Quote from: Pixie on July 27, 2012, 03:21:23 PM
I personally think instead of forcing the unemployed to work for their benefits, what would be better is if they actually gave them paid work instead of reducing them to what is essentially indentured servitude.
The Olympics and the Jubilee were Weapons Of Mass Distraction, bread and circuses to detract the masses from the cuts to the NHS, tax avoidance by the rich (which would cover the welfare and NHS bills adequately, if they actually got the money they were owed and tightened the legal loopholes), whilst in the meantime, in a time of few jobs, the unemployed and the disabled are being demonised in the Daily Mail and papers of it's ilk, disabled people are being pushed through medical tests that are not fit for purpose, driving some to suicide, and in other cases, people who were seriously ill have been judged fit for work and then died from their illness six weeks later.
Social mobility in this country is being jeopardised by the cuts to post 16 education funding for students, such as the EMA, rising Uni fees and the threat to cut housing benefit to under 25's. How the hell is a young person going to even look for more than a shitty part time job, when unpaid internships lock all but the kids from moderately wealthy and higher income families to improve their prospects, when moving away to find work seems entirely unattractive when you will get locked into a tenancy for 12 months at a time on average, and if you lose your job you will essentially be fucked and ruin your credit rating, rents are extortionate, there is no social housing being created to pick up the slack for those who simply cannot afford to rent privately.
The cuts in benefits are affecting women adversely. Cuts and changes to the benefit system are crippling domestic violence shelters, which in a summer of recession and a lot of sporting events where they can't even put the number for Refuge or Women's Aid on a godamned poster, instead referring them to Victim Support, which is not equipped to deal with the nuances of domestic violence which are proved to rise during sporting events and in a recession?
Add to this the struggle of Rape Crisis Centres to stay open due to funding cuts, the scrapping of help for childcare for people with young families which becomes another barrier keeping people from work. We need training, education and more funding for people in crisis situations, or the next 20 years is going to see an angry, emotionally and socially stunted Britain.
OR KILL MEEEEE!
You sir are a very well informed and very agreeable person.