Says the peer with a cushy pension who receives money simply for turning up at the House of Lords and would probably require disability benefit if he didn’t enjoy a life of immense privilege. What a prick.
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Just for a bit of balance though, interesting article on the £850 billion a year that’s in offshore accounts that the HMRC doesn’t actually know if any tax is paid on those accounts.
House of Lords needs total reform (I don't like using that word now because, you know, but it stands true here) as it's not fit for purpose and hasn't been for years. Limited time for all representatives and a bit like jury duty, representatives from all walks of life and bin the hereditary system.
I agree with you on many things but this no no no. He’s worked bloody hard & overcome his disability to give himself a career & good life. Also there are too many people who are happy to do nothing when they could work. Oh & what do you actually do for a living other than post on social media?
There aren’t any fucking jobs! This view that there are loads of vacancies available is utter bullshit. Hospitality is shutting down. Qualified nurses can’t even get jobs as nurses and the only sector recruiting is for care homes. Nobody wants to be resp for another human for min wage/no training
I’m not entirely sure where he gets his ‘evidence’ from about people ‘not being bothered (to work presumably)? How insulting. It’s interesting that a man who came from poverty & with significant disability has zero awareness. His view is obvs: ‘if I did it [in the 1970’s] you can’. Wake up David.
Forgive me, I'm not British... Labour Party is not like the Tories, right? So, why is this guy talking like what I'd expect from a Tory/right-leaning individual?
Don't have evidence but am guessing that benefit fraud is dwarfed by tax fraud/evasion/avoidance. Yet when Govt tries to close a tax loophole that will not effect the majority of farmers the streets are full of fucking tractors. State pensions are classed as benefits. 1/
State pensions take up the largest part of the benefits bill. They are paid to the rich and the poor. I'm not in favour of means testing state pensions, winter fuel allowance etc, just claw back the money through tax
While I agree there's plenty who shouldn't even be considered for benefits, the irony of him saying something like that knowing full well that if he weren't a sorted peer, he too would be on benefits himself, with all the derogatory comments from the 'job' centre hurled at him to boot...
Well money surely corrupts, perhaps he should have his pension reviewed so he can experience first hand what being on benefits is actually like in the current economy.
Criminal tax evasion far outweighs loss to the exchequer than fraudulent benefits claims. Yet we always seem to overlook it.
He can fuck off until we put the same resources into catching these rich criminals!!!
You believe ordinary people like you and me deserve a decent retirement? Wow. That's an old-fashioned attitude. In America, Donald Trump and the Republicans are working to kill what little we have left.
I’d love to see that nasty old Tory being put through the wringer of seeking social security support and facing what so many others are forced to go through.
Errr....David Blunkett, Baron Blunkett, PC is a British Labour Party politician who has been a member of the House of Lords since 2015, and previously served as the member of parliament for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough from 1987 to 2015, when he stood down.
Wikipedia
His sentiments are those of a Tory - I know he was officially Labour, a Home Secretary (I actually remember I),and finally given a peerage for disservices rendered to humanity.
His sentiments are those of a Tory - I know he was officially Labour, a Home Secretary (I actually remember I),and finally given a peerage for disservices rendered to humanity.
You're entitled to your opinion, of course, I don't know what his voting record is in the Lords - but attacking ppl bc they receive benefits says more about our recent Govts, than it does the claimants themselves!
Yes, I agree on that point about benefits claimants, though the vicious pillorying of claimants actually started during the Blair era, and they call themselves social democrats, or at least something adjacent.
I am sick to fucking death of people calling for a crack down on benefits (about 20 times a year for the last 40 years). We have one of the strictest most inhumane benefit regimes in the UK already. How about a crack down on billionaires?
Blunkett has always said strange things for a Labour MP didn’t he coin the “hostile environment “ that Theresa May took up re immigrants? Words matter. If he can’t be bothered to phrase his thoughts constructively then Labour should ditch him.
