Iain Duncan Smith sent back to his novel(s)

Talent deficit: Iain Duncan Smith wrote a poorly-received novel called The Devil's Tune - and many may argue that his entire tenure at the DWP has been spent 'on the fiddle'.

Talent deficit: Iain Duncan Smith wrote a poorly-received novel called The Devil’s Tune – and many may argue that his entire tenure at the DWP has been spent ‘on the fiddle’.

Labour frontbencher, sadist and closet Tory Liam Byrne has been preparing to take over the Department for Work and Pensions – by practising his future policy on current incumbent Iain Duncan Smith.

That’s right – instead of suggesting IBS should go back to the dole queue that he got married to escape, Byrne has told the Work and Pensions Secretary to “spend more time with his novels”.

This is of course an act of hideous cruelty – not just on LieDS, who deserves it, but also on the general public, if Mr… Smith accepts the advice.

His one published work of fiction, The Devil’s Tune, was released in 2003 and its uniformly negative reception may be taken as proof that publishers are more interested in who an author is than in whether they can write.

The stated reason for Mr Byrne to want to foist Iain Ducking-Out-Of-The-Dole-Queue’s writing on an unwilling public is the failure of four key initiatives that were said to have been set up to help the unemployed.

These are:

  • The Work Programme, which pays companies to help find jobs for the unemployed but which is, according to the DWP’s own figures and in Mr Byrne’s words “worse than doing nothing”.
  • The Youth Contract, which was set up 18 months ago to get 160,000 unemployed young people into work, and has managed to find placements for just 4,600 jobseekers aged 18-24.
  • Universal Credit, which was intended to use integrated computer systems to provide real-time updates to benefits. The problem is the software doesn’t work. A pilot scheme opened in just one Job Centre, focusing on the simplest claims, with entitlements worked out on paper (according to some accounts).
  • The Work Capability Assessment, now put into ‘special measures’ because of the overwhelming number of mistakes which have swamped both the DWP and the appeal tribunal system with complaints.

A Telegraph report said representatives of the Secretary-in-a-State said Mr Byrne’s remarks were a “compliment” as they suggest his welfare reforms are a threat to Labour.

This is correct in the literal sense; they are indeed a threat to labour. It seems that under the current regime, anyone lucky enough to get a job does so in spite of the system rather than with help from it.

Smith’s spokesman (apparently he is no longer able to speak for himself; this does not bode well for his writing) said his reforms were “hugely popular”, which is partially true. Unfortunately they are only popular with people who have not been subjected to them and who don’t know what they mean.

Repeating one of the many falsehoods for which the DWP now has a well-deserved reputation, he added that the Labour Party opposes the benefit cap. In fact, Labour supports a cap – but not the unjustified level at which the government has set it for families.

I refer you to the review of The Devil’s Tune by John Sutherland, Lord Northcliffe Professor of English Literature at University College London in November 2003, when his review was published in The Guardian: “Ask someone, said Tolstoy, ‘Can you write a novel?’ and – most likely – they will reply, ‘I don’t know; I’ve never tried’. They wouldn’t say the same if you asked them if they could play the violin. IDS has tried fiction. And high-political office. He should have stuck to the fiddle.”

Judging by his record since 2010, many may say he did.

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6 Comments

  1. Steven Goodman July 26, 2013 at 12:10 pm - Reply

    Ian Ducan-smith uses his failure to inspire old regimental ties (Jobs for the boys) and refers to his welfare experience as an experience that supposedly put him close to the working classes….I’d like to point out IDS was an officer in the army and as such would have been far-removed from any “working class ties”…In the Army n officer is part of a priviledged class….

    • owen July 26, 2013 at 3:20 pm - Reply

      What is a soldier doing in charge of a sensitive government department which is now overseeing medical health care, that’s like putting Winston Churchill in charge of the NHS

      • Tony July 26, 2013 at 5:58 pm - Reply

        Good point, and thinking about it you then have the likes of Gove in education to which he is equally clueless, in fact, has any Tory in any position they are now, ever actually had experience in the field which they are making nationwide decisions on?
        I am willing to bet the answer is no.
        And the most any of them have ever had as experience of work is on a (non influential but highly paid) board of directors.

    • Jonathan Wilson July 26, 2013 at 5:37 pm - Reply

      He was an aide-de-camp at one point.. or in other words a glorified bag boy/dogs body… quite fitting really.

  2. nigeljohnfisher July 26, 2013 at 2:28 pm - Reply

    Ideas for new I D Smith novel title…
    In Deep Shxt.
    It describes a dystopian future. Or is it the present.
    Match Stick Manners.
    A romance in which every problem is solved by a universal computer that marries off each poor person to a rich one. Simples.

  3. […] Labour frontbencher, sadist and closet Tory Liam Byrne has been preparing to take over the Department for Work and Pensions – by practising his future policy on current incumbent Iain Duncan Smith….  […]

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