Iain Duncan Smith

First topic message reminder :

Is this government right to set out a new criteria by which poverty in Britain is measured or is it just a case of moving the goal posts to help them meet a target?

Poverty Measure To Be Redefined By Iain Duncan Smith

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/06/14/poverty-measure-to-be-redefined_n_1595677.html?utm_hp_ref=uk

The Law provides well-established procedures for dealing with people who are financial bankrupts.

Such a shame there is no similar machinery to deal with a man who is morally bankrupt.

"...machinery to deal with a man who is morally bankrupt."

Open Letter to Iain Duncan Smith

This has been written by Lisa McKenzie, who stood against Iain Duncan Smith in the general election in May and received just 53 votes. It is not subject to copyright restrictions, so I have posted it in full:-

Dear Mr Duncan Smith,

We are a growing collective of people who would like to address you personally regarding the welfare cuts you have orchestrated and delivered upon the poorest people in our society.We believe our understanding of this issue represents millions of people living in the United Kingdom.

Over the last six years we have seen the poorest and those with the least in our society suffer greatly due to your attacks on the welfare state. Disabled people have been most affected by these measures that you are the architect of, and Disabled People Against Cuts have fought hard in their campaign to raise awareness of the damage and the pain that you have now institutionalised as part of their lives.

However, many millions more people are suffering – child poverty is rising and is directly linked to the unnecessary austerity measures you have been pushing with alarming enthusiasm. The higher national minimum wage announced at the most recent Budget, which made you fist-pump in delight, will make no difference in the context of the ongoing assault on benefit spending: £12 billion of cuts by 2020, which includes very substantial further cuts to tax credits.

Furthermore, your ‘approach’ to tackling poverty is especially devious: to change the definition, where symptoms become causes (your Centre for ‘Social Justice’ is no such thing, but rather a lie-generating machine that spreads the myth that poverty is not caused by lack of money or basic needs but by addiction, indebtedness and ‘family breakdown’).

Your aggressive defence of welfare cuts is particularly galling when considering the £93 billion handed out in corporate benefits (via direct aid, subsidies and tax breaks) in the financial year ending March 2013 – enough to wipe out at a stroke this year’s budget deficit. Austerity for whom, Mr Duncan Smith?

Homelessness is rising and again this leads directly to your door and especially to the sanction culture you have implemented within our welfare state. Working class families are suffering from the beginning to the end of our country and it is you, Mr Duncan Smith, who we hold responsible, along with the PM and the chancellor.

The recent dishonesty of the sanction stories are a drop in the ocean of the many dishonesties that have been embedded in what you say about the poorest in our society. There is no evidence that there are three generations of families who have never worked; this, like many of the mantras that come out of your office, is demonstrably untrue.

We want you to end this cruelty, this unfairness. This is not the Great British way. We want a full inquiry into how many deaths have happened as a direct consequence of your welfare measures. We have no confidence that you can deliver a fair and just system of welfare to our people. We want to meet you personally, to hear you try and defend the indefensible. If you don’t want to meet us, we call on you to resign.

http://dpac.uk.net/2015/08/open-letter-to-iain-duncan-smith/

Problem is, IDS is just the attack dog - we need to find a way to bring this home to the real architects of the current social climate - is that Cameron et al, is it the corporate world or is it the adorable Mr Murdoch? - I don't know

Could that despicable animal become the most hated politician of all time - or, indeed, is he already?

He has some pretty gruesome acts with whom to compete, but if anyone can achieve that mantle of darkness, he can...

Iain Duncan Smith calls people without a disability 'normal'

From an article by Rowena Mason:-

Iain Duncan Smith made the remarks in the House of Commons as he defended the government’s record on getting more people with a disability back into work. He was criticised by Eilidh Whiteford, the SNP social justice spokeswoman, who heard the comments in the chamber and said they provided a “shocking insight” into Duncan Smith’s mentality. Unite, the trade union, said “shame on IDS and his shocking language” about disabled people, while the PCS union said the remarks were “disgraceful”.

The Labour MP Kate Green said: “Iain Duncan Smith’s remarks in Parliament about disabled people are offensive, hurtful and ignorant. It’s completely unacceptable for a government minister to single out disabled people as not ‘normal’. The work and pensions secretary should issue an immediate apology.”