Blair called him a man of integrity at a time when he was bonking someone else’s wife and claiming the pregnancy. Whilst not wanting to be judgmental, each to their own etc, I had to check the dictionary. Integrity wasn’t applied correctly.
Progressive parties should not make the mistake of trying to out reform reform, instead should offer another plausible and practical way. Focus on getting the support on the left rather than running right
Hardly the point, though. Benefit fraud accounts for a tiny percentage of the overall bill. Tax fraud dwarfs this, yet the wealthy are allowed to get away with it.
Which people? There's a tiny volume of people 'abusing' the system. Compared to, say, the vast majority of wealthy people who avoid (evade) tax, it's a drop in the ocean.
We have the most corrupt system, public service to M.P,s and peers mean great salaries, all expenses paid, when they leave nice cushy jobs and they have the balls to spout off about freeloading!
I agree in principle but probably disagree on who the benefits cheats defrauding the system are. Every billionaire business owner, non-dom tax dodging millionaires and tax-evading corporation who pay minimum wages and/or tax dodge is a benefits cheat. Universal Credit is their backdoor subsidy.
If Labour cracks down on the Vulnerable = Tory Austerity. Labour will at that point, Have my support withdrawn along with my monthly membership contribution.
There are important things to do first
You can’t tackle the welfare budget with 8 million on nhs waiting lists
The budget specified more staff for hmrc to tackle fraud and tax evasion - why aren’t we hearing about that as often as welfare ?
What happens to these people? He didn’t start out like this but seems to have rapidly forgotten what it’s like once he got all the help he needed and more (I knew someone who used to take his guide dog out to relieve itself when he was a minister).
What is it in political life that promotes the 'pull up the ladder after you' ideology? We have sons / daughters of immigrants desperate to keep any more immigrants out and now this. 🤷♀️ 🤢
"in 1959 his father was gravely injured, falling into a vat of boiling water while at work, dying a month later - leaving the family in poverty - his employer refused to pay compensation for two years because his father worked past the retirement age..."
You might want to think again about your line of rhetoric - disability shaming - even when totally missing the target or a weak attempt at a joke or sarcasm - is not a good look......
PIP isn't means tested so as long as he can prove his disability significantly affects his ability to do what non disabled people can easily do, he will be entitled to something.
there's a difference between lazyness and *permanent, crippling disabilities*. i dunno, i'm paralyzed in one side of my body, autistic, clinically depressed, partially blind and immunosuppressed - i suppose i'm just lazy then, lazier than a peer who's never worked a f#@king day in his life
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What the hell is happening to the formal socialist Party called Labour….. ???????
https://www.ft.com/content/a14162d0-0f65-4c63-842e-e0778516d03a
The Tory sat upon reports give some understanding of the mess the DWP has created/is in.
Now we learn DWP is using AI.
https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/tories-silent-on-why-their-ministers-sat-on-dwp-research-for-six-years/
When we contacted him to say she'd died, he didn't even reply.
He's an utter wanker.
Speaking of that, where is the Middle East "Envoy for Peace?"
Even IF benefits were only claimed by those who "can't be bothered"
If your only crime in life is "can't be bothered"
Then do you deserve to go without food, electric, a roof?
Advocating starvation for "the lazy" is actually inhumane.
Universal basic income... Bring it in.
He can fuck off until we put the same resources into catching these rich criminals!!!
Entitled, oh fucking very
He’s always been a nasty little piece of shit.
Wikipedia
I didn’t even need Wikipedia to know that.
I didn’t even need Wikipedia to know that.
A reactionary cunt who came up with IPPs, which have turned what should have been minor sentences, into neverending prison terms.
One of those special dickheads in Labour, whose place was actually on the Tory benches.
https://www.ft.com/content/a14162d0-0f65-4c63-842e-e0778516d03a
You can’t tackle the welfare budget with 8 million on nhs waiting lists
The budget specified more staff for hmrc to tackle fraud and tax evasion - why aren’t we hearing about that as often as welfare ?
Prat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Blunkett#Early_life