My OperaHeads in the Sand
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 12:17:37 AM
Stop Press! The latest edict from our lords and masters! There will be no sick! There will be no unemployed! Drug users will be cleansed!
The statements from on high are positively biblical and about as close to reality. You can imagine a modern-day Moses struggling to rise from under a pile of stone tablets!
Those on sickness benefit will, like Lazarus, be miraculously cured. They will be given training so that they might work. It will all be financed from the money saved.
Wait a minute - is this the same sort of 'training' I received on my 13-week IAP? For every 1000 claimants put through the IAP the government looses £1.2m. So how different will this new 'training' be?
Not content with bashing the sick it's the long-term unemployed that is being marshalled onto work detail. Anyone who has been out of work for 2 or more years will have to do community service. Giving back to the community and all that!
Trouble is this hasn't been thought out very well (no surprise there then?). If claimants have to work full time how can they apply for jobs as well? Will there be enough jobs to go round? Will the paperwork be horrendous? Will paid jobs be lost as a result? How will the government circumvent minimum wage legislation this time?
Of course all this pre-supposes that there are jobs for people to take up (and in the right geographical areas too). No matter how much politicians try to talk it away recession is on the cards. British companies are shedding personnel and on an increasing scale.
Well perhaps its not sand that politicians have there heads in?
The statements from on high are positively biblical and about as close to reality. You can imagine a modern-day Moses struggling to rise from under a pile of stone tablets!
Those on sickness benefit will, like Lazarus, be miraculously cured. They will be given training so that they might work. It will all be financed from the money saved.
Wait a minute - is this the same sort of 'training' I received on my 13-week IAP? For every 1000 claimants put through the IAP the government looses £1.2m. So how different will this new 'training' be?
Not content with bashing the sick it's the long-term unemployed that is being marshalled onto work detail. Anyone who has been out of work for 2 or more years will have to do community service. Giving back to the community and all that!
Trouble is this hasn't been thought out very well (no surprise there then?). If claimants have to work full time how can they apply for jobs as well? Will there be enough jobs to go round? Will the paperwork be horrendous? Will paid jobs be lost as a result? How will the government circumvent minimum wage legislation this time?
Of course all this pre-supposes that there are jobs for people to take up (and in the right geographical areas too). No matter how much politicians try to talk it away recession is on the cards. British companies are shedding personnel and on an increasing scale.
Well perhaps its not sand that politicians have there heads in?
