. That’s like saying “we’ll put plastic joists
in this building because they’re cheaper than steel. They’ll crack and
collapse, potentially killing people, but they’re cheaper.” Pay people a living
wage and they can afford to come off benefits, pay taxes, buy goods – maybe even
your goods – at prices that reflect the cost of the country and the manufacture
of those goods (e.g milk, chicken, honey, clothing in the UK). That’s the thing
about living in a so-called developed economy. It is more expensive than living
in a developing one.
But I’m getting off the point in
order to emphasise the point I’m making.
We have a huge benefits bill in
this country. We have an enormous public spending requirement, of which benefit
payments are just a tiny proportion. But to attack the weakest, those who
genuinely require help, who cannot live without assistance is utterly
abhorrent.
This is why I want to consider
the shame of having allowed a government to come to power that has the
destruction of the welfare system at its core, not that it would ever admit to
it. I can’t help but feel anger when I read that people are being told that,
despite needing 24 hour care, they should wear incontinence pants so that their
inability to control their bowel movements didn’t prevent them from working.
These are human beings who require our help and our care not objects for
degradation, humiliation and disposal. And not targets for blame.
Mr Duncan Smith, Mr Osborne, Mr
Cameron, you don’t see what you’re doing because you don’t want to. I want to
believe that you started on your quest for megalomaniacal glory from a point of
principled politics; that you wanted to serve the nation in which you live, the
society and communities into which you were born. I want to believe that. I don’t.
I believe that your only reason for staying in power is to perpetuate the
power of the few. Genuine politicians, genuine people with real passion for their
environment and their people scare you.
I am ashamed that we put this
government in power. But I am also ashamed that we were left with no choice
after a succession of greed-orientated power mongers from Thatcher to Blair to
Cameron. Of course we need strong businesses to build a strong economy, but if
that is only to promote the greed and financial growth of a tiny minority, what
good is it to the country? What good does it ultimately do?
Change will come, because it will
have to. We cannot continue like this because it will ultimately lead to our
destruction, either in a return to serfdom and slavery, or revolution and mass
destruction. There are better options:
1/ Understand the need for an
economy to be of benefit to a nation. You cannot champion one facet of a
society and claim it’s making things better when it is actually destroying the
society itself. Tax relief for non-dom companies must cease. Opportunities for
tax avoidance must be blocked. That’s how you fill the deficit. (Banking,
foreign business, housing investment)
2/ Treat those who require help
with respect, dignity and care, not brutalisation, demonisation and
humiliation. We are a nation of people who do care about each other, our
families, our neighbours and our friends. And as we perpetuate a society that
cares for itself, so we in turn become stronger. (Welfare, NHS)
3/ Teach people that greed is not
the ultimate glory. Education is the most dangerous thing to a government
intent on control. The more we educate ourselves and the generations to follow,
the better chance we have to develop understanding, tolerance, care and
beneficial growth, without the ultimate need to own everything. What a
challenge that would be for marketing and advertising agencies: transfer your
knowledge of and skill for creating need for the unnecessary to generating need
for what is actually good, beneficial, peaceful, caring and long term. Garner a
shift from “what can I have, I want that!” to “what can I give? I can help!”
(Education, involvement in society/community programmes)
You know what, if I can see these
things, then so can those in power. And if they see it and do nothing about it,
then they have made their choice. I don’t believe it’s the choice we want. I do
believe in us. I do believe in a UK. I do believe in people. I do believe we can change
the way our nation works. But we need to be led by those who see opportunity
that isn’t simply based on a bottom line.
For the Conservatives to care so little about those who need the most care, is vile and destructive. It's evil. It's hateful. It must be stopped.
Please get out there and read Manifestos and pamphlets,
articles and comment. Listen to as much of the media as you can stand. Then
make your own mind up. I don’t expect you to agree with what I’ve said, I'm not sure I even want you to because I want to learn, too, but if we start with debate, we genuinely have a chance to make educated
decisions. And I really look forward to that.
(Inspired by the Chicago Boys, Iceland, the banking crisis and the fraudsters' escape, Ian Duncan Smith, inherent human greed and evil, the incredible resourcefulness of humanity and a belief in good.)
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