Loach film on ‘conscious cruelty’ of UK benefit system moves Cannes to tears
British director Ken Loach talks during during a photocall on May 13, 2016 for the film “I, Daniel Blake” at the 69th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France.
Among all the ways of getting the British public to realise the harm being done to our own neighbours, under our noses, by the Conservative Government, artistic endeavours are the least discussed.
At some point, This Writer is hoping to pen a play entitled Sunset for a Scrounger, focusing on the evidence against the policies of Iain Duncan Smith while he was Work and Pensions secretary.
So I applaud Ken Loach for reducing the audience at Cannes to tears with what has become an everyday story of benefit claimants here in the UK.
Director Ken Loach denounced the British government’s “conscious cruelty” towards the poor Friday after his film about the poverty and humiliation inflicted upon them by welfare cuts had critics at the Cannes film festival in tears.
The left-wing director, who turns 80 this year and is known for shining a light on the downtrodden, also got lengthy applause and shouts of “Bravo!” at a press conference after “I, Daniel Blake” was screened.
It tells of carpenter Daniel Blake’s Kafkaesque journey to get benefits in Britain after suffering a heart attack and being told by doctors he can no longer work.
But an invisible and oft-cited “decision-maker” rules he is too healthy for benefits.
“The most vulnerable people are told their poverty is their own fault,” Loach told reporters. “If you have no work it is your fault that you haven’t got a job.
“It is shocking. It is not an issue just for people in our country, it is throughout Europe and there is a conscious cruelty in the way we are organising our lives now,” he said.
Source: Loach film on shame of poverty in Britain moves Cannes to tears
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Political drama has a powerful effect, sadly it’s not on the BBC’s agenda.
Hi Mike I thought I would let you know that I was going to study law part time at college, only I can’t now because I have to apply for a student loan! My education was stolen from me when I was a child because I was sent to a so called “daft school for 3 years I was sent back to a mainstream school at 14yrs, too late. This has made me feel more worthless and I am finding it hard to go on things are getting worse.
I’m sorry for going off-topic but I don’t know what to do, I have no family and only one friend.
I don’t expect you to post this but if you have any advice please? my email is [email protected]
Thank you so much Mike! I hope Mrs mike is well as can be!!!
I’m putting this up in the hope that others may be able to help you. I don’t have experience in this particular field.
Thank you Mike!!
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/work-and-pensions/160511%20DWP.pdf
Transcript of oral evidence session with Secretary of State Stephen Crabb on the Department for Work and Pensions HC 997 on 11 May 2016
13-05-2016 01:00 AM BST
Bravo, Ken Loach!
Now, get the film on youtube and other video sharing sites and share the hell out of it, until every person in the country has either seen it or has to explain why they refuse to.
It needs to be viral!
Let’s hope it goes mainstream TV so that far more viewers get to know what is really going on under the Cons jack boots. All we get is controversial right wing fly on the wall documentaries on scroungers and chancers not the real people who badly need help but are being taken out by the to fierce and fixed filtering system run by private companies who have unfair targets.
Not a mention on the BBC anywhere.
I know someone who says that everyone can do some type of work, I asked him at what cost though? I said that maybe so but
1) Should someone be forced to work despite the agony it causes?
2) should people be forced to work until they die, without any quality of life?
and finally does he think it is moral to make people destitute when they have no hope of being employed because of their disabilities? I also pointed out that thousands of disabled people Had employment, until the government he likes so much pulled the rug out from under them, by closing down Remploy factories.
He is a Big fan of NLP, he did a 2 day course and is now a proud practitioner.
I don’t believe in NLP at all and I never will!!