Whoops! DWP caught out posting fake tweets
What do you make of this?
The tweet seems to have been deleted by a DWP Press Office that should be deeply embarrassed (but probably isn’t). The tweeter quoted above is a person who is known to this blog and who may be trusted. It did appear; the DWP did send it.
It seems clear that the intention was, as Tentacle Sixteen sarcastically denies, to put this out from a fake account, complete with fake spelling mistake, to coincide with the barrage of pro-Universal Credit propaganda currently streaming from the @dwppressoffice Twitter account like a sewage leak.
Yet again, your government is lying to you.
It cannot go unnoticed that this has come to attention as the House of Commons debates the future of Lord Freud, who foolishly said that disabled people could be made to work for less than the minimum wage. As these words are being typed, employment minister Esther McVey is speaking – a woman whose own constituents have launched a campaign to remove her from government office.
This disgraceful Coalition government’s shameless and relentless attempts to brainwash us into believing its lies, while it continues its programme of harm against the unemployed, the long-term sick and the disabled, shames us all as a nation. It is a matter of huge regret that the United Nations has agreed to postpone an investigation into the behaviour of this government until after the 2015 general election.
Your comments and opinions are requested.
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why have the DWP got a press office?
To answer queries from the media. They do need it; having worked for the newspapers, I have had reason to contact this organisation. Of course, back then it was being run in a far more rational way than appears to be the case now.
well said mike
why have the UN agreed to postpone the investigation? who have they agreed this with?
Apparently it’s not clear. https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/stuart-weir/britain-faces-un-investigation-over-systemic-violations-of-disability-rights
my guess is the Tories want to keep criticism quiet until after the elections, that said if they get kicked out in 2015 who takes the blame?
my point being if the tories get kicked out, will whoever gets in end up taking the blame? after all these days it seems politics is all about passing the buck.. and what worries me the most is that if something does get done about it will it fall on whoever is in power or those who caused all the problems in first place?
It would fall on those then in office to sort out the system, but the blame would land on those who were in office at the time of the offence (I think).
Mike thank you I am so disappointed the UN have post postponed, it gave great hope to many. Why I am unsure but the oppressed needed another body i.e. the UN to recognize what is going on in the UK.
This country is being destroyed in the name of capitalism for the rich.
Will this Government be referred to as the League Into Associated Research Studies?
You may need to think of the initials!
Yes they are liars
I guess that means they’re consistent. :-(
I can’t think how UC over JSA and other benefits can have any sort of effect in getting permanent work. Rather like thanks to cancer, I’m dead now ! F**king jackals, the lot of them.
There was that thing about Universal Jobmatch, that the adverts were fake or involved illegal stuff like the Italian Mafia recruiting drugs mules. I tend to find that it’s the same jobs advertised with different agencies.
The DWP cannot even tweet properly!
Well, its people can’t seem to fake tweet properly, at least!
Why did Grant Shapps name just pop in to my head …
:D
Mike,
This spelling problem occurred in another DWP tweet. See the RT below:
Ross Hawkins @rosschawkins
Spelling challenge at DWP: RT @dwppressoffice: Meet Natalie who is now in a permenant job thanks to #Universalcredit http://twitter.com/dwppressoffice/status/526801225690644481/photo/1pic.twitter.com/ATbFuMRamL
John McTernan
Bless. It appears they were trying to create a narrative around this ‘Natalie’ character – who may or may not be real – and undermined it all by posting comments, that were supposed to be from her, from the press office account. To me, this confirms that it was a fake tweet and DWP was pretending to be somebody else, who may or may not be real.
What time were these tweets sent? if it was during office ours shouldn’t they be working and not on social networks? disciplinary action is needed.
It’s a reasonable point, and puts those involved between a rock and a hard place. They were carrying out work for the DWP, of course. Just nothing that the department’s bosses would ever admit was ordered by them.
I have the utmost despise for anyone who fabricates information in order to gain personal advantage and the same goes for any organization. We need to get rid of hypocrisy and self interest at the next general election.
“We need to get rid of hypocrisy and self interest at the next general election.” Hahaha. Never going to happen. I’d like a ‘You’re All Sh*t’ box to tick AND PR, not First Past The Post too, but we won’t be getting those either.
Legitimate comment re: the DWP, but Lord Freud’s comments on disabled people working for less than the minimum have been taken in the exact opposite spirit to that in which they were offered. Honestly, take a look at the surrounding context and it casts a very different light to the pull quote.
I’ve looked at the context and I disagree.
Who! in this circle of a ghost squad? UN “Committee” has an affiliation with who?. Follow the ideology in a stale mate & the game players will run off side!
What? You’ve lost me.
Once again, Freud being misquoted for the sake of political argument. If you read or listen to what he said rather than focusing on selected soundbites, you will see that he said that some disabled people cannot provide full value and the employer should not be required to pay the minimum wage for an employee who does not provide value, AND THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD PAY THE DIFFERENCE so as to ensure employment. Of course, this is inconceivable that a Tory should say this, so the second half of the proposal is systematically being ignored, or worse, as is the case in this post, turned to say exactly the opposite.
The point that you are missing is that, if an employee cannot provide “full value”, as you and these others like Freud rather distastefully describe it, then this is a judgement made by the employer and may be manipulated to ensure that they can pay as little as possible and get the government to pay the rest. Nice dodge!
Note also that such an employee may never progress beyond the minimum wage, meaning they would be another cheap source of labour to be exploited with no chance of advancement.
Furthermore, experience shows that no firm will install the adaptations necessary to give such people a job anyway, as this would interfere with profit. It doesn’t matter whether you’re paying the employee £2 or £20 – profit comes first with these employers and extra expense is not acceptable to them.
Finally, the argument that unemployment harms a disabled person’s state of mind may be countered by pointing out that being exploited by a cheapskate company at the taxpayer’s expense is likely to harm their state of mind more.