The Official Whitewash Into Benefit Sanctions Begins: This Is Why Labour Sold Out The Poor

Last Updated: November 12, 2013By

When all but a few Labour MPs chose to abstain from the vote on the Jobseekers (Back to Work Schemes) Act, Vox Political condemned the move – particularly because the excuse was that the Coalition would order an independent review of benefit sanctions. I could see a whitewash on the horizon – if it ever came that close at all.
It seems I was mistaken on the latter point, as the review is set to report to Parliament in spring next year. However, the whitewash definitely seems to be on the cards.
The gentleman chosen to run the review is a former member of right-wing thinktank Policy Exchange, described by a political editor of the Evening Standard as “the intellectual boot camp of the Tory modernisers”. Mr Oakley himself, it seems, has penned many proposals calling for more benefit sanctions.
Independent? I should cocoa!
This will be nothing but a stitch-up from beginning to end. No doubt the swivel-eyed readers of the Daily Telegraph (for example) will lap it up. They have a strange attitude to evidence over there.

latest video

news via inbox

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

13 Comments

  1. Cordwainer November 12, 2013 at 2:39 pm - Reply

    It’s no more than I’ve come to expect of Labour these days.Just watch how they wriggle out of this one. Snakes in the grass.

    • Mike Sivier November 12, 2013 at 2:46 pm - Reply

      Bear in mind that it is the Conservatives who have pushed this hardship onto innocent people who are just trying to make a living.

      • sean November 12, 2013 at 2:58 pm - Reply

        New Labour is just Tory lite, that’s what Thatcher meant when she said Blair was her biggest victory, she’d managed to shift the whole political spectrum of Britain so far right, that Labour had become as right wing as the pre-Thatcher Tories.

        If it wasn’t so tragic it would be funny: Thatcherism has been the de-facto reality of our political system for thirty years, under both Tory and New Labour governments, and now that the whole thing has blown up in our faces, the right has managed to blame the left and set us up for more of the same. They’re “fixing” problems caused by Thatcherism, by doing the same thing only worse.

        Labour are little more than a proxy that makes the right-wing fascism lite that is Thatcherism seem less extreme, while also making the normal centre-left appear to be far-left fringe thinking.

        • Mike Sivier November 12, 2013 at 3:03 pm - Reply

          New Labour no longer exists, of course.
          The Labour Party is now moving back to its proper position on the political spectrum. It is to be hoped that this move will accelerate now that we see the general public supports the renationalisation of the energy companies and other public services.

      • sean November 12, 2013 at 3:56 pm - Reply

        The problem, as I see it, is that right wing propaganda has such a strangle hold over our political conciousness that I’m not sure how a real left wing party could be elected. We’ve had nothing but right wing policies and economic theory for thirty years, yet there’s still a sizable group, and arguably majority, at least in England, who think it’s all because of left wing over spend, single mothers, immigrants and benefit scroungers.

        We’d need to break thirty years of unrivalled propaganda first…

        All the Tories have done since getting into power again, is make the rich richer, cut their taxes, and make the rest of us poorer, while decreasing the levels of personal freedoms for average citizens…

        And still when you mention how staggeringly badly this government has performed for average people, you’ll get dozens of voices springing up to cry “but, but LABOUR!!!”

        (Note I don’t say incompetent, all though their actions would be incompetent if they wanted to do the things they claim, I believe that their actual goal is to make the rich richer, the poor poorer and curb personal freedoms for the majority, I fully classify Thatcherism as a Fascist ideology in the true meaning of the term)

        • John November 13, 2013 at 11:03 am - Reply

          I hated the thatcher era with a vengeance, but have to admit when she took office in 1979 she did what NEEDED to be done, the only way to get the country back on track was to do things that NO politician up to that point had the spine to do, she should no favour to the rich either, her decisions were hard and unpopular but they WORKED.

          Unfortunately the poison pill she served up to improve the country although successful in the short term was a disaster for the long term and THAT was her error, she failed to pull back once the country was working well once more and the restrictions she imposed started to strangle the economy and her answer was to sell off the “nationalised industries”.

          Don’t go thinking it was for the benefit of everyone, it was to grab some fast cash to pay for the sweetners the public would fall for, the 80’s boom was paid for with this and i have NO DOUBT she knew it wouldn’t last.

          YET at NO TIME did she EVER blame unemployment or the failure of economic policies or the ever rising cost of government on those who had no bloody money!…

          My honest opnion is that when she took office she had a plan but having won a second election it wrong footed her and then she lost her mind….

          She ended up screwing the country into the ground again, right back where she started.

          BUT much as i ended up thinking she was a bitch, she was a sodding ANGEL compared to this lot of mindless, money grabbing, lying, unqualified hoory henries!

      • Cordwainer November 12, 2013 at 4:24 pm - Reply

        When you say ‘New Labour’ no longer exists, do you think a name change will fool us? Perhaps that’s what Labour are hoping as they’re used to patronising people. But who are this new old new Labour? Most of the current shadow cabinet are exemplars of New Labour. Leopards don’t change their spots.

        • Mike Sivier November 12, 2013 at 4:46 pm - Reply

          New Labour was a hugely different animal from Labour, but contained many of the same people. Bear in mind also that membership of a political party changes over time and Labour is swinging back.

    • Joe smith November 12, 2013 at 3:45 pm - Reply

      Please don’t label right wing politics with this bunch of Pygmy brained coalition Fascists. They have brought more despair, more pain, more anguish, more worry, more expense, more lies, more suicides, more unemployment, more riches, ( to their friends and anus licking supporters ) to balance this there is less. There’s less work, there’s less opportunity, there’s less NHS, there’s less life, there’s less pension, there’s less help, there’s less freedom, there’s less affordable housing, there’s less money. There’s less honesty ( amongst MPs) So are the coalition the government of more or less. Seems to me whichever way you look at it, it’s more or less s..t.

  2. John Keen November 12, 2013 at 3:18 pm - Reply

    Labour are the only alternative but sadly a slight one.
    Unless they wake the hell up and become what they are supposed to be they will make scant difference to the general public and thereby the Country.

    The liberal democrats on the otherhand have, as i see it, become a non-entity having allowed themselves to be tottally absorbed by the conservatives.

    Never was a fan of the liberal democrats but they were gaining a lttle every year, shame thay had to suicide their party by trying to gain a little power only to fade into obscurity.

  3. jed goodright November 12, 2013 at 8:07 pm - Reply

    Labour failed to win the vote following the debate to repeal the bedroom tax today – I reckon there were at least 60 labour MPs who didn’t vote – so what was more important? Or are they hoping to wait until a general election and be seen as the ‘goody’ party when they do (IF) repeal it????? This is really not good enough.

    • jed goodright November 12, 2013 at 8:09 pm - Reply

      the debate was impressive – only ever 20 tories in the chamber – what an opportunity missed – so the poor and hungry will just have to suffer a while longer hey???????????? SHAME

  4. Thomas M November 13, 2013 at 3:47 am - Reply

    I don’t trust Labour, but I’ll vote for them as the TUSC are too small to make a difference. As for the Lib Dems, I would love to watch their number of parliament seats shrivel to near zero.

Leave A Comment