Cameron’s ‘mission’ is morally bankrupt

140117democracy

When David Cameron stands up in all his hypocrisy and tells you that tearing apart the basic safety net that guaranteed people would not be left in hunger or destitution is part of his “moral mission”, even die-hard Tories should agree that the country has taken a turn for the worse.

When he defends an administration that has become so punitive that applicants who don’t get it right have to wait without food for months at a time, by claiming he is doing “what is right”, even die-hard Tories should agree that the man who claims he is Prime Minister has diverged from reality.

That is precisely what he has done, and you can bet that the Tory diehards will quietly go along with it because they think it is far better for other people to lose their lives than it is for their government to lose face.

Cameron has been responding after the Catholic Bishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, delivered a vehement attack on the social security “reforms” being forced on the country’s most vulnerable people by Iain Duncan Smith.

In the Daily Telegraph, Cameron smarmed: “Our long-term economic plan for Britain is not just about doing what we can afford, it is also about doing what is right… Nowhere is that more true than in welfare. For me the moral case for welfare reform is every bit as important as making the numbers add up.

“We are in the middle of a long and difficult journey turning our country around,” Cameron said. “That means difficult decisions to get our deficit down, making sure that the debts of this generation are not our children’s to inherit.

“But our welfare reforms go beyond that alone – they are about giving new purpose, new opportunity, new hope – and yes, new responsibility to people who had previously been written off with no chance.

“Seeing these reforms through is at the heart of our long-term economic plan – and it is at the heart too of our social and moral mission in politics today.”

Drivel. Any evidence-based analysis will find the exact opposite. Where are the opportunities in Workfare schemes that pay only benefits, meaning travel expenses alone put claimants out of pocket, and then send jobseekers back to the dole queue so rich companies can profit further by taking on more claimants on the same terms?

How can anyone derive hope from taking responsibility for their job search, when DWP staff at Jobcentre Plus are ordered to ignore their own responsibilities in favour of harsh sanctions for invented infringements of the Jobseeker’s Agreement?

And how is encouraging people to say they are self-employed, even though they have little chance of earning enough to support them and none of enjoying a holiday or a pension, different from writing them off with no chance?

Look at the new employment figures from the Office for National Statistics – the Coalition government has been making a song and dance about them ever since they came out. On the face of it, they seem reliable: In December 2013, 30.15 million people were in work of some kind, up by 396,000 from the same time the previous year; there were 2.34 million unemployed, down 161,000 from December 2012; and the Claimant Count (those on Jobseekers’ Allowance) was 1.22 million in January, down 327,000 from a year earlier.

However, the number of people marked as self-employed has rocketed to a record level, totalling one in seven of the workforce. That’s 4,370,000 – up 150,000 on the previous year. This is extremely suspicious, as the increase in the previous year totalled 25,000 – just one-sixth of this week’s figure.

Some of these people might be genuinely self-employed and making their new business work – but all of them? In an economy where productivity hasn’t increased since the Coalition took office? You’d have to be stupid to believe that.

Assuming the amount of real self-employment has increased in line with economic growth (at 1.9 per cent), that’s an extra 25,475 in 2013, leaving 124,525 in limbo. Are these really self-employed? Or were they told by Jobcentre advisors to say so and claim working tax credits (as we’ve seen in the past), leading to a huge debt when HMRC tells them they have been claiming fraudulently and have been overpaid?

How many of the unemployed have been wiped off the books due to sanctions? We don’t know, because we don’t have figures up to December 2013. We do know that 897,690 sanctions were enforced in the year to September 2013. We don’t know how many were for one month, how many for three months or how many for three years, but we do know that the rate was six per cent of jobseekers per month in the three months to the end of September 2013. Assuming that rate stayed solid, it suggests that 73,200 were off-benefit due to sanctions in December and should be added to the Claimant Count to give a more accurate figure.

How many of the unemployed have been wiped off the books due to Workfare? We don’t know. How many are unemployed but on Universal Credit, which isn’t included in the Claimant Count? We don’t know – 3,610 were on it at the end of November last year, but the DWP has not divided them into those in work and those without.

