I can’t reblog Sue Marsh’s excellent Diary of a Benefit Scrounger, so I’m just going to quote it verbatim:
“Oh thank goodness!! I’m RUBBISH at keeping secrets!
“In this Guardian article, Labour have leaked tomorrow’s concrete announcements on disability. They say that they will :
“A) Sack Atos
“B) Strengthen the law on Disability Hate Crime
“C) Develop a “tell us once” assessment system for social care, benefits and work support that rolls all help into one place.
“But there’s more. MUCH more. Watch conference tomorrow for a much fuller proposal on what Labour have concluded the problems are with sickness and disability support and more proposals on how to change things.
“These ‘tasters’ are to prove they’re serious. To show that whilst there is still much, much more work to do, there are things they can announce TODAY that show they’ve listened and are starting to understand.
“Of course we will be cynical. Of course we will doubt their real intentions. We would be fools to do anything else.
“But the distance traveled from the dark days of 2010 is remarkable.”
You can read the article in its own space here.
I can already hear the naysayers lining up – people like VP commenter Gavin MacMillan, who had this to say after the announcement that Labour will scrap the Bedroom Tax:
“I hate to think what your disappointment is going to be like when/if Labour actually win the next election and return to power, and show themselves to be exactly what they were before – a party which still toes the neo-lib ideological line with regards economic management of the country. The results will be a bit of tinkering around the edges, where things have come unravelled the most. But the core works of the condems will remain untouched, indeed, will be built on with further economic policies guaranteed to boost their neo-lib credentials with their banker mates. And so the circus & gravy-train for their mates and their uber-rich masters will carry on rolling. Trebles all round for the lads, while the rest of us can think ourselves lucky if we can find space in a ditch to cower in…”
The attitude we are seeing today is deeply disturbing. People have spent years complaining that Labour has not been bringing out solid policy commitments; now that Labour is making promises, the same people are accusing Labour of lying!
Why are people so keen to write off Labour’s promises, and yet so happy to accept any proven lie that the Conservatives feel like spouting today? Have we all forgotten “No more top-down reorganisations of the NHS”, or “We will make work pay” or any of the many other outright lies that have flowed from the tongues of David Cameron, Grant Shapps, Iain Duncan Smith and the rest of them?
What a ridiculous, contradictory attitude to take.
Let the Official Opposition do its job.
Or do you want another five years of Cameron and his ghouls?
