Monday 28 February 2011

Hello, Dole Scum

On Radio 4's Today programme this morning, a reporter shadowed Iain Duncan Smith, the Employment Minister, as he visited a Job Centre trying to help the long-term unemployed. He talked to several very highly-skilled and articulate unemployed people.

IDS: 'if you've grown up and become conditioned - say in a workless household - to people not being in work, the whole concept of work becomes alien…'

Right, it's their fault they don't have jobs. Just as a reminder, here are some statistics for the minister:

Job vacancies: 500,000 (as IDS acknowledges)
Unemployed: 2,500,000

At the Job Centre he visited, there are 6000 unemployed people and 250 vacancies, so he can't pretend this disparity exists.

But according to Duncan-Smith, unemployment is a state of mind. This is exactly what's wrong with Tory politics: even in the face of solid evidence, they'd rather tell the voters that there's a massive pool of workshy loafers out there, sucking away your taxes. Certainly there are a few, and there's a group of unemployable people out there - but the idea that anyone out of work is simply lazy or 'conditioned' to sit on the dole is laughable - but it fits an ideological agenda.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

here is my incoherent and worthless rambling here:-

I say this, even in the face of hard evidence:-
There is more than a few workshy loafers out there (actually I call the scum), there's more than you seem to be able to imagine.
Overhaul the benefit system I say and give out food vouchers instead of money - bet more go to work then!

You're full of shit by the way

The Plashing Vole said...

Now that is quality commenting. Very brave of you to assert that other people are scum despite your inability to manage simple grammar.

Well done for providing such convincing evidence. You still don't seem to be able to grasp the maths: 2.5 million jobless people, 0.5 million jobs.

Your final line is magnificent. I'm convinced and stand corrected. Thank you for enlightening me. Do come again.

Anonymous said...

here is my comment here

He's got you bang to rights voley, can't argue with logic like that!

I'd have to agree that there are a fair number of workshy bastards out there - I grew up on a northern council estate, and the characters in The Royle Family and the magnificent Raining Stones are not entirely works of fiction.

2.5m into .5m doesn't go though, you're quite right there - I'd only argue about how many of the remaining 2m would take a job if offered.

Anonymous part deux.

Lee said...

Anonymous, if you want to take punitive action against unemployed people please bear in mind that these proposals would cost money - and you'd end up paying for them.

Have a nice day.