I was so shocked by the naivety of a out of touch Conservative Peer, Lord Freud, I had to write about another stupid Tory idea. I might not be able to gave an opinion and write about the actions of Rutland County Council without fear of litigation but I can still blog about national issues and will continue to do so until Westminster removes that right of free speech though similar laws which they are sure to bring in at some point to stop freedom of speech and thought.
What planet does Lord Freud think he is living on, telling someone that needs space for his 3 kids to sleep at weekends and over the school holidays to have them sleep on a pull out sofa in a one-bedroom property? For that was the advice he was giving out today on the Radio Five Live. Is he, and the government he is representing, trying to stop the poor fathers in this country from stopping seeing their children and having them stay? So much for the government being a party of the family.
This is just one case where the "bedroom tax" which is put of the government's Welfare Reform Act is hitting the poor in an unfair way. It is just one of many cases, other include the old and vulnerable in society who live on benefits. It is effectively pricing people out of their homes by cutting benefits to people in social housing who have extra bedrooms without evening looking at their needs. It would be fair if someone clearly didn’t need an extra bedroom, but in some cases there is a need or people are in housing that has been modified to meet their needs that just happens to have an extra bedroom.
You might ask how the Conservatives get away with this and get people on their side, well it is simple they are using the right wing British press to paint anyone on benefits as scroungers, when in fact many of the unemployed want jobs, most people on disabilities can’t actually work, and of course some of people getting benefits do work and can’t earn a living wage because of low incomes and wage levels, caused by the current economic situation. There are more people on benefits would like to work than their are so called scroungers.
It seems so wrong that the poor and disadvantaged are being paid for by the risks taken by the taking of the greedy rich that caused the economic times we now live in. In all this they seem to be getting away without taking any of the blame for this mess that they created. It goes without saying that person giving out the advice to the father of three children, Lord Freud was once a city banker, who admitted before he started working on welfare reform that he knew nothing about the subject.
Clearly Lord Freud has been reading and believing the same propaganda from the right wing press as those that think everyone on welfare is a scrounger and seems uninterested in real people and the real facts of life for many people. He hasn't thought how the poor will be disadvantaged by the polices he is helping to form. It is no wonder we are in the mess we are with people like him at the helm.
As an aside, it is interesting to note the Conservatives continue with their push for privatisation while conveniently forgetting the mess we are in now was all the fault of the private sector and it is the public sector that is being made to pay while those in business get away with it. Whoever said the Conservatives only look after their own was completely right!
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