Sue Marsh from Diary of a Benefit Scrounger, reports on a concerted effort in the right-wing press to prevent any real debate over benefits.
Sue Marsh blogs at Diary of a Benefit Scrounger
Today, the Daily Express and Daily Mail are full of cheating, scrounging sick people.
The Express screams: “Blitz on Britain’s benefits madness”, contrasting those on “sickness handouts” with “hard working taxpayers”.
According to the the Express, Tory MP Philip Davies joined the outcry, saying:
“People are sick to the back teeth of being taken for a ride by people sponging and scrounging and abusing the system.”
While the Mail screams:
“Scandal of 80,000 on sickness benefits for minor ailments… including diarrhoea.”
To accompany the claim that “drug addicts” have been allowed to claim, they included a picture of someone snorting white powder through a rolled up note.
The papers go on to list “blisters”, “headaches”, “depression”, and “problems with scholastic skills” as evidence that there are hundreds of thousands of people living the good life at “taxpayers” expense who have nothing really wrong with them.
For a moment, let’s forget the fact that only the first ailment a person lists on their claim form is taken into account in these figures. Let’s ignore the fact that someone with “nail disorders” might also have cancer or kidney failure. Let’s ignore the fact that someone classified under “drug abuse” might also suffer from schizophrenia or multiple sclerosis..
I have “diarrhoea” but why? Well, because of the 32 growths I’ve had to have removed from my guts and the seven major operations to remove rotten lengths of bowel, leaving me with half as much intestine as your average ill-informed hack.
My friend has “blisters.” She suffers from the rare skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa. Her skin blisters and comes away at the lightest touch, leaving her scarred and in constant, terrible pain.
“Headaches?” Cluster headaches (also referred to as “suicide headaches”) are thought to be one of the worst pains known to man, not something to be confused with a hangover.
I could go on, but I’m sure you’re beginning to see why these horrible articles, fuelled by “statements” today from Chris Grayling, minister for Work and Pensions and our very own prime minister, only serve to turn a sensitive, delicate subject into a form of attack. They aim to pitch one condition against another whilst asking more fortunate citizens to view those who are unwell with mistrust and contempt.
Perhaps there is a legitimate debate to be had over which conditions “hard working tax-payers” are willing to support. There is certainly some validity in the claim that many sick or disabled people would love help and support to find a job.
However, surely none of us agree that this is the way in which to conduct that debate? Surely allowing our politicians and our media to whip up hate and prejudice against a particular group of society is something we should all be ashamed of?
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148 Responses to “Right-wing hate campaign clouds debate on benefits”
joe kane
“joe kane – From your response I would guess you have never lived in an inner city council estate where you hold your breath every time you get home hoping you haven’t been robbed by a drug addict. Again.”
– Where I live has nothing to do with my arguments – in the same way, these right-wing corporate newspaper propaganda fantasies you choose to parrot have nothing to do with the reality of the problems created with living in a modern society, which can be solved by that self-same society, if it so chooses in a responsible and caring way because it already has the wealth, skills and resources to do so.
As for psychobabble, I’ll leave that to you and your nostrums about what is and isn’t unacceptable behaviour, and what is and isn’t criminal behaviour. The most lethal drug in history is tobacco, which is perfectly legal. The next most lethal is alcohol. Again, perfectly legal. The problems they create have nothing to do with illegality of use. The problems associated with modern processed food having nothing to do with criminality. Same with sedentary living.
“This attitude is the reason that disability campaigners are just not taken seriously by governments, either left wing or right wing like Labour and the Tories.”
– I don’t know anyone who supports criminals and their illegal activities. To claim that addiction, which is an illness, is about morality is the ethics of the medieval world, which associated illness, plagues etc, to morality and the presence of devils and witches. Hence the witch-hunts and scapegoating of sick and disabled people today by the usual right-wing loony-bin corporate press.
I also know that the ConDem Government’s policies are making people poorer, and their plans to make public service workers unemployed is going to create huge social problems associated with increasing poverty. Claiming this isn’t so is nothing but more right-wing lies.
The government does take seriously disabled campaigners otherwise it wouldn’t indulge in vast government-news media campaigns of lies, demonisation and scapegoating. If it was a simple matter of using arguments which stick to the facts, the government and its obedient chorus in the right-wing corporate news media would be silent, as they have no arguments which stand a moments scrutiny, as your intellectually bereft comments more than illustrate.
If there is one thing that can be said about modern western society is that many of its greatest social problems are directly associated with unequal distribution of wealth and justice. Hence the reason Britain is almost in a league of its own compared to other Western European states in terms of wealth distribution and the scale of its poverty and the problems that come with it. The largest area of deprivation in Western Europe is just up the road from me, East Glasgow, which has social indicators comparable to some Third World countries. It has such social and medical problems precisely because of deprivation and neglect, not because of the personal morality of the people who live there.
