IndyGal

The second report looks specifically at deprivation in Glasgow .  It is published by the Centre for Social Justice Now a word of warning – this is a Tory thinktank devoted to seeking ‘effective solutions to the poverty that blight parts of Britain ’.  Nevertheless it looks an interesting paper (I say looks because it doesn’t seem to be on their website yet).  The author – former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith – has apparently said that a visit to Easterhouse in 2002 changed his political priorities completely.  And this was before Tartan Hero was elected. 

More on the political content of these reports later.  Bet you can hardly wait…….

Hallo Indypal One here. I fear my colleague Indypal Two may be guilty of a touch of sexism and is definitely guilty of poor punctuation in his most recent post.  It is so often the case that the two go hand in hand. 

Anyway, my theme today is the Scottish Government’s very interesting discussion paper on poverty.  Poverty is something we are all against but we tend to condemn it a lot more often than we solve it.  There’s a reason for that.  Most of us aren’t poor.

But, however awful the language, the principle is absolutely spot on. I look forward to hearing what Wendy (or her replacement) has to say on the matter.  Labour’s current approach to disadvantage is go about bewailing the fate of the poor, the weak and the dispossessed under this evil right wing SNP Government at every opportunity.  There are two problems with this. 1) It is patronising.  People who are disabled or trapped in poverty do not like to be told that they are ‘weak’ as though their problems are somehow a consequence of their own lack of strength.  2)  it makes them sound like a bunch of Victorian missionaries. In Victorian days I am quite certain that the Alexander siblings, along with mentor Gordon Brown, would have been missionaries and would probably have been very good missionaries.  But their kind of paternalistic ‘let’s remember to help those less fortunate than ourselves’ brand of Christian semi-socialism belongs in a museum, certainly not in government.  It will be an interesting debate, if and when it happens.

I’ve made the text red to underline just how furious I am. Actually it’s a bit offputting so maybe I’ll stop but you get the point. This government and the Tories before have done many things to anger me. Margaret Thatcher saying there was no such thing as society. Norman Tebbit telling people who’d lost their jobs to “get on their bikes”. Am I showing my age here? Anyway few things have angered me quite as much as hearing that the LABOUR government intends to use lie detectors on all benefit claimants! Here’s the evidence http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6528425.stm

Do they not know that it’s bad enough being without work and hard enough to live on benefits, without also being treated like a common criminal? Why has there been no outcry about this? It’s a massive infringement of our civil rights. It’s not like we’re talking about people CHARGED with benefit fraud. It’s not even people SUSPECTED of benefit fraud. It’s just all claimants.

And even if we were talking about using it on people who are suspected of fraud, are we going to use it also on the minority of business people who manage to make a fortune but avoid paying much by way of tax? Of course we’re not. Why not? Because wealthy people are powerful people. And poor people? Not only do they have no money but they have no voice in our society.

And if lie detectors are that reliable, why are we not using them on people suspected of rape, assault, murder, selling peerages?

I am more aware than I want to be that there is a common misconception about people living on benefits. That they’re all living the life of Riley. Nonsense! Yes, there will be some people who fiddle the system and yes there are people who don’t want to work (although I think that’s rarely as simple as sheer laziness, there is usually a complex multitude of contributing factors there).

But for the majority of people who are out of work, it’s horrendously hard to survive financially. If you don’t believe me, you try living on £57 a week after your rent’s been paid. It’s almost impossible. OK we can all do it for a week or two but for months? Years? Benefit fraud is not right but it’s a crime borne of poverty

So you don’t have any money, you can barely survive and you certainly can’t join in with the rest of society doing even something as simple as going out for a meal and a few drinks. But you cope. And then you’ve to deal with the fact that you have no job so you have nothing to identify you - when we were kids we didn’t talk about what we’d DO when we grew up, we talked about what we’d BE. A job for most people is the essence of who they are. It’s their public identity. But you have no money and no public identity. You’re not really a full member of society. But still, you cope.

And then the LABOUR government that’s supposed to care and understand and be there to take care of you when you’re at your most vulnerable, puts a lie detector test on you to make sure you’re not just kidding on about all this! Or is it to appease the people who believe that it’s too easy a life you’ve got? Whatever the reason, would you still cope or would you feel like every ounce of dignity you had left has gone? Would you manage or would you feel any control you had over your own life was disappearing fast? How, exactly, would you feel?

Some people just won’t be able to put themselves through that indignity. And then what will happen to them?

I am not saying that it’s right for anyone to lie or claim anything fraudulently. What I am quite clearly saying is that tax fraud is a crime borne of greed, selling peerages is a crime borne of megalomania, benefit fraud is a crime borne generally of desperation. And here we have a Labour government sticking the boot into poor people, desperate people, once again.

It’s wrong and that is no lie.