David Cameron has access to all of this information, and he doesn’t care. He also has access to the mortality figures for claimants of Incapacity Benefit/Employment and Support Allowance, that the DWP has been withholding from the rest of us, probably for fear of sparking an international outcry. He doesn’t care about that either.

His comments are therefore doubly outrageous – not only is he claiming that his Coalition’s changes are having a beneficial effect when the figures demonstrate the opposite, but he is also claiming the moral high ground when his actions are more appropriate to the populace of the Pit.

In terms of his morality, there can be only one description for him and his cronies:

Bankrupt.

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12 Comments

  1. Lesley Farrington February 21, 2014 at 1:08 am - Reply

    How many have been taken off ESA after 12 months so can no longer claim?

  2. thelovelywibblywobblyoldlady February 21, 2014 at 7:27 am - Reply

    Reblogged this on glynismillward189.

  3. Maureen Luby February 21, 2014 at 7:55 am - Reply

    I was one of the people that went self-employed on the advice of DWP. Luckily for me I have managed to start up my business (database work and teaching English to non-native speakers online :) ). As I was going through the process of starting up every mentor I had talked about how many people were just going through the motions. As far as I could gather the DWP, the organisations set up to help and the people themselves were aware that they were going nowhere.

    Love your site by the way :)

  4. Nigel February 21, 2014 at 8:44 am - Reply

    Cameron reminds me of self-justifying slavers who used to claim that by stealing African men, women, and children away from their country, lives, and loved ones and making them work like animals without human rights and for no wages they were actually doing good by converting pagan unbelievers into good Christians and giving them new purpose.

    All this harping on about the “plan” is becoming as irritating as “hard working people who do the right thing and want to get on” or “hard working families”. Turning social security into a punitive regime ruled by fear, where people get randomly targeted and are in perpetual fear of losing support essential for their survival is anything but moral but to then pretend that the cruelty and injustice deliberately visited on benefit claimants is a benign kindness specifically designed to help them improve their lives simply rubs salt into the smarting wounds.

    What a pathetic, shallow, superficial marionette of a Prime Minister.

    Shame on the Liberal Democrats for giving their backing to such a creature.

  5. beastrabban February 21, 2014 at 10:03 am - Reply

    Reblogged this on Beastrabban’s Weblog.

  6. Samwise Gamgee February 21, 2014 at 11:51 am - Reply

    Now the Tories want to charge people who want to go to a tribunal to get a benefits sanction overturned, according to a DWP proposal leaked to the Guardian. How much lower can the DWP sink?

    “People who have been stripped of benefits could be charged by the government for trying to appeal against the decision to an independent judge.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/20/people-stripped-benefits-charged-decision

  7. Paul Smyth February 21, 2014 at 12:07 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on The Greater Fool.

  8. untynewear February 21, 2014 at 3:05 pm - Reply

    Reblogged this on UNEMPLOYED IN TYNE & WEAR.

  9. Cameron’s ‘mission’ is morall... February 21, 2014 at 4:49 pm - Reply

    […] When David Cameron stands up in all his hypocrisy and tells you that tearing apart the basic safety net that guaranteed people would not be left in hunger or destitution is part of his “moral mission”, even die-hard Tories should agree that the…  […]

  10. jaypot2012 February 21, 2014 at 7:49 pm - Reply

    Whilst everyone is suffering on benefits, not knowing if they will get sanctioned next week or just being sanctioned for the sake of it. Whilst the disabled and long term sick are dying due to being thrown off benefits and unable to claim anything, the excrement in the government are starting to crumble – they’ll try and start things like charging for appeals, but it won’t happen.
    IDS should be flushed away down the loo closely followed by Cameron, Fraud and McVey and the DWP top “dogs”.
    The tories know that they are beat and that it will take a long time for them to get back in – there is too much going on and they are unable to deal with things. If they don’t collapse this year, they will be kicked out in 2015 and Cameron and Clegg will NOT be the leaders of their so called parties anymore.

  11. […] When David Cameron stands up in all his hypocrisy and tells you that tearing apart the basic safety net that guaranteed people would not be left in hunger or destitution is part of his "moral missi…  […]

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