Claiming the British government’s has no responsibility when it comes to the social well-being and welfare of its own citizens, that it can be left to some kind of self-regulation, I would have thought to have been discredited given what such neoliberalism has done to the property and then the financial markets.
Mason Dixon, Autistic
Mouse accuses me of misinformation but doesn’t point out what except to say that I am the one making assumptions about people.
It is Anon E Mouse who is making assumptions about obese IB claimants, of which there are 2,060 if you include ESA and SDA. There are between 4,000 to 5,000 people with Prader-Willi Syndrome in the UK; they will make up a significant portion of those listed under obesity in the figures.
The Mail, Sun, Express and Coalition narrative on these figures relies entirely on assumptions about those claiming for those conditions. The bubble is popped by unmentioned facts which when mentioned make people like Mouse throw a tantrum because their passive-aggressive charade falls apart.
Phil
@ Sue Marsh.
Good article! … and in general you do a great job in speaking out as you do.
Very briefly, may I share a few thoughts :
a) it wouldn’t harm disability groups to talk about the Tax & Benefits system, as one entity with two arms to it. This government has chosen to have fewer HMRC Inspectors and to take a soft line on tax avoidance (with the odd piece of tough rhetoric on tax evasion). This reveals the Conservatives’ true attitude to the “hard-working taxpayer”, about whom they claim to care.
b) The Conservatives have a commitment to reduce Inheritance Tax, and a desire to reduce the 50p top-rate Income Tax, Corporation Tax and Capital Gains Tax, to help the very rich to become even richer. To achieve their aims later in this Parliament, this government first has to reduce spending on the low-paid, people with a disability or chronic ill-health, the unemployed, the middle class, women, children, teenagers & students – and accordingly it chooses the areas for cuts (welfare and public sector services, in particular). The talk about reducing the deficit is merely a smokescreen, an attempt to minimise the amount of unpopularity their agenda would otherwise create.
c) from comments made below blogs, it appears that there are hard-working taxpayers out there who think, very naively, that any reduction in the total welfare bill would mean a reduction in taxes for the many. No, it won’t. The tax burden on the middle classes and employed workers will still be what it is, including the VAT increase and the various other measures taken by Osborne. Those who stand to gain tax advantages from welfare cuts will be the wealthy. So, in real terms, what is planned is a transfer of monies (yes, out of the hard-earned taxes of the many) from the poorest and most disadvantaged members of society to the wealthiest. Thus, rather than a specious discussion of “deserving poor” versus “undeserving poor”, the real debate should be “adequate welfare system” versus “less taxes paid by the very wealthiest”.
Anon E Mouse
joe kane – If you feel the urge to respond why don’t you respond to what I’ve said instead of just incoherently ranting here.
I subscribe The Times and read the comments sections of Guardian and Independent – I do not read or subscribe to the views of The Daily Mail and not just because of Gordon Browns links to it. It just so happens that my view coincides with the majority view in this country. I do not believe heroin addiction is as valid a “disability” as an MS sufferer.
Tobacco and alcohol are both legal substances on which taxes are paid on consumption. To attempt to bring these items into your post is fine but has nothing to do with illegal drug addiction. If my Grandmother hadn’t died they wouldn’t have buried her. It’s the same thing and meaningless. You are answering points only you have made.
I never mentioned the government making people poorer you did.
Prove the government is involved in what you describe as “lies” by the right wing media please.
The gap between rich and poor increased under Labour – this government raising the Tax threshold does exactly the opposite. Labour removed the 10p tax rate so I assume you must detest that party eh?
Finally I never mentioned the responsibility of the government in these matters. You did…
Anon E Mouse
Mason Dixon, Autistic – You are still posting misleading comments regarding claims I haven’t made then criticising me for those same things.
To be clear it was you that claimed that people with PWS were the same as the ones I mentioned. I didn’t mention those people. It was you who compared those with a genetic disorder to those choosing obesity by their life style choices.
I think to compare the two in unfair on the PWS sufferer and you devalue their illness with such spiteful comparisons. I even illustrated my point by mentioning the number of pies eaten by John Prescott and Eric Pickles – very considerable I feel.
What is disappointing is that you believe that self inflicted conditions should be treated equally as unfortunate people with disabilities, including the genetic disorder you introduced and I responded to.
I believe in personal responsibility and do not think the two cases are equal, otherwise the position is that people could simply start troughing the pies and be treated the same as faultless individuals with genetic disorders.
You display a very uncaring attitude Mason Dixon, Autistic…