Duncan Smith’s comments come at a sensitive time, as he is planning a radical overhaul of sickness benefits that the government hopes will force up to a million more disabled people into work.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/sep/08/iain-duncan-smith-disability-normal-commons

A ready quip about the medical profession is to say that they bury their mistakes. Our elected government seems to be on a similar course.

Went on a training day about Universal Credit this week - I'm deeply depressed

Yet another example of just how warped Iain Duncan Smith is......  

Tories to spend more appealing bedroom tax decision than it would cost to abide by ruling

Iain Duncan Smith will spend taxpayers’ money fighting the humiliating legal defeat in the Supreme Court. Exempting abuse victims who have a room where they can escape a violent partner would cost £200,000.

Labour’s Owen Smith, shadow work and pensions secretary, said: “Just the Supreme Court session itself will cost the government more in legal fees than the £200,000 needed to exempt domestic abuse victims affected”.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-spend-more-appealing-bedroom-7278557

The evil Duncan Smith is so sick, he probably qualifies for one of the benefits he will be abolishing in his next round of vengeance...

When I dared to speak ill of our genial friend Iain Duncan Smith on Twitter yesterday, I was attacked by Tory MP Christopher Pincher for being "particularly nasty and unpleasant". When I had finished rolling on the floor laughing, I told him that being called nasty by a Tory MP must be on a par with being labelled an alcoholic by the late George Best. Then I blocked him. If only we could make some people - such as Duncan Smith and those who support his fascist policies - vanish as easily in the real world.....

A badge of honour, indeed - and worthy of much congratulation!

To upset somebody so close to Duncan Smith and who is such a toadying sycophant in the Evil One's cause must have been a real pleasure.

How I would have loved to add to that 'nastiness' in the shape of some suitably-chosen advice on how he might go and suck up to somebody more worthwhile than his apparent hero , whose 2001 'triumph' was so deservedly short-lived and rendered him, like his lackey -the pathetic Pincher - a second-rater of some considerable dimension...

From Tribune February 19 issue http://www.tribunemagazine.org/

Universal Credit will leave average family worse off
By: Ian Hernon

The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned that the introduction of Iain Duncan Smith’s controversial Universal Credit (UC) will leave working families worse off on average.

Universal Credit will combine six current benefits, including Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), but according to the IFS research, an estimated 2.1 million families will face an average loss of £1,600 a year, while 1.8 million will gain an average of £1,500.

Its figures suggested 1.1 million homes with no one in paid work will lose out by about £2,300 a year, while 500,000 are expected to gain of £1,000. Working single parents are said to face an annual loss of £1,000.

Although Osborne abandoned cuts to tax credits in the autumn, cuts to Universal Credit announced last summer will still go ahead. The rolling out of the system has been hit by delays and cuts. The Public Accounts Committee accused the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) of being “evasive” when asked about the delays.

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith said: “Everyone can now see that successive cuts to Universal Credit have destroyed many of the work incentives that were supposed to be the very reason for the scheme, hitting single parents particularly hard”.

A spokesman for the DWP  said: “Universal Credit will make work pay and increase financial incentives for people to work more, while also bringing the welfare bill under control. Universal Credit also includes a wide range of additional benefits – including increased childcare and more support from a dedicated work coach both things that were ignored in the IFS’s analysis.”

It is about 20 years since Thomas Hamilton killed 16 defenceless children and their teacher at a Dunblane Primary School.

My opinion of Hamilton is roughly akin to that I hold for Duncan Smith - both evil and sub-human specimens for whom a place in hell must surely have been allocated...

Iain Duncan Smith claims people thank him for stopping their benefits

From an article by Mikey Smith:-

Iain Duncan Smith has claimed people thanked him for taking their benefits away. He was accused of "losing the plot" after making a string of increasingly bizarre claims about his department's cruel benefit sanctions regime. He said 75% of people who have had their benefits stopped said it helped them "focus and get on". A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) was not immediately able to back up Duncan Smith's claim. And the sister of ex-soldier David Clapson, who died starving and penniless after having his benefits stopped, said: "I don't think my brother said it had helped him get on".

