The War on the Disabled
by redosiris
Welfare to Work: It would be most reasonable to have a referendum every time the government wants to declare war – we wouldn’t have voted for Iraq and wouldn’t in future vote for war with Iran / Algeria / Argentina (delete as applicable) according to whichever nation is the bête noir at a particular time. Nor would we have voted for the government’s current war on disabled people, or War on Welfare to give it the adopted title of the growing petition to end the welfare to work and cuts agenda being pushed by the present government.
The Department for Work and Pensions own figures give a disability benefit fraud rate of 0.5% and yet millions of pounds are being spent hounding the disabled out of their homes and their sanity, not to save money and aid growth but out of pure spite and ideology. Ideology because the political right believe that if you are poor, or in this case disabled, it is your own fault and if not it is still your own responsibility to haul yourself from mire. Spite because the Conservative party hate difference and oddity. Each generation of Tories has a different moral panic or scapegoat – in the 1950s they published an election leaflet delivered door to door which declared “If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour”. Gays were appalling in the 80s, unless it involved being at public schools, initiations and biscuits then it was OK, but we never talk about it. The disabled members of our society have always disgusted the Tory party, it was all much easier when one could lock them up and keep them out of sight and thus out of mind because the sight of a blind man does scare young Tarquin you know. That’s not very politically correct now but apparently enacting policies that are directly responsible for a huge increase in the suicide rate of disabled people is fine – it’s all part of the knock about game that is party politics in the Big Society.
This has also lead to an increase in disability hate crime to the highest levels since records began. Whoever is carrying out these attacks are gullible fools but the government knew this would happen and were in fact relying on it. Violent attacks on the vulnerable by the idiot henchmen of odious regimes are the mainstay of intolerant governance. Turn the weak against one another, divide and rule, it worked for the British Empire for hundreds of years and still works with modern policy making.
Having an inability to feel compassion or empathy is clearly not a disability or half of the Tory party would be on Disability Living Allowance like they were with the expenses scandal. For instance, Mark Hoban, as Minister for Work and Pensions says our disabled friends have “taken benefits for granted and must roll up their sleeves and stop playing the system”, Mark Hoban also claimed £35 from the public purse for a toilet roll holder, £100 for a chrome shower rack and £79 for four silk cushion covers – where’s the real racket?
As always it is the rich that cause economic crises and the poor and sick who have to fund their hubris. This has been the case in every economic, capitalist crash in history from the popping of the South Sea Bubble to the present international credit squeeze and global recession. If we fight back we’re not playing the game. The Tories think the able bodied poor are happy for the biggest burden to fall at the feet of the disabled because they think they can convince us that it’s fair, that the disabled cost too much and that a life we would find hard isn’t one we should also aid through public finance. The Daily Mail, The Sun and the BBC are all going along with the government’s agenda who together make up four horsemen of the cuts apocalypse while normal people who live and work outside of this political dystopia see through their new clothes to the naked, snivelling wretches they really are. This Tory administration and its Liberal Democrat welcome mat cannot be allowed to carry out policies such as this. It is heinous, cruel, barbaric and it damn well stinks. Sign the petition here and prepare to fight back.
I would love to know the statistics for money lost through tax loopholes/havens, which many politicians benefit from, and how it compares to the 0.5% lost through disability benefit fraud. Like you say, divide and rule…
The latest figures I know about estimate benefit fraud of all kinds to amount to little over £1billion a year while tax avoidance costs us about £70billion. Some estimates put that figure as high as £120billion so I suggest £70billion is quite a low estimate.
I actually came across a rough statistic for this myself the other day. I was reading the preface of Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class in the booksorter the other day, and the estimate in there was that tax avoidance costs us around 60 times more than benefit fraud, which would be a very low estimate by your measurements. I would really recommend that book by the way if you haven’t already read it; the title is misleading because it’s not really about chavs, but it is about many of the things you’ve spoken about above. Paul, a CSA3 at the Brotherton and shelver here, is reading it at the minute and he can’t put it down.
Hello. Yes, I read it last year and reviewed it on Good Reads, brilliant book. I really like Owen Jones, there aren’t many young voices on the left with a national reputation.
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