Martin Hadfield was 20 years old when he died. He got a job as a landscape gardener when he left school but lost his job in April last year. His step-father said that, "Martin never claimed any money or benefits in his life. He got nothing off the government and was proud not to." In the space of 3 months he applied for about 40 jobs, unsuccessfully. Before a meeting at the Bury Jobcentre he updated his CV. But, his step-father claimed, the bureaucracy was "ridiculous" and the meeting "unproductive". The following day Martin Hadfield hanged himself.
How do I know all this? It's in the Express. With no sense of irony, let alone shame, the Express reports the tragic suicide of an unemployed young man, one who was too proud to claim benefits. This is the paper which peddles relentless hatred against the poor and unemployed, which uses a special, vicious language when writing about them. It's the paper which would have classed this tragic young man as a feckless, idle, work-shy scrounger if he'd had the temerity to claim benefits (sorry, hand-outs). Presumably its editor Hugh Whittow makes no connection between this death and the abuse vomited by his "journalists". There won't be even a tinge of embarrassment at Express HQ.
It's a shame honestly, someone has died for no good reason. All because the papers have demonised being on benefits to the point where people are afraid to go onto them.
ReplyDeleteThey've made claiming benefits hard and full of hoops in order to drive people off them in droves, not thinking about the human cost.
Those papers will go right back to demonising the jobseekers by next week, without looking back on this incident.
The government will deny any responsibility. The recent presence of a whistle blower giving evidence did nothing. They don't care nor do they listen.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the real problem for us is why the goal lack of opposition. Where are the pics? Where's the vaunted people's assembly leaders including the likes of artworks and his hopeless labour chums? Where is the general strike or mass civil disobedience?
After this tragic loss there will be some people, such as the likes of comments from the Daily Mail, that "if everyone had this young lad's work ethic...instead of relying on the tax payer to fund their feckless lifestyle...there wouldn't be a problem with the benefit system." They just don't get it, do they? The demonisation of those on benefits has led such people like this young lad, to reject the welfare that they are legally entitled to and would rather die than claim it. That is unfortunate and depressing. No-one should have to contemplate ending their life for the sake of other people's prejudices or someone elses bigotted opinions. People who demonise anyone in receipt of state benefits are bitter and are probably very unhappy with their life, and so need someone to vent their frustrations on...goodness forbid that they would take their head out of their arses and take it out on politicians and the like!
ReplyDeleteThe oppressed always kick down, and there is no shortage of people waiting to kick the unemployed it seems. The irony is that the very people who are kicking down do not realise where their oppression is coming from. It ain't coming from welfare claimants that's for sure.
This story is featured on The Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 this afternoon (12 noon onwards).
DeleteThis tragedy was also covered in the Daily Mail, and the same thoughts ran through my mind too, that newspapers like the Daily Mail and Express had contributed to a hatred of benefit claimants and a climate of shame and fear among the unemployed.
ReplyDelete