Do you agree with VP that the government has earned our disrespect?
Keith Lindsay-Cameron writes the popular ‘A Letter A Day To Number 10’ and is a friend of Vox Political. His latest missive to David Cameron takes a similar attitude to that adopted by VP yesterday, regarding the respect we should accord to a prime minister – and a government – like David Cameron’s:
Dear Mr Cameron,
No party has ever brought politics into such disrepute as yours, the disrespect you heap on the nation on a daily basis is outrageous!
Such statements as – “people who are poorer should be prepared to take the biggest risks” as they have “the least to lose” – David Freud.
Iain Duncan Smith – “But essentially Universal Credit as a benefit will be the benefit by 2016 and the remains of the vast, vast majority of the stock will be in place pretty much by the end of 2017.”
Iain Duncan Smith, mocking reporters over his avoiding the bedroom tax debate – “I can’t hear you, I can’t hear you!”
David Scott, a Tory councillor from Tunbridge Wells – “The other area I’m really concerned about is obviously the disabled. I have a number of mentally damaged individuals, who to be quite frank aren’t worth the minimum wage.”
David Freud – “Now, there is a small… there is a group, and I know exactly who you mean, where actually as you say they’re not worth the full wage and actually I’m going to go and think about that particular issue, whether there is something we can do nationally, and without distorting the whole thing, which actually if someone wants to work for £2 an hour.”
Alan Mellins, a Conservative councillor from Maidenhead, on Travellers – “Execute them.”
Then there are the routine lies and falsified figures, election promise lies, welfare lies, economic lies, NHS lies, really, you name it and it’s doubtless been lied about.
Last week in Parliament Square should be held up and remembered as a beacon of what your party is all about, the oppression of the people.
Respect is earned, Mr Cameron, and by heaven the people of this country are due some respect, but you are not. You have earned all the disrespect that can be heaped upon you as a silly, ignorant, rich boy playing at politics, serving vested interests, robbing the nation and worthy of our greatest disrespect!
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/nov/23/lord-freud-welfare-poor-risk
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/universal-credit-iain-duncan-smith-2894737
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/bedroom-tax-fury-running-scared-2786058
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/11/pre-election-pledges-tories-are-trying-wipe-internet
http://socialinvestigations.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/nhs-privatisation-compilation-of.html
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Many thanks Mike and, erm, respect. :)
The letter needs this added to the list:-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29807947
29 October 2014 Last updated at 09:04
Care for UK military veterans is ‘flawed’, medical experts say
I can only hope that enough people come to understand how evil this government is before the general election.
Respect is a thing that is earned, not given, nor should it be expected.
A person who gives an interview to a national radio station from a hospital bed about the government that has forced her family to sell her house and is fighting Crohn’s disease, earns it.
A person who uses a dead child who had a disability to prove points and still does his best to vilify and torture disabled people should have no expectations of respect.
We have a cabinet full of people who have no experience in the field they are in charge of. We have a government of politicians that rely on falsehoods and misused statistics because they “believe” their point of view is the right one.
Wholeheartedly agree with the letter as written-well done sir for expressing what so many of us also think.
With all due respect Mike, what is this achieving?
I would imagine that by now, these letters will get nowhere near the PM, probably just the nearest bin.
I do wonder how many letters are received along these lines.
Don’t forget that thousands protested against the Iraq war, austerity and poor wages, what did they achieve?
They affected public opinion – as do these letters, even if only in a small way.
Unfortunately Mike it appears to be miniscule, the recent austerity and wage protests brought out such gems as “they should be lucky they have a job” “we are over a trillion in debt” and “as long as I go on at least one holiday a year I’m alright”
I did think that the fight against austerity might have a chance, as a lot of Sun readers could be affected by coalition policies.
It seems that they are just brushing concerns from those who have been under the carpet by either saying “look over there” or justifying austerity with questionable editorials or columnist pieces.
The recent OccupyLondon protests are commendable but the most of the media are not reporting it, and the opinion of those who shout the loudest that they should be in work or doing something productive still holds too much sway with the general public.
… in your opinion. Here comes an alternative view…
Jim, i totally respect your opinion and please do not see this message as defensive towards yourself, but if we were to say nothing at all, where would that get us?
It’s people like Mike that speak up for all the people who are too scared, can’t or just don’t see the point, and it’s people like Mike who make it clear that we are not happy.
If David Cameron never sees any of these letters then fine, but at least this is getting the message out that someone is fighting for us, someone cares and shows people that you don’t have to be afraid and you aren’t alone in your thinking.
I believe that Mike’s work is now receiving the attention it deserves, however more attention would be better. Some people may see these letters as strange and that nobody will read them, but the fact that Mike’s opinion is getting out there might just give more people an incentive to do something and push for change.
The trouble is, as a seasoned campaigner, I have seen attitudes go the opposite way and harden.
You only need to look at the success of the victimisation of immigrants, the poor and disabled etc…
If you take a look at other forums and blogs, you will sadly see that there is a large amount of the population who unfortunately simply do not care (until it happens to them or a close family member)
You will see by my previous comments on Mike’s site that I agree with the majority of what he writes.
