It's not been a comfortable week for the Conservatives. HSBC, Stephen Green, tax avoidance, and that "black and white ball" when the obscenely rich gathered to give money to the Tories. They had a raffle. On Wednesday I paid a quid for some raffle tickets and won a bottle of cheap plonk. But the Tories' raffle was nothing like that. One of the prizes was an "iron man" with Iain Duncan Smith - a long cross-country run. But as always the Tory deception machine kicked in. MPs were instructed to deflect every question to an accusation against Ed Miliband and Labour. The media happily co-operated, the BBC especially so, but it got pretty desperate. Today came the announcement that a new Tory government will target people who are unable to work because of obesity. They will have to go on a diet or lose their benefits. (Hasn't IDS told them that he's got a much simpler way - just sanction them and starve them thin?) Mark Harper was wheeled out onto the Today programme this morning to explain the idea, and with commendable (and unusual) persistence Mishal Hussein made him talk about tax avoidance as well. The deception machine went into top gear and Harper trotted out the untruths too fast to be contradicted.
But this was by no means the daftest idea of the week. The Tories have been muttering for some time about extending right-to-buy to housing association tenants. Now IDS has come up with the notion of giving their council houses to tenants who've been on benefits but come off for a year. Now, I could list all the reasons why this is insane. But the New Statesman has already done it. And the Mirror points out that an investigation in 2013 found that a third of all the council homes sold off in the Thatcher years are now owned by private landlords. It's no surprise that this story didn't get much attention from the mainstream press. It's so barmy it won't happen, even under majority Tory government.
But this scapegoating of people on benefits isn't going away.
Showing posts with label Mishal Hussein. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mishal Hussein. Show all posts
Saturday, 14 February 2015
Thursday, 27 November 2014
Marking time
Right, I'm back. Sorry about the hiatus. What has been going on in my absence?
On the A4e front, very little. There is no news about the fraud trial, which surely should have finished by now. But FE Week reports that the £17m London prison education (OLASS) contract, which A4e gave 3 months notice of handing back in August, will continue in A4e's hands until the new year, because the Skills Funding Agency can't find any college willing to take it on. This seems to back up A4e's claim that the contract was no longer viable. The prison system is in such a mess that prisoners are being shifted around too often to make education possible.
On the wider subject of "welfare", I don't need to detail the antics of Iain Duncan Smith. He was on Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday, setting out the new timetable for Universal Credit. Mishal Hussein, who interviewed him, raised the obvious points about missed targets and wasted money. Now for IDS, that is not how the BBC should behave. The interviewer should just listen respectfully to whatever fantasies he chooses to spout. I feared for Hussein at the time. And sure enough, the next day IDS was reported to have lodged a complaint about her being "negative". At the same time the National Audit Office warned that any further delays in UC would be hugely costly. It said that there were no contingency plans to deal with delays.
There's a report in the Independent today about single parents being wrongly threatened with sanctions, or having those sanctions imposed. I was struck by the blatant lie in the DWP's response: "Sanctions are a necessary part of the benefits system but they are only used as a last resort for a tiny minority who don’t follow the rules and hardship payments are available if people need them.” This is utterly dishonest propaganda. But then, if the man at the top of the department is a fantasist it's going to permeate the whole organisation.
On the A4e front, very little. There is no news about the fraud trial, which surely should have finished by now. But FE Week reports that the £17m London prison education (OLASS) contract, which A4e gave 3 months notice of handing back in August, will continue in A4e's hands until the new year, because the Skills Funding Agency can't find any college willing to take it on. This seems to back up A4e's claim that the contract was no longer viable. The prison system is in such a mess that prisoners are being shifted around too often to make education possible.
On the wider subject of "welfare", I don't need to detail the antics of Iain Duncan Smith. He was on Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday, setting out the new timetable for Universal Credit. Mishal Hussein, who interviewed him, raised the obvious points about missed targets and wasted money. Now for IDS, that is not how the BBC should behave. The interviewer should just listen respectfully to whatever fantasies he chooses to spout. I feared for Hussein at the time. And sure enough, the next day IDS was reported to have lodged a complaint about her being "negative". At the same time the National Audit Office warned that any further delays in UC would be hugely costly. It said that there were no contingency plans to deal with delays.
There's a report in the Independent today about single parents being wrongly threatened with sanctions, or having those sanctions imposed. I was struck by the blatant lie in the DWP's response: "Sanctions are a necessary part of the benefits system but they are only used as a last resort for a tiny minority who don’t follow the rules and hardship payments are available if people need them.” This is utterly dishonest propaganda. But then, if the man at the top of the department is a fantasist it's going to permeate the whole organisation.
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