P
Portrait
Guest
Dearly beloved friends,
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
Anyone who resides in modern Britain can plainly see that there has been a hardening of attitudes towards the country’s sick and unemployed, reflected in the government’s unrelenting attacks by way of its punitive Social Security ‘reforms’. The ground for this national vitriol has been well prepared by the government’s divisive divide and conquer narrative that separates the population into two opposing camps, namely the ‘strivers’ and ‘shirkers’. Anyone who finds this narrative deeply offensive or regards it as ultra-right wing rhetoric is dismissed as a bleeding heart liberal who has chosen to live in a fantasy world.
According to this finely honed mythology, dear friends, the ‘strivers’ are the people who are paid for the work they do; they work jolly hard and invest copious effort and long hours on low wages, providing for their families and getting on in the world. They are insiders who are always socially dependable, economically productive and morally righteous. ‘Skivers’, however, are indolent, unreliable and manipulative and have chosen to live off the tax payer so that they can sleep in late, watch television, abuse various substances and fritter away their time aimlessly. They are the outsiders who are untrustworthy, unproductive and morally disreputable. They are said to get something for nothing whilst making no contribution to society and are seemingly quite happy to live off state benefits. Now this sort of extreme polarization helps to fuel the hardening of attitudes and the punitive Social Security regime to which I previously referred. This merely puts people, usually the working class, in bitter conflict with each other and results in a very unpleasant state of affairs where vulnerable people, already down on their luck, are often demonised and unjustly discriminated against. Sadly, dear friends, we come to the point where people shamefully want to traduce and vent their rage against the poor, sick and jobless. Moreover, they will perversely cheer the government on when it piles on the pressure on ‘these worthless skivers’, making them continually suffer one indignity after another, frequently reducing them to abject poverty and homelessness. Surely this cannot be the right way to go in a modern civilised and prosperous country like Britain. The word schadenfreude (taking pleasure from another’s misery) seems to aptly describe what a certain number of my fellow citizens feel as regards the plight and harsh treatment currently being meted out on the sick and unemployed.
Speaking of indignities, dear friends, Britain’s unemployed will now be forced to attend the labour exchange every day or undertake a period of unpaid work - yet another punitive attack on the jobless to add to the many others. Government Social Security ministers, such as Esther Mcvey and Ian Duncan Smith, will, of course, argue that their initiatives and policies enjoy huge public support because most people recognize that present Benefits spending is simply unsustainable. However, the question that needs to be addressed is whether or not the so called Help to Work scheme and insisting on daily labour exchange visits really will help the jobless into full time regular employment or just breed more resentment. The reason the public warm so favourably to the punitive approach of the coalition government is because they have been duped by the ultra right-wing press regarding the alleged ‘burgeoning benefits culture’ and the ‘vast army of work shy’.
Enforced period’s of unpaid work for the jobless, dear friends, is about punishment rather than genuinely helping people back to the world of work. There is no hard evidence that involuntary volunteering results in paid employment, save for the jolly lucky few. In any event, coercing people into unpaid labour surely violates the whole spirit of volunteering. People usually volunteer because they hope to find themselves in a congenial setting, undertaking work that is meaningful and personally rewarding. If this is not the case then it is nothing more than thankless drudgery, no less demoralizing and demotivating than long-term unemployment.
As regards daily mandatory visits to the labour exchange, dear friends, this is just plainly preposterous for a number of reasons. First, your modern labour exchange is not a genuinely supportive and helpful place, where dedicated staff have the time to devote themselves wholeheartedly to understanding the needs, assets and aspirations of the unemployed. Unfortunately, in the real world it is not like that at all. Overworked staff are harried by government ‘targets’ and endless red tape. The atmosphere is by all accounts harsh and joyless and people feel that they are nothing more than a number and a number who could very soon be faced with a cruel ‘sanction’ for alleged violation of the rules. Second, daily visits will most certainly deter people from seeking their own initiatives. It binds them to one place and robs them of control over their own lives, effectively treating them like wayward children who are unable to think for themselves. Not feeling in control serves to undermine a sense of well-being and thus being under a futile obligation will undoubtedly ratchet up a sense of worthlessness. Third, it regiments people’s time, leaving little or no scope for doing shorter spells of voluntary work, or other unpaid activities, that they themselves have chosen because they feel it could achieve some good.
Finally, dear friends, it does seem that in modern Britain people only have value as human beings if they work and pay taxes. Very sad indeed.
God bless and thankyou for your time in reading the above.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait:tiphat:
In Christos
Cordial greetings and a very good day.