In a string of jaw-dropping claims, IDS dismissed protests against benefit sanctions as "classic buzz from the left" and that protesters were "never going to vote for us. They hate us". And he claimed Job Centres were "running out of people" to put back to work. He also claimed his department had not made any changes to the sanctions regime since coming to power in 2010, and that "no-one is sanctioned first time".

But Duncan Smith presided over the introduction of tough new rules in 2012, which drastically increased the length and severity of benefit sanctions. Under his new rules, the maximum length of sanctions went up from six months to more than three years. In the year to March 2015, there were 587,000 sanctions of people on Jobseeker's Allowance. That's 84% higher than under Labour. And while the DWP say sanctions are only used as a last resort, jobseekers can lose their benefits for four weeks, even for a minor first offence.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/iain-duncan-smith-claims-people-7533615

.... and yet ....

10/03/2016 · Five men involved in the £14m Hatton Garden jewellery ... Jones and Perkins said “Thank you” to the judge.

There's nowt funnier than folk.

I wonder if David Clapson 'thanked' Iain Duncan Smith for his sanction as he starved?


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CdRPHfpXEAAKdjs.jpg

This soul-less Tory Administration has a clear two-word message to the Nation's less-privileged.

I fear we can expect the same two-word message from George Osborne on Wednesday

Apparently Gideon has prepared an explanation as to why he is increasing the higher-rate-tax threshold by "making savings" in disability benefit payments.

That may be worth preserving for use at the next general election.

"That may be worth preserving for use at the next general election."
Or it could be filed in the same deep place that everything else has gone since 2010.

The Evil Empire begins to crumble. Not even IDS can stand the stench arising from the Cameron/Osborne stable.

Who's next?

What Iain Duncan Smith's resignation letter should have said.....


https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cd3YbybWoAATjUJ.jpg

Never trusted the guy.
Evil personified, absolutely detests the poor and disabled, which is why I cannot accept his statement for resigning as the real reason.
It is smoke and mirrors to enable him to campaign hard for Brexit.
To some, he is doing the honourable and decent thing, but he is an odious and spiteful bloke who is using this opportunity to further his own career, as he knows, as do most if the British public, that Cameron and Osborne's days seem to be numbered.

I suppose, like a stopped clock, very occasionally, there's a possibility that IDS might be right. But some have been doubting that "we are all in it together" for a bit longer than he has. Now it seems he thinks he can no longer "protect" the poorest and most vulnerable.Can anyone tell me how that's going to work?

Even with the publication of his letter the question is:-
.Has he resigned because there were to be cuts or was it because the government now seems to be looking at doing a U-turn over the cuts?............

If is the former why did he wait until after the budget to quit?..........


Is the bit about "All in this together" really about how he was asked to come up with a plan to cut PIP and then when the siht hit the fan and other cabinet members started to say that it was only an idea, he felt he was being hung out to dry by the rest?.............

Certainly a turn up for the book - this resignation.
I suspect, like the unlamented departure of his blond sidekick whose name I forget, it won't stop business as usual for the Tory extermination programme

boatlady wrote:Certainly a turn up for the book - this resignation.
I suspect .... it won't stop business as usual for the Tory extermination programme

Depending upon just how much of a thorn in Gideon's side IDS wants to be, that programme might wither on the vine without its prime-mover in office.  He certainly knows what has gone wrong with the programme, particularly the singular lack of actual "scroungers" uncovered, and just how useless the "Universal Credit" scheme is likely to be in reality.

An unconnected (so far) item is a poll yesterday putting Mr Corbyn ahead of Cameron in popularity. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/new-poll-puts-labour-ahead-of-tories-for-first-time-since-jeremy-corbyn-became-leader-a6937926.html

The Evil Bastard Cracks At Last...

(leftfootforward)
" I simply couldn't take it any longer. Those cuts just never seemed to become quite cruel enough for my bloodlust..."

Alternatively...

(telegraph)
" I have resigned in order to be able to spend more time with my warped prejudices..."

Cameron Reassures Tory Mouth-Foamers...

(nbgin.com)
" Don't worry chaps - I've found another corking rotter to get his claws into the disabled..."