I do hope one day that the tide will turn and that things will change, and hopefully in my lifetime.
Seeing Scotland politically engaged and the high turnout of the referendum vote gives me distant hope and I hope sites like this continue to grow and get the message across.
But there is a long way to go.
There is a long way to go, if we want to convince everyone – but I can’t do that.
I can only write my piece and hope it gets read.
What happens afterwards is up to other people.
Keith’s letters are, in themselves, the nearest thing to an impact assessment of the government’s policies. His letters also have a wide audience. If his letters were ever published in their entirety as a single volume they would serve as one of the most detailed social documents of present-day history. While Keith’s letters are not a novel they could easily rank alongside the likes the ‘The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist’. Here’s a bit of the plot:
“Clearly frustrated at the refusal of his contemporaries to recognise the inequity and iniquity of society, Tressell’s cast of hypocritical Christians, exploitative capitalists and corrupt councillors provide a backdrop for his main target — the workers who think that a better life is “not for the likes of them”. Hence the title of the book; Tressell paints the workers as “philanthropists” who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ragged-Trousered_Philanthropists
The thing with Lord Freud is,he has form.He once referred to claimants as stock.And then there was this.
Liam Byrne slams Lord Freud over likening benefit claimants to corpses – “The nasty party is well and truly back”
Source:
http://labourlist.org/2012/11/liam-byrne-slams-lord-freud-over-likening-benefit-claimants-to-corpses-the-nasty-party-is-well-and-truly-back/
If you want to treat Human Beings in a dehumanising way.You start by calling them anything but human.
Mike have you seen this:-
Just the first few paragraphs
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/20993
Maximus, Atos, and Work Capability Assessments
When Atos walked away from its contract to carry out Work Capability Assessments, the government needed to find a replacement. Today (29 October 2014) it was announced that the contract has been awarded to Maximus. Only time will tell of course, but for many disabled people the initial reaction may be, ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’.
Maximus is an American corporation which has been accused of fraud in the US. It recently entered the health assessment ‘market’ in the UK by acquiring British company Health Management Limited (HML). Medical Director at HML is Professor Mike O’Donnell – who was previously Chief Medical Officer at Atos.
In Professor O’Donnell’s Linkedin profile, he says that at Atos he was, ‘Responsible for Clinical Governance throughout the organisation.’
Prior to being at Atos, Professor O’Donnell was Chief Medical Officer at Unum, a private insurance company which is alleged to have had a big influence over the Department for Work and Pensions in its reform of disability benefits and assessments.
Overwhelmingly. They have been stupid, authoritarian, arrogant, heavy-handed, clumsy, blinkered, ignorant and cruel. What is there to respect?
Another great letter from Keith.
This unelected coalition have absolutely no respect for us “plebs”, they don’t really respect anyone, including their own families. But then again, the only feelings that rich bored “politicians” have are greed and jealousy, oh, and a hatred for anyone without filthy rich bank accounts.
He could just as easily been writing about the german fascist party in the 1930’s
I was eighteen when Thatcher got turfed out of No. 10 so I can remember, just about, how foul she was and being from the northeast of England the memories of her still invite bile and fruity language. She was truly awful but for some reason peope respected her, saying she changed the country for the better and made us richer, of which she did neither, regardless of what the figures may say. Thatcher’s respect seems to have been earned by some misplaced idea that she was strong willed but she was not strong willed, she was pigheaded and stubborn; there’s a difference, to me.
I’d give Major his respect as he seemed to be a genuine centrist (for a Tory) and had a plethora of a**eholes to deal with (Portillo, Lilley etc etc ad inf…)
Blair was the ruin of the Labour Party and, well, Iraq… Folk say he was an election winning machine but Josef Mengele could have beaten the Conservatives when Blair did. Blair is the one who created Blue Labour and denied us a democratic choice with any real meaning and probably related to that, voter turnout started dropping post ’97.
Brown was… meh.
All have their faults but I can honestly say this horde of slithering cancers are truly the most appalling, malicious, nasty, useless, pointless, malodorous, supercilious, incompetent, demented, shameful, loathsome, quasifascist, faecal bunch of b*****ds ever to saunter into government in this country. They in no way deserve any respect whatsoever, chiefly for the continued presence of IBS, who must surely have a hold over Cameron or Osborne to have kept his job this long. He’s a demonic piece of work even for a Tory, even for a Tory MP for Chingford he’s a sh*tbag and look at his predecessor… Words cannot describe just how awful he is and time prevents me from listing his failures, both as a person and a politician. Then there’s the sell-off of the NHS, the utter shambles in education, fracking, cronyism, corruption, the upwards transfer of wealth… A nation with balls would have turfed these bandits out in 2012.
Stages of Genocide: 1). Classification, 2). Symbolization, 3). Dehumanization, 4). Organization, 5). Polarization, 6). Preparation, 7). Extermination, and 8). Denial
So our government must be at stage 4 or 5 by now, then?
I have no respect for a government who given a second term would try to either starve me to death or make me steal from shops to avoid starving to death.