Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Let's not get hysterical
With the second episode of Benefit Busters not even aired yet, there are a lot of opinions out there. The One Show on BBC1 linked it with the programme about the Duchess of York's visit to a Manchester estate, and did a piece about how the "working class" is now being portrayed negatively. Lots of figures are being bandied about, and today we're told that the number of people of working age who live in homes where no one has a job has gone up by half a million in the past year. The Conservatives have siezed on this, calling the figures "scandalous". But there's an interesting blog comment by the BBC's Nick Robinson which gives a more measured interpretation. It's obvious from BB episode 1 and the clips from episode 2 that the phrase which the producers want us to commit to memory is, "The unemployed get too much money", so that we will then go on to substitute "workshy" for "unemployed" and condemn the lot. What's also worrying is that this sort of manipulation pitches one lot of unemployed people against another lot. I'm genuinely unemployed, they say, really looking for work, unlike that lot who are workshy scroungers. Guess who the winners will be in that contest.
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A reliable contact informs me that Hayley is no longer at Doncaster, but is still with A4e
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the govt are happy pitting people in the same group / circumstances against another. It worked for Thatcher govt against the miners in the 1984 miners strike when the striking Miners were pitted against those miners who chose to break their strike and return to the pits. Guess whose side Maggie was on? Divide and conquer is the name for this I think.
ReplyDeleteThe last thing those out of work need is o have those labeled as scroungers /unworthy and those considered more deserving. In reality, even this is an illusion as the tabloid mentality of many is to label ALL those claiming JSA and Incapacity Benefit as scroungers. This undoubtadly aids the DWP as it can employ incompetent 'training' providers to 'encourage' the 'workshy' into any job whether it pays enough to do so and indeed whether it is at all suitable.