Reblogged from Watching A4e:
The Telegraph has just put up an article which shows just how cynical the political games have become, as people's lives are used as counters by Iain Duncan Smith and others. He has offered to cut another £3bn from the welfare bill in order to protect the armed forces. This would mean, it's thought, revisiting the cuts which were proposed by the Tories and blocked by the Lib Dems; restricting housing benefit for the under-25s and limiting payments to people with more than two children. The game works like this: further down we read, "A senior Conservative source said: 'It is now a simple choice, Iain Duncan Smith has offered a deal which will protect the country’s security. The Liberal Democrats will block it — and it will be for them to explain why it is more important for teenagers to be given council flats rather than for the nation and its citizens to be protected.'" Under-25s have become "teenagers", versus the armed forces who are protecting the nation. It's hardly subtle. But: "The Lib Dems have indicated that they will not allow working-age handouts to be reduced again unless the Conservatives drop their opposition to means-testing some benefits paid to pensioners, including the winter fuel allowance." So that's the other part of the game; hit those of working age or hit pensioners, which do you want?
If you're wondering where all this is going to end up, the Guardian has a disturbing article on the growth of food banks. Read the whole thing to find the answer; as charities take over from the state, the state - including mainstream society - doesn't feel the need to address the root cause of hardship and poverty, and the foodbanks become part of what an academic calls "a secondary food system for the poor".
It occurred to me today that we haven't heard any more about what appeared to be inevitable a year or two ago; the privatisation of Jobcentre Plus. Could it be that government realised that the bidders would be the very same companies which were failing so dismally with the Work Programme?