Anyone who resides in modern Britain can plainly see that there has been a hardening of attitudes towards the country’s sick and unemployed, reflected in the government’s unrelenting attacks by way of its punitive Social Security ‘reforms’. The ground for this national vitriol has been well prepared by the government’s divisive divide and conquer narrative that separates the population into two opposing camps, namely the ‘strivers’ and ‘shirkers’. Anyone who finds this narrative deeply offensive or regards it as ultra-right wing rhetoric is dismissed as a bleeding heart liberal who has chosen to live in a fantasy world.
According to this finely honed mythology, dear friends, the ‘strivers’ are the people who are paid for the work they do; they work jolly hard and invest copious effort and long hours on low wages, providing for their families and getting on in the world. They are insiders who are always socially dependable, economically productive and morally righteous. ‘Skivers’, however, are indolent, unreliable and manipulative and have chosen to live off the tax payer so that they can sleep in late, watch television, abuse various substances and fritter away their time aimlessly. They are the outsiders who are untrustworthy, unproductive and morally disreputable. They are said to get something for nothing whilst making no contribution to society and are seemingly quite happy to live off state benefits. Now this sort of extreme polarization helps to fuel the hardening of attitudes and the punitive Social Security regime to which I previously referred. This merely puts people, usually the working class, in bitter conflict with each other and results in a very unpleasant state of affairs where vulnerable people, already down on their luck, are often demonised and unjustly discriminated against. Sadly, dear friends, we come to the point where people shamefully want to traduce and vent their rage against the poor, sick and jobless. Moreover, they will perversely cheer the government on when it piles on the pressure on ‘these worthless skivers’, making them continually suffer one indignity after another, frequently reducing them to abject poverty and homelessness. Surely this cannot be the right way to go in a modern civilised and prosperous country like Britain. The word schadenfreude (taking pleasure from another’s misery) seems to aptly describe what a certain number of my fellow citizens feel as regards the plight and harsh treatment currently being meted out on the sick and unemployed.
Speaking of indignities, dear friends, Britain’s unemployed will now be forced to attend the labour exchange every day or undertake a period of unpaid work - yet another punitive attack on the jobless to add to the many others. Government Social Security ministers, such as Esther Mcvey and Ian Duncan Smith, will, of course, argue that their initiatives and policies enjoy huge public support because most people recognize that present Benefits spending is simply unsustainable. However, the question that needs to be addressed is whether or not the so called Help to Work scheme and insisting on daily labour exchange visits really will help the jobless into full time regular employment or just breed more resentment. The reason the public warm so favourably to the punitive approach of the coalition government is because they have been duped by the ultra right-wing press regarding the alleged ‘burgeoning benefits culture’ and the ‘vast army of work shy’.
Enforced period’s of unpaid work for the jobless, dear friends, is about punishment rather than genuinely helping people back to the world of work. There is no hard evidence that involuntary volunteering results in paid employment, save for the jolly lucky few. In any event, coercing people into unpaid labour surely violates the whole spirit of volunteering. People usually volunteer because they hope to find themselves in a congenial setting, undertaking work that is meaningful and personally rewarding. If this is not the case then it is nothing more than thankless drudgery, no less demoralizing and demotivating than long-term unemployment.
As regards daily mandatory visits to the labour exchange, dear friends, this is just plainly preposterous for a number of reasons. First, your modern labour exchange is not a genuinely supportive and helpful place, where dedicated staff have the time to devote themselves wholeheartedly to understanding the needs, assets and aspirations of the unemployed. Unfortunately, in the real world it is not like that at all. Overworked staff are harried by government ‘targets’ and endless red tape. The atmosphere is by all accounts harsh and joyless and people feel that they are nothing more than a number and a number who could very soon be faced with a cruel ‘sanction’ for alleged violation of the rules. Second, daily visits will most certainly deter people from seeking their own initiatives. It binds them to one place and robs them of control over their own lives, effectively treating them like wayward children who are unable to think for themselves. Not feeling in control serves to undermine a sense of well-being and thus being under a futile obligation will undoubtedly ratchet up a sense of worthlessness. Third, it regiments people’s time, leaving little or no scope for doing shorter spells of voluntary work, or other unpaid activities, that they themselves have chosen because they feel it could achieve some good.
Finally, dear friends, it does seem that in modern Britain people only have value as human beings if they work and pay taxes. Very sad indeed.
God bless and thankyou for your time in reading the above.
Warmest good wishes,
Portrait:tiphat:
In Christos