Freud: Foodbank dunce – or devil?

Last Updated: July 4, 2013By

As someone who has been involved with foodbanks (on the sidelines, as a trustee of the citizens’ advice bureau), I can confirm that there are conditions that must be met before anybody may receive food from these organisations, and that those attending are indeed deeply humiliated to be, in effect, begging for support. There is quite clearly a direct causal link between the cuts imposed by the Coalition government since 2010, the increase in the severity of benefit sanctions, and the rise in foodbank use since that time.
Once again, a minister in the Department for Work and Pensions has misled Parliament. Worse than that is the fact that this particular minister is a former adviser to the previous Labour government. Labour needs to take a hard look at its social security policies during the 13 years it was in government and – if it is returned to office in 2015 – prepare to undertake a root and branch re-ordering of the DWP, which now appears to be rotten to the core.

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11 Comments

  1. Big Bill July 4, 2013 at 7:59 am - Reply

    It’s pointless having central government when Freud’s allowed to get away with nonsense like this. We might as well ignore them and go our own way. Bring on local currencies, local farms, local governance.

  2. Nick July 4, 2013 at 8:41 am - Reply

    he needs to be very careful he is already been part of the team that have overseen hundreds of deaths during the welfare reform process and not once when i send his office a death has ever got back to me or to the relatives of the person that’s died

    Says it all really and he is supposed to be in the lords PROTECTING and fighting our corner that’s his job making sure the FINE detail is there and were ok

    without him playing that vital role we the sick and disabled will all be killed off over time as only he Lord Freud, the millionaire government minister and former investment banker,and he alone can save us as that is his duty as a lord

    • Jonathan Wilson July 4, 2013 at 11:41 am - Reply

      Thing is, both sides of the house of commons played a blinder when they used stories of “out of touch” hereditary peers throwing back the will of parliament for reconsideration and out right blocking of legislation by “duddery old fools” etc.

      Even I, as a moderately intelligent person (although I’m sure my lad would disagree with that statement, as would various ex’s, lol) fell for it; the total news saturation of seemingly good legislation being returned and blocked week after week (at a time when the Internet was still in its infancy and facebook was not even a glint in a child’s eye and chatting was done through ICQ by clever people and “the news” was dolled out at 9o-clock and via newspapers)… fell for it.

      The left disliked it because it was hereditary and stopped knee-jerk legislation, the right disliked it as it was hereditary stopped knee-jerk legislation… and both disliked it as it threw a fine tooth comb over all legislation because the peers had nothing better to do but think “what about” and “what if” and “they didn’t think of” in their retirement as something to keep them occupied with little or no party allegiance, much like my parents would do a crossword or puzzle book….. or so we the public were told!

      And here we are, not so much a second house of oversight elected in its own standing ala USA, but rather a place of party political henchmen now given the right to make and drive primary legislation from the house of lords as a way of making more money buy using appointments from the lower house; the most noticeable of these being the incestuous, nepotistic, and side changing, appointment of Lord Freud in the upper house with his paymasters in the lower house to drive a damaging and ideological policy to destroy all forms of social care in the uk… quite apt really when you consider his lineage!

      I, like others I know, with a general “conservative” view point and ethos (which also included the conservation of the NHS and social care/housing/benefits, et.al. as being “a good thing.”) thought the time had come for change from the Blair/Brown years (multiple term parliaments generally are a bad thing as ways become entrenched even when they are known to be failing) and so we voted for this absolute shower of shit (believe me, we wish we had not as we never realised they would try to sell of the family silver so quickly in a fire sale of biblical proportions and destroy our social system in such a short space of time); we even thought the stitchup with the limpdems when it happened might not be a bad thing over all as we thought they would act as a free voting moderator and would give us a say on the EU and make sure our children would get a good low cost uni’ education…. oh how we were conned.

      So for my vote at the last election, I apologise profusely.

      • Big Bill July 4, 2013 at 12:28 pm - Reply

        There will be many who agree and I have no doubt many who agree will currently be sitting MPs in the Tory party. As I’ve said before, this will precipitate the emergence of a new party made from disaffected politicians of both sides and appealing to disenfranchised voters from both sides too. Enter the anti-neoliberal party!

  3. guy fawkes July 4, 2013 at 9:33 am - Reply

    As Big Bill said, do away with both seats of rotten power and organise local power get rid of those that have been willingly implementing both Blair and Cameron’s policies locally also.

  4. Nick July 4, 2013 at 12:33 pm - Reply

    you have every right to feel angry David Cameron got so called elected on false promises he stood up with nick clegg and Gordon brown and told lies but like a good politician was convincing at the time

    They all spoke in a convincing manor but it was all lies and deception that is not a democracy and like we have just seen Egypt the Conservatives should be thrown out of power for cheating the public

    I believe that Egypt will lead the way in democracy for the future in that if you come to power on false promises you will be kicked out after one year it’s really that simple

    • Jean Cox July 4, 2013 at 4:32 pm - Reply

      I agree 100% Nick. But even 1 Year of Tory rule is too much! Much of us Brits are far too ignorant or complacent & need to wake up & smell the coffee, that is if it’s not too late to undo all the damage Cameron & his lot have done already!!

    • guy fawkes July 4, 2013 at 9:03 pm - Reply

      Nick

      It’s one thing to be able to get rid of corrupt power, the problem is finding suitable powers to put in it’s place – labour are not making any palatable policies either as the opposition party.

      • Nick July 4, 2013 at 11:16 pm - Reply

        very true guy labour is not the answer the whole country needs to wake up to that fact
        Finding decent people to stand as a mp is very difficult but can be achieved if everyone made the effort to search these people out because i know there about

      • Big Bill July 5, 2013 at 7:56 am - Reply

        Which is why I suggest local currencies, local farms, local authorities. Each are becomes self-sufficient making central government irrelevant.

  5. Nick July 4, 2013 at 6:59 pm - Reply

    Thanks Jean
    If I was fit and well, i would stand as a mp and win no doubt about that but i would never get the chance to become prime minister as I’m too poor
    What sort of democracy is that the people should be choosing not only the political party but also the leader?

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